This collection of Somerset Maugham's short stories includes stories based in England, France and Spain, as well as the South Pacific. It includes "Rain", the tradgedy of a missionary and a prostitute and "The Three Fat Women of Antibes", a sardonic tale of abstention and greed.

Charles Strickland, a conventional stockbroker abandons his wife and children for Paris and Tahiti, to live his life as a painter. Whilst his betrayal of family, duty and honour gives him the freedom to achieve greatness, his decision leads to an obsession which carries severe implications.

Philip Carey is an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelburg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, he settles in London to train as a doctor. He meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a formative, tortured and masochistic affair which very nearly ruins him.

The second of four volumes of short stories which reflect Somerset Maugham's wry perception of human foibles and gift for evoking drama from a sense of time and place. Set in Malaya, America and England, they include "Flotsam and Jetsam", "The Man With the Scar" and "The Vessel of Wrath".

Modern fiction/Short storiesThis collection of stories was first published in 1993 (Mandarin).

Modern fiction/Short storiesIntroduced by the author, this is a collection of vignettes about the romantic as well as the brutal aspects of espionage.

Written during World War II, this novel takes as its theme the Zen Buddhist phrase describing the narrow, painful path to enlightenment. The book describes an over-populated, materialistic society, in which people increasingly turn inwards to the spiritual life in their search for freedom.

Newly widowed after an unhappy marriage, Mary Panton finds tranquillity in a beautiful villa in the hills above Florence. From this haven of peace, she contemplates a second marriage. But then a tragic rush of events destroy her serenity.

This final, classic collection of stories reveals Maugham's unique talent for exposing and exploring the bitter realities of human relationships. Included are: "The Lotus Eater", "The Outstation" and "The Back of Beyond".

Modern fictionA coming-of-age novel that follows a Cambridge graduate on a jaunt in Paris, whose young eyes are opened to the horror and ugly drama of its underworld. Published before the outbreak of war in 1939, Maugham's purpose here was to warn the complacent, insular British middle-class of the immense upheavals taking place on the continent.

Modern fiction/Espionage & spy thriller/Short storiesMaugham's set of stories about wartime spy John Ashenden, prefigured James Bond with his exploits with both exotic enemies and women.

Les quatre-vingt-douze nouvelles qui forment l'intégrale des nouvelles de Somerset Maugham sont cosmopolites, comme l'était leur auteur. Elles se passent en Orient, en France, dans l'Europe centrale de l'entre-deux-guerres. La finesse de la peinture psychologique des personnages n'empêche pas l'auteur de déployer son talent de cynisme, d'humour, et sous une apparente légèreté, le portrait de la bourgeoisie anglaise est féroce. Somerset Maugham est, ici, au sommet de son art.

Julia Lambert is in her prime, the greatest actress in England. Off stage, however, she is bored with 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.

Modern fiction

Collections & anthologies of various literary forms/Modern fiction

Maugham, the quintessential observer of human behaviour, tells the stories of : The Creative Impulse, The Round Dozen and Jane.

W. Somerset Maugham was one of the seminal writers of the twentieth century, and his travel writing has long been considered among his finest work. Now, acclaimed travel writer Pico Iyer maps out a masterful tour of these vivid, evocative pieces that are collected here for the first time.
Maugham worked as a secret agent in Russia, published novels in London, staged plays in New York, and traveled throughout Europe, Asia, India, and the United States, chronicling his travels, wherever he went, with exceptional insight. Beginning with "In the Land of the Blessed Virgin" and culminating in "A Partial View," Iyer selects vignettes of Maugham's razor-sharp prose that track his transformation from a boyish traveler in Spain to a worldly man of letters.
This is Maugham at his most keenly observant, direct, and powerful.
From the Hardcover edition.
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The first and most autobiographical of Maugham's masterpieces. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris as a would-be artist, he settles in London to train as a doctor where he meets Mildred, the loud but irresistible waitress with whom he plunges into a tortured and masochistic affair.
From the Trade Paperback edition.

At the age of twenty-three, Charlie Mason is endowed with good looks, good manners and a happy disposition. Following three years at Cambridge and one in his father's business, he is now looking forward to a jaunt in Paris with Simon Fenimore, his oldest friend.Yet Paris is not what he expects. And in just a few days his young eyes are opened to the horror and ugly drama of its underworld.Published before the outbreak of war in 1939, Maugham's purpose in Christmas Holiday was to warn the complacent, insular British middle-class of the immense upheavals taking place on the Continent.

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.