Posts
La passe dangereuse - French Edition of The Painted Veil
Home > Blog >La passe dangereuse & La comédienne
La passe dangereuse. Trans. Madame E.-R. Blanchet. [Paris]: Hachette, 1964I am going to talk about an unassuming little book, by which I was very pleasantly surprised. Some time ago I showed a French edition of La comédienne, a translation of Theatre, which I received as a gift. The present book, La passe dangereuse, has a different publisher, issued for a different club, but the design resembles almost exactly as La comédienne. What i…
Far and Wide. Nine Novels (The Companion Book Club) - W. Somerset Maugham
Home > Blog >Far and Wide, 2 vols. 1955
Far and Wide. Nine Novels by W. Somerset Maugham Selected by the Author. 2 vols. London: The Companion Book Club, 1955. Besides first editions, from time to time I get drawn to some copies that may have nothing special "bibliographically," but just that they are pleasing to the eye. It is an aesthetic pleasure that is hard to explain.Such is what I felt when I lay eyes on these two volumes: Far and Wide published by The Companion Book Club…
"I didn't do it!" – Mr. W. Somerset Maugham
Mr. W. Somerset Maugham by QuizAnother interesting find. This cartoon, by Quiz, published in 1925, most certainly is referring to The Painted Veil, which were first serialized in the November 1924 to March 1925 issues of Cosmopolitan, in between the transition of the merging of the two magazines, Cosmopolitan and Hearst's International; in Nash's Pall Mall Magazine from December 1924 to July 1925; and then finally published in book form on 20 March by George H. Doran.
For the controve…
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham – Advance Proof State
The Painted Veil (London: Heinemann, 1925. Advance Proof State)The private owner of this proof in the United States very generously let me show these photos of the advance proof state of The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham.
The Painted Veil must be the one with the most complicated publication history among Maugham's works. During the printing of its first UK edition it went through several states of correction.
Technically speaking, the true first edition is the US one, with a limit…