Books with author Somerset Maugham

Liza of Lambeth (1897) was W. Somerset Maugham's first novel, which he wrote while he was a medical student and obstetric clerk at St Thomas's Hospital in Lambeth, then a working-class district of London. It depicts the short life and death of Liza Kemp, an 18-year-old factory worker who lives with her aging mother in the fictional Vere Street off Westminster Bridge Road (real) in Lambeth.

[Read by Kate Reading] First published in 1925, The Painted Veil is an affirmation of the human capacity to grow, change, and forgive. Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, this beautifully written character study is an affirmation of the human capacity to grow, change, and forgive. The Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful but shallow young Kitty Fane, who marries for money rather than love. When her husband, a quiet doctor, discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to a remote region of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic. There, stripped of the British society of her youth and overwhelmed by the desolation around her, Kitty's conscience begins to awaken. As she takes up work with children at a convent and experiences some of the burden her husband has taken on, she and her husband begin to rediscover each other in a new light. When her husband is tragically killed, Kitty is forced to return to England to raise her unborn child. Though it is too late for her marriage, she has learned humility, independence, and at last, how to love.

The short story “Princess September and the Nightingale,” W. Somerset Maugham’s only fairy tale, was originally published—with the title “The Princess and the Nightingale”—in December 1922 in “Good Housekeeping” in the U.S. and, simultaneously, in “Pearson’s Magazine” in the UK. Note: Some hardcover reprints of this title include illustrations; this Kindle edition does not. The story concerns Princess September of Siam, who, unlike here eight older sisters, prefers a pet nightingale of beautiful voice to a pet parrot of beautiful plumage. Her dilemma is whether to keep her nightingale encaged or to set him free to fly over lakes, trees and fields.Upon publication, Maugham explained how the story came about: “A very special Doll’s House is being constructed for the Queen of England to be placed at Windsor Castle, and every department of an English home such as a King and Queen might live in is to be there, including of course a library. This is to consist of a collection of miniature volumes, written by various authors of the present day in their own hands, which are then to be suitably bound. ‘The Princess and the Nightingale’ is my contribution to this library.”Sample passage:When she awoke next day, the little bird was still sitting there, and as she opened her eyes he said, “Good morning.” The Maids of Honor brought in her breakfast, and he ate rice out of her hand, and he had his bath in her saucer. He drank out of it, too. The Maids of Honor said they didn’t think it was very polite to drink one’s bathwater, but the Princess September said that was the artistic temperament. When he had finished his breakfast, he began to sing again so beautifully that the Maids of Honor were quite surprised, for they had never heard anything like it, and the Princess September was very proud and happy.About the author:W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was a British novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. Notable novels are “Of Human Bondage,” “The Moon and Sixpence,” and “The Razor’s Edge.”

First published in the year 1897; the present novel 'Liza of Lambeth' by W. Somerset Maugham was his first novel; which he wrote while working as a doctor at a hospital in Lambeth. It depicts the short life and death of Liza Kemp; an 18-year-old factory worker who lives together with her aging mother in the fictional Vere Street off Westminster Bridge Road in Lambeth.

William Somerset Maugham CH (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965), better known as W. Somerset Maugham, was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s.After both his parents died before he was 10, Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. Not wanting to become a lawyer like other men in his family, Maugham eventually trained and qualified as a physician. The initial run of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time.