Showing results by author "Somerset Maugham" in All Categories

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.

Bertha Ley comes of age, inherits her father's money, and promptly marries a handsome, calm, and unimaginative man. Bertha is wildly in love with Edward and believes she can be happy playing the role of a dutiful wife in their country home. But, intelligent and sensual, she quickly becomes bored by her oppressively conventional life, and finds her love for her husband slipping away. Originally rejected by publishers, Mrs. Craddock was first published only on condition that certain "shocking" passages were removed. It was 30 years before the full text could be published.

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.

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.

Maugham found a parallel to the turmoil of our own times in the duplicity, intrigue, and sensuality of the Italian Renaissance. Then and Now enters the world of Machiavelli, and covers three important months in the career of that crafty politician, worldly seducer, and high priest of schemers.

With the South Seas as a background for such stories as "The Pacific", "Mackintosh", "The Fall of Edward Barnard", "Red", "Rain", and "The Pool", we experience scenes of passionate love, tragedy, and violence - all described in Maugham's beautiful prose.

A rich widow finds that the man she wishes to marry is already engaged. He has just suddenly become a peer and cannot, he thinks, break his promise.

Down among the drab slums of Lambeth, 18-year-old Liza is the darling of Vere Street. Vibrant and bewitching, she is adored by the steady, loyal Tom. But then Liza meets Jim Blakeston, charming and worldly, new to the area, and married. Soon the streets are wise to their passionate affair and Liza's fall from grace is fast and fatal. Written while Maugham was a medical student, and his first published novel, Liza of Lambeth is a vividly realistic portrayal of working-class London life.

"The Moon and Sixpence" is a novel by William Somerset Maugham, based on the life of the painter Paul Gauguin. The story is told through the mindset and decisions of the central character Charles Strickland, a middle-aged English stockbroker, who abandons his wife and children abruptly to pursue his desire to become an artist.

Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling 1500 miles up the Yangtze river. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down acute and finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper. In the resulting collection we encounter Western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation.

This classic collection includes seven life-changing stories with ironic twists of fate, which can inform the young about their choices in life and recall the choices older people have made between success and happiness, duty and pleasure, and much more. Includes a short, final summing-up chapter, envoi.

In this elegant comedy of manners, Penelope O'Farrell discovers that her husband has been having an affair with an attractive married woman. Instead of lapsing into despair, she decides to employ some cunning strategies to save her marriage.

In this tragic-comedic play, history repeats itself in marital break-ups and proposals as exes, in-laws, and offspring spend a few days at a country manor.

Hosted by Ralph Richardson, these big-name productions also included the creme de la creme of acting talents from John Gielgud, Robert Morley and Orson Welles to Trevor Howard, Michael Redgrave and Laurence Olivier. They were based on works by the world's leading authors, among them Charles Dickens, Henry James, Oscar Wilde and Anton Chekhov. These are but a few of whose company we shall be keeping as we raise the curtain on our first instalment of theatrical history.

Somerset Maugham, the author of Of Human Bondage, traveled to the South Pacific in order to write this memorable story based on the life of artist Paul Gauguin, a man who leaves his wife and children for the passion of art. This is a fascinating story of pride, self serving, and questionable intentions. One of Maugham's best.

Mrs. Mary Panton residiert seit dem Tod ihres Mannes in einer Villa in den Hügeln über Florenz, wo sie sich die Zeit damit vertreibt, über ihre unglückliche Ehe zu kontemplieren und ihre Wünsche und ihr Begehren hinter den dicken Mauern des Anwesens zu verbergen. Doch eines schönen, gewohnt langweiligen Tages bekommt sie es mit gleich drei heiratswütigen Männern zu tun. Der erste, ein Freund aus Kindertagen, ist ihr zu sehr Gentleman, der zweite zu sehr das Gegenteil davon und der dritte, ein überaus untalentierter Violinist, ist leider oder zu ihrem Glück recht bald tot.

"Honolulu" is a famous short story by Somerset Maugham that was part of his larger collection The Trembling Leaf.

Considered by Graham Greene to be Maugham's best work, Don Fernando is a paean to a golden age of enormous creative energy. It discusses the writings of St. Teresa and the paintings of El Greco, and comments with sagacity and wit on such illustrious figures as Cervantes, Velazquez, and the creator of Don Juan.

"El Proceso Crosby" es un relato corto de Somerset Maugham que narra la historia de Edward Crosby, un respetado abogado londinense. Crosby es famoso por su habilidad para manejar casos complicados con una lógica implacable y una ética inquebrantable. Sin embargo, su vida personal es menos ordenada, marcada por un matrimonio infeliz con una esposa distante y resentida. La historia se centra en un caso particularmente desafiante que Crosby asume, conocido como "el proceso Crosby".

"El Puesto Avanzado" es un relato corto de Somerset Maugham que narra la historia de George Moon, un funcionario colonial destinado a un aislado puesto en África. Este ambiente solitario y desconectado de la civilización presenta un desafío para Moon, quien lucha por adaptarse a la vida en un lugar tan remoto. La narrativa se centra en la lucha interna de Moon, enfrentando la soledad, el aislamiento y el tedio de la vida cotidiana en el puesto. A pesar de sus esfuerzos por mantener un sentido de normalidad y propósito, Moon se ve cada vez más consumido por la monotonía y la desesperación.