W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Maugham wrote The Magician after meeting the famous magician and occultist Aleister Crowly in Paris. He caricatures Crowly as the protagonist Oliver Haddo, a magician who is attempting to create life. Crowly later accused Maugham of plagiarism and Maugham added the foreword A Fragment of Autobiography, which is included in this edition.
4) The Explorer
This novel from the classic era of colonialist literature is sure to intrigue readers interested in nineteenth and early twentieth century fiction. Although some of the imperialist attitudes evinced by the protagonist are likely to clash with the sensibilities of modern audiences, the book accurately documents the spirit and foibles of the era.
Literary fiction fans will delight in this exquisitely wrought collection of stories from W. Somerset Maugham, a writer many critics regard as one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century. Most of these tales are set in the South Pacific, where Maugham traveled while gathering research for several of his later novels.
6) Orientations
This collection of short stories is sure to please fans of the eminently talented British author W. Somerset Maugham. With details drawn from Maugham's first extended period of living abroad, the stories offer a unique glimpse into the early stages of the author's artistic development.
The Moon and Sixpence is a fictional novel heavily influenced by the life of French painter Paul Gauguin. The novel is told first-person, dipping episodically into the mind of the artist. Charles Strickland is an English stock broker, who leaves everything behind him in his middle age to live in defiant squalor in Paris as an artist. His genius is eventually recognized by a Dutch painter.
Liza of Lambeth (1897) narrates Liza's last four months alive. She lives in a working-class area of London, and as the youngest of thirteen siblings she is left to look after their incompetent mother. She rejects a local suitor, but finds herself attracted to a mysterious stranger on a site-seeing trip. The novel gives insight into working-class London at the turn of the century.
10) The Hero
Many war heroes return from battle to a world that has changed dramatically. In the case of James Parsons, the protagonist of W. Somerset Maugham's The Hero, his family and hometown have remained exactly as they were before he left to serve his country abroad—it is his own outlook and values that have shifted. Will he be able to settle back into his old life and regain the happiness that was once his? Read The Hero to find out.
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