Somerset Maugham - Softcover
Playwright, short-story writer, novelist and essayist, Maugham achieved in a long life unparalleled commercial success. Aged 33 and at the height of his career, he had four plays running in the West End in the same week. Many of his novels were turned into films and Rain, his most famous short story, was filmed three times.
When Frederic Raphael was in his early twenties and Maugham just turned eighty, the writers met at Maugham's famous Cap Ferrat home. That occasion provided Raphael with some of the new material for this volume - a much-expanded edition of a monograph published in 1976. Raphael also explores, in this biography of a complicated personality, Maugham's idyllic childhood in France, miserable adolescence in England, and the pampered life he later led at his famous watering-hole on the Riviera, where he entertained - amongst others - the Windsors, the Aga Khan, H G Wells and Churchill. As Raphael says, for a stoic, he lived a good life as an epicurean.
Being, in his own words, three-quarters queer, Maugham nevertheless married Syrie Barnardo, daughter of the Dr. Barnardo. The marriage was a spectacular disaster. Maugham had already embarked on his first homosexual affair- with Gerald Haxton, his future secretary. Frederic Raphael illuminates the ways in which Maugham's sexuality acted as a 'humanizing factor', preventing what became 'dotty theorizing' in D H Lawrence, 'mandarin malice' in T S Eliot and Ezra Pound> and 'self-conscious sterility' in E M Forster.
When Frederic Raphael was in his early twenties and Maugham just turned eighty, the writers met at Maugham's famous Cap Ferrat home. That occasion provided Raphael with some of the new material for this volume - a much-expanded edition of a monograph published in 1976. Raphael also explores, in this biography of a complicated personality, Maugham's idyllic childhood in France, miserable adolescence in England, and the pampered life he later led at his famous watering-hole on the Riviera, where he entertained - amongst others - the Windsors, the Aga Khan, H G Wells and Churchill. As Raphael says, for a stoic, he lived a good life as an epicurean.
Being, in his own words, three-quarters queer, Maugham nevertheless married Syrie Barnardo, daughter of the Dr. Barnardo. The marriage was a spectacular disaster. Maugham had already embarked on his first homosexual affair- with Gerald Haxton, his future secretary. Frederic Raphael illuminates the ways in which Maugham's sexuality acted as a 'humanizing factor', preventing what became 'dotty theorizing' in D H Lawrence, 'mandarin malice' in T S Eliot and Ezra Pound> and 'self-conscious sterility' in E M Forster.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherMacdonald & Co
- Publication date1989
- ISBN 10 0747405336
- ISBN 13 9780747405337
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages144
- Rating
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Somerset Maugham
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ISBN 10: 0747405336
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Used; Good. Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. This book is in good condition but will show signs of previous ownership. Please expect some creasing to the spine and/or minor damage to the cover. Aged book. Tanned pages and age spots, however, this will not interfere with reading. Seller Inventory # CHL9202233
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ISBN 13: 9780747405337
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Used; Very Good. Dispatched, from the UK, within 48 hours of ordering. Though second-hand, the book is still in very good shape. Minimal signs of usage may include very minor creasing on the cover or on the spine. Aged book. Tanned pages and age spots, however, this will not interfere with reading. Damaged cover. The cover of is slightly damaged for instance a torn or bent corner. Seller Inventory # CHL9544576
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Fair. No jacket. Cardinal, 1989. Paperback, 8vo, 139pp, illust. Slightly worn. A fair copy. 0747405336/0.2uk. Seller Inventory # 366411
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