Books with author William Somerset Maugham

Colonel Parsons sat by the window in the dining-room to catch the last glimmer of the fading day, looking through his Standard to make sure that he had overlooked no part of it. Finally, with a little sigh, he folded it up, and taking off his spectacles, put them in their case."Have you finished the paper?" asked his wife"Yes, I think I've read it all. There's nothing in it."He looked out of window at the well-kept drive that led to the house, and at the trim laurel bushes which separated the front garden from the village green. His eyes rested, with a happy smile, upon the triumphal arch which decorated the gate for the home-coming of his son, expected the next day from South Africa. Mrs. Parsons knitted diligently at a sock for her husband, working with quick and clever fingers. He watched the rapid glint of the needles."You'll try your eyes if you go on much longer with this light, my dear.""Oh, I don't require to see," replied his wife, with a gentle, affectionate smile. But she stopped, rather tired, and laying the sock on the table, smoothed it out with her hand.

Looking out upon the backstreets, the suburbs and the high society haunts of Edwardian London, the delightfully witty and independent spinster Miss Ley surveys a tangled web of lives; she sympathetically observes the struggle under the pressures of convention, and the complex interplay between love and reason. Through Miss Ley's eyes we witness the brief but happy marriage of a dying poet; a woman's adulterous passion for a young rascal, and finally, an honourable man's decision to take virtue to extremes.

The story of Larry Darrell, an American pilot traumatised by his experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. The story begins through the eyes of Larry’s friends and acquaintances as they witness his personality change after the War. His rejection of conventional life and search for meaningful experience allows him to thrive while the more materialistic characters suffer reversals of fortune.The novel’s title comes from a translation of a verse in the Katha Upanishad, given in the book’s epigraph as: “The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to “enlightenment” is hard.”

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

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.”

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.