BIOGRAPHY

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

British novelist, playwright, short-story writer, highest paid author in the world in the 1930s. In spite of his popularity and international fame, Maugham did not receive critical attention for his fiction in Britain. Expressing his frustration with the situation Maugham wrote in his autobiography THE SUMMING UP (1938), that he stood "in the very first row of the second-raters". Maugham's skill in handling plot has been compared with the manner of Guy de Maupassant. His stories are told in clear, economical style with cynical or resigned undertone.

"I have never pretended to be anything but a story teller. It has amused me to tell stories and I have told a great many. It is a misfortune for me that the telling of a story just for the sake of the story is not an activity that is in favor with the intelligentsia. In endeavor to bear my misfortunes with fortitude." (from Creatures of Circumstance, 1947)

William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris, the sixth and youngest son of the solicitor to the British embassy. Maugham learned French as his native tongue. At the age of 10, Maugham was orphaned and sent to England to live with his uncle, the Reverend Henry MacDonald Maugham. Educated at King's School, Canterbury, and Heidelberg University, Maugham then studied six years medicine in London. He qualified in 1897 as doctor from St. Thomas' medical school, but abandoned medicine after the success of his first novels and plays.

Maugham lived in Paris for ten years as a struggling young author. In 1897 appeared his first novel, LIZA OF LAMBETH, which drew on his experiences of attending women in childbirth. Maugham named his daughter and only child, Elizabeth 'Liza' Mary Maugham, after the title character. His first play, A MAN OF HONOUR, was produced in 1903. Four of his dramas ran simultaneously in London in 1904. Maugham's breakthrough novel was the semi-autobiographical OF HUMAN BONDAGE (1915), which is usually considered his outstanding achievement. The story follows the childhood, youth, and early manhood of Philip Carey, who is born with a clubfoot. Philip never knew his father and his mother only for a brief space. He is raised by a religious aunt and uncle, but the real process of his education, after the end of an unsatisfactory social life, begins in Heidelberg. Philip goes to Paris to study art, and at the age of thirty he qualifies as a doctor. Finally he marries Sally Athelny, a normal, healthy, happy girl.

Disguising himself as a reporter, Maugham served as an espionage agent for British Secret Intelligence Service in Russia in 1916-17, but his stuttering and poor health hindered his career in this field. He then set off with a friend on a series of travels to eastern Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Mexico. In many novels the surroundings also are international. Maugham's most famous story, which became the play RAIN and was made into several movies, was inspired by a missionary and prostitute among his fellow passengers on a trip to Pago Pago.

THE MOON AND THE SIXPENCE (1919) was the story of Charles Strickland (or actually Paul Gauguin), an artist, whose rejection of Western civilization led to his departure for Tahiti. There he is blinded by leprosy but still continues painting. Maugham reused elements of his Pacific diaries in TREMBLING OF A LEAF (1921), which included the story 'Rain,' adapted to the stage by John Colton and Clemence Randolph in 1922.

In 1928 Maugham settled in Cape Ferrat in France. His plays, including THE CIRCLE (1921), a satire of social life, OUR BETTERS (1923), about Americans in Europe, and THE CONSTANT WIFE (1927), about a wife who takes revenge on her unfaithful husband, were performed in Europe and in the United States. During World War II Maugham lived in Hollywood, where he worked on the screen adaptation of his novel RAZORS EDGE (1944). "This book consists of my recollections of a man with whom I was thrown into close contact only at long intervals, and I have little knowledge of what happened to him in between," Maugham said in the beginning of the story. "I have invented nothing." Maugham tells of a young American veteran who moves through superbly described settings: Italy, London, the Riviera, Montparnasse. He seeks in the end relief in India from the horrors of war and gains a sense of being at one with the Absolute, through the Indian philosophical system known as Vedanta. Maugham himself had in 1938 visited India, where fainted in an ashram, and met a holy man named Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi.

As an agent and writer Maugham was a link in the long tradition from Christopher Marlowe, Ben Johnson and Daniel Defoe to the modern day writers Graham Greene, John Le Carré, John Dickson Carr, Alec Waugh and Ted Allbeury, who all have worked for the secret service. It is said that the modern spy story began with Maugham's ASHENDEN: OR THE BRITISH AGENT (1928), a collection of six short stories set in Switzerland, France, Russia, and Italy. It was partly based on the author's own experiences. The protagonist, Ashenden, appeared also in CAKES AND ALE (1930) and The Moon and the Sixpence. Alfred Hitchcock used in Secret Agent (1936) specifically the stories 'The Traitor' and 'The Hairless Mexican'. In the film, set in Switzerland, an agents kill a wrong man and then goes after the right one. A chocolate factory is used by the crooks' as a headquarters.

Maugham believed that there is a true harmony in the contradictions of mankind and that the normal is in reality the abnormal. "The ordinary is the writer's richest field," he stated in THE SUMMING UP (1938), which also has been used as a guidebook for creative writing. In the satirical short story 'The Ant and the Grasshopper' Maigham juxtaposed two brothers, the unscrupulous and carefree Tom and the hardworking, respectable George, who expects that Tom would end in the gutter. However, Tom marries a rich old woman, she dies and leaves him a fortune. "I burst into a shout of laughter as I looked at George's wrathful face. I rolled in my chair, I very nearly fell in the floor. George never forgave me. But Tom often asks me to excellent dinners in his charming house in Mayfair, and he occasionally borrows a trifle from me, that is merely from force of habit."

Although Maugham became world famous he was never knighted. His relationship with Gerald Haxton (1892-1944), his secretary and companion, prompted speculations. While in Capri, Maugham enjoyed the company of the homosexual and lesbian colony there. With the homosexual esthete John Ellingham Brooks and Edward Frederic Benson he purchased shares of the Villa Cercole. Maugham's closest woman friend was Barbara Nash Back, the wife of Dr. Ivor Back, who was left penniless in 1951 after the death of her husband. Maugham died in Nice on December 16, 1965. It is said that as he lay dying he asked Sir Alfred Ayer visit him and reassure him that there was no life after death. Maugham was married to Syrie Barnardo Wellcome, an interior decorator; they were divored in 1927-8. Maugham's efforts to disgrace his wife in LOOKING BACK (1962) caused a deep rift between the author and his daughter Liza.

A number of Maugham's short stories have been filmed. Quartet (1948) consists of four stories introduced by the author - 'The Facts of Life', 'The Alien Corn', 'The Kite', and 'The Colonel's Lady.' In 'The Kite' the protagonist, Herbert, starts to fly kites with his parents in childhood. After marriage Herbert continues his hobby, although his wife Betty considers it childish. When Herbert wants to buy a new kite, Betty packs his bag and Herbert returns to his parents' house; Betty smashes the kite. The magistrate orders him to pay Betty alimony, twenty-five shillings a week, but Herbert refuses to obey the order and chooses the prison. "It may be that in some queer way he identifies himself with the kite flying so free and so high above him, and it's as it were an escape from the monotony of life. It may be that in some dim, confused way it represents an ideal of freedom and adventure, And you know, when a man once gets bitten with the virus of the ideal not all the King's doctors and not all the King's surgeons can rid him of it."

After the 1930s Maugham's reputation abroad was greater than in England. Maugham once said, "Most people cannot see anything, but I can se what is in front of my nose with extreme clearness; the greatest writers can see through a brick wall. My vision is not so penetrating."

Interest in Maugham revived again in his 80th birthday, which he celebrated by the special republication of Cakes and Ale, a novel satirizing London literary circles and 'Grand Old Men'. Maugham portrayed himself as Ashenden, Thomas Hardy was Driffield, and Hugh Walpole was Kear. Barbara Belford listed in Violet: The Story of the Irrepressible Violet Hunt and Her Circle of Lovers and Friends (1990) Maugham among the lovers of Violet Hunt, along with such names as H. G. Wells and Ford Madox Ford. The novelist Hugh Walpole portrayed Maugham as the arrogant pessimist in John Cornelius (1937), he appeared as John-Blair-Kennedy in Noel Coward's South Sea Bubble (1956), Leverson Hurle in Gin and Bitters by A Riposte, the homosexual novelist in Noel Coward's Point Valaine (1935), Kenneth Marchal Toomey in Anthony Burgess Earthly Powers (1980), Willie Tower in S.N. Behrman's Jane (1946), and Gilbert Hereford Vaughn in Ada Leverson's The Limit (1911). Maugham collected his literary experiences in The Summing Up, which has been used as a guidebook for creative writing.

For further reading: Somerset Maugham: A Guide by L. Brander (1963); Maugham: a Biography by Ted Morgan (1980); The Critical Heritage, ed. by J. Whitehead (1987); Willie: The Life of W. Somerset Maugham by Robert Calder (1990); The Dramatic Comedy of Somerset Maugham by R.E. Barnes (1990); W. Somerset Maugham by S.W. Archer (1993); An Appointment With Somerset Maugham and Other Literary Encounters by Richard Hauer Costa (1993); Orienting Masculinity, Orienting Nation: W. Somerset Maugham's Exotic Fiction by Philip Holden (1996); A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia by Samuel J. Rogal (1997) - Other film adaptations: Vessel of Wrath (1938), dir. by Erich Pommer; Quartet (1948), dir. by Smart & French & Crabtree & Annakin; Trio (1959), dir. by French and Annakin; Encore (1951), dir. by Jackson & Pélissier & French; The Beachcomber (1954), dir. by Muriel Box; The Seventh Sin (1957), dir. by Ronald Neame - See also: Eric Ambler

Selected works:

· LIZA OF LAMBETH, 1897

· ORIENTATIONS, 1899

· MRS. CRADDOCK, 1902 - Rouva Craddock (suom. Sirpa Kauppinen)

· A MAN OF HONOUR, 1903

· THE BISHOP'S APRON, 1906

· THE MAGICIAN, 1908 - (the central character, lightly disguised, is occultist Aleister Crowley)

· PENELOPE, 1909

· LADY FREDERICK. 1912

· JACK STRAW, 1912

· MRS DOT, 1912

· OF HUMAN BONDAGE, 1915 - Elämän kahle (suom. Sirpa Kauppinen) - films: 1934, dir. by John Cromwell; 1946, dir. by Edmund Gouldig; 1964, dir. by Henry Hathaway, Ken Hughes

· THE MOON AND SIXPENCE, 1919 - Kuu ja kupariraha (suom. Liisa Johansson) - film: 1943, dir. by Albert Lewin

· THE CIRCLE, 1921 - Ympyrä - film: 1925, dir. by Frank Borzage

· SADIE THOMPSON, 1921 - films: 1928, dir. by Raoul Walsh, starring Gloria Swanson, Lionel Barrymore; Rain (1932), dir. by Lewis Milestone, starring Joan Crawford, Walter Huston; Sade / Miss Sadie Thompson (1953) , dir. by Curtis Bernhardt, starring Rita Hayworth and Mel Ferrer - also a film adaptation under the title Dirty Gertie from Harlem, U.S.A.

· THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF, 1921 - Väräjävä lehti (suom. Sirppa Kauppinen)

· EAST OF SUEZ, 1922 - Suezin itäpuolella - film: 1925, dir. by Raoul Walsh

· ON CHINESE SCREEN, 1922

· OUR BETTERS, 1923 - film: 1933. dir. by George Cukor

· THE PAINTED VEIL, 1925 - Kirjava huntu (suom. Helvi Vasara) - films: 1934, dir. by Richard Boleslawski, starring Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall; 2006, dir. by John Curran, starring Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Liev Schreiber

· THE CONSTANT WIFE, 1925 - Viisas aviovaimo

· THE CASUARINA TREE, 1926

· THE LETTER, 1927 - Kirje (suom. Kristiina Kivivuori) - film: 1940, dir. by William Wyler

· THE SACRED FLAME, 1928 - Pyhä liekki - film: The Right to Live (1935), dir. by William Keighley

· ASHENDEN: OR THE BRITISH AGENT, 1928 - Salainen asiamies (suom. Kristiina Kivivuori) - film: Secret Agent (1936), based on the 'The Traitor' and 'The Hairless Mexican', and the play by Campbell Dixon, dir. by Alfred Hitchcock, , starring John Gielgud, Madeleine Carroll, Peter Lorre, Robert Young, Percy Marmont

· THE BREADWINNER, 1930

· CAKES AND ALE, 1930 - Elämältä se maistui (suom. Kristiina Kivivuori)

· FIRST PERSON SINGULAR, 1931

· COLLECTED PLAYS, 1931-34

· THE NARROW CORNER, 1932 - Ahtaan asuinsijat (suom. J.A. Hollo)

· FOR SERVICES RENTED, 1932

· COLLECTED PLAYS, 1933

· SHEPPEY: A PLAY IN THREE ACTS, 1933 - Päävoitto

· AH KING, 1933

· COSMOPOLITANS, 1936 - Herra Kaikkitietävä (suom. Martta Eskelinen)

· THE THEATRE, 1937 - Näyttelijätär (suom. J.A. Hollo) - film: 2004, dir. by Istvan Szabo, starring Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Shaun Evans

· THE SUMMING UP, 1938 - Tilinteko

· CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY, 1939 - film: 1944, dir. by Robert Siodmark

· THE MIXTURE AS BEFORE, 1940

· UP AT THE VILLA, 1941 - Huvila kukkulalla (suom. Mario Talaskivi) - film: 2000, dir. by Philip Haas, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, Sean Penn

· STRICTLY PERSONAL, 1941

· THE HOUR BEFORE THE DAWN, 1942

· THE RAZOR'S EDGE, 1944 - Veitsen terällä (suom. Helvi Vasara) - films: 1946, dir. by Edmund Goulding; 1984, dir. by John Byrum, starring Bill Murray, Theresa Russell and Denholm Elliott

· THEN AND NOW, 1946 - Eikä mikään muutu (suom. Martta Eskelinen)

· CREATURES OF CIRCUMSTANCES, 1947 - Olosuhteiden oikkuja (suom. Aarre Nenonen)

· CATALINA, 1948 - Catalina (suom. Aarre Nenonen)

· A WRITER'S NOTEBOOK, 1949

· THE COMPLETE SHORT STORIES, 1951

· THE VAGRANT MOOD, 1952

· SELECTED NOVELS, 1953

· TEN NOVELS AND THEIR AUTHORS, 1954

· FAR AND WIDE, 1955

· BEST SHORT STORIES, 1957

· POINTS OF VIEW, 1958

· LOOKING BACK, 1962

· SELECTED PREFACES AND INTRODUCTIONS, 1963

· SEVENTEEN LOST STORIES, 1969

· A TRAVELLER IN ROMANCE, 1984

Published by “Books and Writers”

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Academic year 2008/2009
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