Collected Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham, Vol. 2 - Softcover

Maugham, W. Somerset

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0749303468 ISBN 13: 9780749303464

Publisher: Mandarin, 1997

Synopsis

The second of four volumes of short stories which reflect Somerset Maugham's wry perception of human foibles and gift for evoking drama from a sense of time and place. Set in Malaya, America and England, they include "Flotsam and Jetsam," "The Man With the Sca,r" and "The Vessel of Wrath."

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About this title

About the Author:

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He afterwards walked the wards of St. Thomas's Hospital with a view to practice in medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), won him over to letters. Something of his hospital experience is reflected, however, in the first of his masterpieces, Of Human Bondage (1915), and with The Moon and Sixpence (1919) his reputation as a novelist was assured.

His position as one of the most successful playwrights on the London stage was being consolidated simultaneously. His first play, A Man of Honour (1903), was followed by a procession of successes just before and after the First World War. (At one point only Bernard Shaw had more plays running at the same time in London.) His theatre career ended with Sheppey (1933). His fame as a short-story writer began with The Trembling of a Leaf, sub-titled Little Stories of the South Sea Islands, in 1921, after which he published more than ten collections.

W. Somerset Maugham's general books are fewer in number. They include travel books, such as On a Chinese Screen (1922) and Don Fernando (1935), essays, criticism, and the self-revealing The Summing Up (1938) and A Writer's Notebook (1949). He became a Companion of Honour in 1954. 

From AudioFile:

No one who relishes the little ironies of life can fail to appreciate this second audio collection of Maugham's short stories. It takes us on a strange journey to far worlds where we meet unusual people: the executioner in a French penal colony; a lonely Englishman on a South Sea island; a wealthy baron who is happier defying his parents, living the life of a Jewish musician. Charlton Griffin narrates with the ease of an urbane man of the world, but recreates Maugham's strange characters with pleasure and gusto. While his narrative voice is graceful and compelling, his characterizations are acutely individual, even bizarre. Their voices linger in our memory long after the tape is off. Combined with an appropriate musical score and sound effects, this is a thoroughly satisfying package. P.E.F. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

About this edition

• Publisher: Mandarin
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0749303468
• ISBN 13: 9780749303464
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 544