Mostrando resultados por autor "Somerset Maugham" en Todas las categorías

William Somerset Maugham (1874�1965) was born at the height of British imperial power. When he died, the British Empire was all but a memory. In Maugham's lifetime, as his civilization slowly disappeared, people from all walks of life, the proud, the urbane, the crude, and the desperate, passed beneath the lens of his dispassionate scrutiny. Transformed into some of the most unforgettable literary works of the 20th century, his experiences re-emerged in his plays, fiction, and essays.

Of Human Bondage is one of the greatest novels of modern times, and it is certainly Maugham's greatest achievement. It was published in 1914, when Maugham was at the height of his creative powers. The story concerns Philip Carey, afflicted at birth with a club foot, and his passionate search for truth in a cruel world. We follow his growth to manhood, his educational progress, his first loves, and the wrenching tragedies and disappointments that life has in store for him. In some of the finest prose of the 20th century, Maugham has presented us with the timeless story of one man's search for the meaning of life.

A collection of the BBC’s dramatisations and readings of W. Somerset Maugham’s fiction, with star casts including Alex Jennings, Dirk Bogarde, and Janet Maw.

On his way home from a remote Pacific island, Dr Saunders travels with two strangers: the treacherous Captain Nichols, and Fred, a handsome Australian with a shadowy past. Driven to shelter from a storm on the island of Banda, the trio meets good-natured Erik Christessen and his fiancée, the cool and beautiful Louise. A tense, exotic tale of love, jealousy, murder and suicide, which evolved from a passage in Maugham's earlier masterpiece, The Moon and Sixpence.

When noted English writer William Somerset Maugham set off for the South Seas to regain his health, he gathered the materials and wrote the stories represented here. These are among Maugham's best, and the best stories ever written about the exotic South Seas.

The Ultimate Modern Classics Collection: Volume One is the first instalment in our classics collection focusing on the most important and iconic novels, stories, and poems of the 20th century. Featuring 18 essential modern classics from Orwell, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Woolf, and many more, and read by a cast of incredible narrators including Iwan Rheon, Ben Allen, Karen Cass, Nathan Osgood, amongst others, this is an essential addition to your library.

Renowned English surgeon Arthur Burdon is engaged to the beautiful Margaret Dauncey, who is studying art in Paris. The match is met with approval from all sides, and everyone is happy - until the mysterious Oliver Haddo enters the picture. Both Arthur and his fiancée dislike the enormously fat and eccentric Oliver but are fascinated by his stories of black magic, by his demonstrations of a power that seems inhuman. And while they scoff at his boasts, their dislike turns to loathing.

This is the story of an artist who was willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of art. In much of its general outline, this famous novel follows the life of Paul Gauguin, famous French post-impressionist painter, but it is not a novelized biography of Gauguin. Rather it is a sharply-delineated, carefully wrought "private life", written by one of the most vivid and penetrating contemporary literary masters.

William Somerset Maugham's remarkable first novel was such an instant success that the 23-year-old medical student left school to become a full-time author. Liza, a vibrant but poverty-stricken London girl, is the most graceful and daring dancer that anyone has ever seen, wildly moving to the music of the Italian organ player on Old Kent Road. But her bright light begins to dim as the tragic effects of illness and poverty overtake her body, if not her spirit.

In the winter of 1919 Somerset Maugham, at the age of 45, undertook an arduous journey up the Yangtze River in China. Ever the astute observer of people and places, he wrote down his experiences and collected them into 58 exquisite vignettes which were subsequently published a few years later. No one is spared his searching intelligence, especially the company managers, salesmen, missionaries, bureaucrats, military officials and adventurers he encounters.

Autobiographical without being an autobiography, confessional without disclosing his private self, The Summing Up, written when Maugham was sixty-four, is an inimitable expression of a personal credo. It is not only a classic avowal of a professional author's ideas about style, literature, art, drama and philosophy, but also an illuminating insight into this great writer's craft.

There’s something Constance Middleton’s friends are dying to tell her: her husband is having an affair – with her best friend! Despite their hints, Constance remains ever cool, and seemingly oblivious. Or is she? In this biting comedy of manners, marriages and mistresses, Constance – a not-so-desperate housewife - has some ideas of her own about extra-marital activity that surprise everyone in the end!

The Painted Veil is the story of Kitty Garstin, a young woman living a high social life, who marries Walter Fane, a man that’s declared his love for Kitty, just to avoid being upstaged by her younger and less attractive sister getting married first. Shortly after the marriage, they depart England and head to China where Walter, a bacteriologist and physician, is stationed.

A parallel story to the life of Paul Gauguin leaving everything for Tahiti and his separation from the rest of the world, with remarkable portraits of those along the way, narrated in an American voice.

At the age of twenty-three, Charlie Mason is endowed with good looks, good manners and a cheerful disposition. Following three years at Cambridge and one working in his father's business, he is looking forward to a jaunt in Paris with Simon, his oldest friend.

The Classic Crime Collection is a collection of 12 classic detective novels, read by an esteemed cast of award-winning narrators. Included here are stories by some of the most iconic crime writers in history, including Arthur Conan Doyle; Wilkie Collins; Josephine Tey; AA Milne; and more.

En esta novela que es considerada, creo que con razón, como una de las más importantes del siglo XX, el autor nos cuenta como una experiencia vivida, la historia de Larry Darrel. Joven americano nacido en una familia bien situada en Chicago. Cuando Larry vuelve de la guerra, no encuentra sentido a la vida que le espera, y que todo el mundo cree que aceptará encantado: casarse con Isabel, una joven de familia bien de Chicago para anquilosarse en un trabajo que no le interesa, pero que sin duda perpetuaría esa clase de vida de la alta sociedad....

A breathtaking story of a woman marrying, growing up, bravely persevering, and seeing what traditionally was a man's point of view with the insights of a woman growing up in the same way. An insightful novel in so many ways.

Julia Lambert is in her prime, the greatest actress in England. Off stage, however, she is bored by her handsome husband, coquettish, and undisciplined. She is at first flattered and amused by the attentions of a shy and eager young fan, but before long Julia is amazed to find herself falling wildly, dangerously, in love.

Kitty Garstin, joven y bella londinense, cumple veinticinco años sin haber alcanzado el objetivo para el que fue educada por su madre: un buen casamiento. Por temor a que su hermana menor se case antes que ella, contrae matrimonio con un bacteriólogo inteligente, educado y moralmente intachable, que la adora pero de quien no está enamorada.