W. Somerset Maugham - wikipedia W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham Maugham photographed by Carl Van Vechten in 1934 William Somerset Maugham ( 1874 - 01 - 25 ) 25 January 1874 UK Embassy, Paris, France 16 December 1965 ( 1965 - 12 - 16 ) ( aged 91 ) Nice, Alpes - Maritimes, France Occupation Playwright, novelist, short story writer Alma mater St Thomas 's Hospital Medical School ( now part of King 's College London ), M.B.B.S., 1897 Notable works Of Human Bondage The Moon and Sixpence Cakes and Ale The Razor 's Edge Spouse Syrie Wellcome ( m. 1917 ; div. 1929 ) Children Mary Elizabeth Maugham ( 1915 -- 1998 ) William Somerset Maugham CH ( / mɔːm / MAWM ; 25 January 1874 -- 16 December 1965 ), better known as W. Somerset Maugham, was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest - paid author during the 1930s. After both his parents died before he was 10, Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. Not wanting to become a lawyer like other men in his family, Maugham eventually trained and qualified as a physician. The initial run of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth ( 1897 ), sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full - time. During the First World War he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps, before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the October Revolution of 1917. During and after the war, he travelled in India and Southeast Asia ; these experiences were reflected in later short stories and novels. Contents 1 Childhood and education 2 Career 2.1 Early works 2.2 Popular success, 1914 -- 39 3 Marriage and family 3.1 Sexuality 4 Religious views 5 Intelligence work 6 Travels and writing 7 Grand old man of letters 8 Achievements 9 Significant works 10 Influence 11 Portraits 12 Bibliography 13 Film adaptations 14 See also 15 References and notes 16 Sources 17 Further reading 17.1 Editions 18 External links Childhood and education Maugham 's father, Robert Ormond Maugham, was a lawyer who handled the legal affairs of the British embassy in Paris. Since French law declared that all children born on French soil could be conscripted for military service, his father arranged for Maugham to be born at the embassy, technically on British soil. His grandfather, another Robert, was a prominent lawyer and co-founder of the Law Society of England and Wales. Maugham refers to this grandfather 's writings in Chapter 6 his literary memoir, The Summing Up : ``... in the catalogue of the Library at the British Museum there is a long list of his legal works. He wrote only one book that was not of this character. It was a collection of essays that he had contributed to the solid magazines of the day and he issued it, as became his sense of decorum, anonymously. I once had the book in my hands, a handsome volume bound in calf, but I never read it and I have not been able to get hold of a copy since. I wish I had, for I might have learnt from it something of the kind of man he was. '' His family assumed Maugham and his brothers would be lawyers. His elder brother, Viscount Maugham, enjoyed a distinguished legal career and served as Lord Chancellor from 1938 to 1939. Maugham 's mother, Edith Mary ( née Snell ), had tuberculosis ( TB ), a condition for which her physician prescribed childbirth. She had Maugham several years after the last of his three elder brothers was born. His brothers were away at boarding school by the time Maugham was three. Edith 's sixth and final son died on 25 January 1882, one day after his birth, on Maugham 's eighth birthday. Edith died of tuberculosis six days later on 31 January at the age of 41. The early death of his mother left Maugham traumatized. He kept his mother 's photograph at his bedside for the rest of his life. Two years after Edith 's death Maugham 's father died in France of cancer. Maugham was sent to the UK to be cared for by his uncle, Henry MacDonald Maugham, the Vicar of Whitstable, in Kent. The move was damaging. Henry Maugham was cold and emotionally cruel. The boy attended The King 's School, Canterbury, which was also difficult for him. He was teased for his bad English ( French had been his first language ) and his short stature, which he inherited from his father. Maugham developed a stammer that stayed with him all his life, although it was sporadic, being subject to his moods and circumstances. Miserable both at his uncle 's vicarage and at school, the young Maugham developed a talent for making wounding remarks to those who displeased him. This ability is sometimes reflected in Maugham 's literary characters. Aged 16, Maugham refused to continue at The King 's School. His uncle allowed him to travel to Germany, where he studied literature, philosophy and German at Heidelberg University. During his year in Heidelberg Maugham met and had a sexual affair with John Ellingham Brooks, an Englishman ten years his senior. He also wrote his first book there, a biography of Giacomo Meyerbeer, an opera composer. After Maugham 's return to Britain his uncle found him a position in an accountant 's office, but after a month Maugham gave it up and returned to Whitstable. His uncle tried to find Maugham a new profession. Maugham 's father and three older brothers were distinguished lawyers ; however, Maugham was n't interested. A career in the Church was rejected because a stammering clergyman might make the family appear ridiculous. His uncle rejected the Civil Service, not because of the young man 's feelings or interests, but because his uncle concluded that it was no longer a career for gentlemen, since a new law required applicants to pass an entrance examination. The local physician suggested the medical profession and Maugham 's uncle agreed. Maugham had been writing steadily since he was 15, and wanted to be an author, but he did not tell his guardian. For the next five years he studied medicine at the medical school of St Thomas 's Hospital in Lambeth. The school was then independent, but is now part of King 's College London. Career Early works W. Somerset Maugham Some critics have assumed that the years Maugham spent studying medicine were a creative dead end, but Maugham did not feel this way about this time. He was living in the great city of London, meeting people of a `` low '' sort whom he would never have met otherwise, and seeing them at a time of heightened anxiety and meaning in their lives. In maturity, he recalled the value of his experience as a medical student : `` I saw how men died. I saw how they bore pain. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief... '' Maugham kept his own lodgings, took pleasure in furnishing them, filled many notebooks with literary ideas, and continued writing nightly while at the same time studying for his medical degree. In 1897, he published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, a tale of working - class adultery and its consequences. It drew its details from Maugham 's experiences as a medical student doing midwifery work in Lambeth, a South London slum. Maugham wrote near the opening of the novel : ``... it is impossible always to give the exact unexpurgated words of Liza and the other personages of the story ; the reader is therefore entreated with his thoughts to piece out the necessary imperfections of the dialogue. '' Liza of Lambeth 's first print run sold out in a matter of weeks. Maugham, who had qualified as a medic, dropped medicine and embarked on his 65 - year career as a man of letters. He later said, `` I took to it as a duck takes to water. '' The writer 's life allowed Maugham to travel and to live in places such as Spain and Capri for the next decade, but his next ten works never came close to rivalling the success of Liza. This changed in 1907 with the success of his play Lady Frederick. By the next year, he had four plays running simultaneously in London, and Punch published a cartoon of Shakespeare biting his fingernails nervously as he looked at the billboards. Maugham 's supernatural thriller, The Magician ( 1908 ), based its principal character on the well - known and somewhat disreputable Aleister Crowley. Crowley took some offence at the treatment of the protagonist, Oliver Haddo. He wrote a critique of the novel, charging Maugham with plagiarism, in a review published in Vanity Fair. Maugham survived the criticism without much damage to his reputation. Popular success, 1914 -- 39 By 1914, Maugham was famous, with 10 plays produced and 10 novels published. Too old to enlist when the First World War broke out, he served in France as a member of the British Red Cross 's so - called `` Literary Ambulance Drivers '', a group of some 24 well - known writers, including the Americans John Dos Passos, E.E. Cummings, and Ernest Hemingway. Maugham early in his career During this time he met Frederick Gerald Haxton, a young San Franciscan, who became his companion and lover until Haxton 's death in 1944. Throughout this period, Maugham continued to write. He proofread Of Human Bondage at a location near Dunkirk during a lull in his ambulance duties. Of Human Bondage ( 1915 ) initially was criticized in both England and the United States ; the New York World described the romantic obsession of the protagonist Philip Carey as `` the sentimental servitude of a poor fool ''. The influential American novelist and critic Theodore Dreiser rescued the novel, referring to it as a work of genius and comparing it to a Beethoven symphony. His review gave the book a lift, and it has never been out of print since. Maugham indicates in his foreword that he derived the title from a passage in Baruch Spinoza 's Ethics : `` The impotence of man to govern or restrain the emotions I call bondage, for a man who is under their control is not his own master... so that he is often forced to follow the worse, although he see the better before him. '' Of Human Bondage is considered to have many autobiographical elements. Maugham gave Philip Carey a club foot ( rather than his stammer ) ; the vicar of Blackstable appears derived from the vicar of Whitstable ; and Carey is a medic. Maugham insisted the book was more invention than fact. The close relationship between fictional and non-fictional became Maugham 's trademark, despite the legal requirement to state that `` the characters in ( this or that publication ) are entirely imaginary ''. He wrote in 1938 : `` Fact and fiction are so intermingled in my work that now, looking back on it, I can hardly distinguish one from the other. '' Marriage and family Maugham entered into a relationship with Syrie Wellcome, the wife of Henry Wellcome, an American - born English pharmaceutical magnate. They had a daughter named Mary Elizabeth Maugham ( 1915 -- 1998 ). Henry Wellcome sued his wife for divorce, naming Maugham as co-respondent. In May 1917, following the decree absolute, Syrie Wellcome and Maugham were married. Syrie Maugham became a noted interior decorator who in the 1920s popularized `` the all - white room ''. Their daughter was familiarly called Liza and her surname was changed to Maugham. The marriage was unhappy, and the couple separated. Maugham thereafter lived in the French Riviera with his partner Gerald Haxton until Haxton 's death in 1944, after which he lived with Alan Searle until his own death in 1965. Sexuality Maugham has been described as both bisexual and as homosexual. In addition to his 13 - year marriage to Syrie Wellcome, he had affairs with other women in his youth. In later life Maugham was exclusively homosexual. Frequently quoted in this connection is Maugham 's statement to his nephew Robin : I tried to persuade myself that I was three - quarters normal and that only a quarter of me was queer -- whereas really it was the other way around. -- W. Somerset Maugham, ( Maugham, Robin 1970 ), quoted in Hastings 2010, p. 39 Religious views Maugham was a nonbeliever, having stated that he remained agnostic to the questions concerning the existence of God. He considered that the misery and bitterness of the world suggested that God did not exist and that the evidence adduced to prove the truth of one religion was entailed to the religion of origin. Maugham did not believe in God, nor an afterlife, and considered the notions of future punishment or reward to be outrageous. Intelligence work Maugham returned to England from his ambulance unit duties in order to promote Of Human Bondage. With that completed, he was eager to assist the war effort again. As he was unable to return to his ambulance unit, Syrie arranged for him to be introduced to a high - ranking intelligence officer known as `` R '' ; he was recruited by John Wallinger. In September 1915, Maugham began work in Switzerland, as one of the network of British agents who operated against the Berlin Committee, whose members included Virendranath Chattopadhyay, an Indian revolutionary trying to resist colonial Britain 's rule of India. Maugham lived in Switzerland as a writer. In June 1917, Maugham was asked by Sir William Wiseman, an officer of the British Secret Intelligence Service ( later named MI6 ), to undertake a special mission in Russia. It was part of an attempt to keep the Provisional Government in power and Russia in the war by countering German pacifist propaganda. Two and a half months later, the Bolsheviks took control. Maugham subsequently said that if he had been able to get there six months earlier, he might have succeeded. Quiet and observant, Maugham had a good temperament for intelligence work ; he believed he had inherited from his lawyer father a gift for cool judgment and the ability to be undeceived by facile appearances. Maugham used his spying experiences as the basis for Ashenden : Or the British Agent, a collection of short stories about a gentlemanly, sophisticated, aloof spy. This character is considered to have influenced Ian Fleming 's later series of James Bond novels. In 1922, Maugham dedicated his book On A Chinese Screen to Syrie. This was a collection of 58 ultra-short story sketches, which he had written during his 1920 travels through China and Hong Kong, intending to expand the sketches later as a book. Travels and writing In 1916, Maugham travelled to the Pacific to research his novel The Moon and Sixpence, based on the life of Paul Gauguin. This was the first of his journeys through the late - Imperial world of the 1920s and 1930s which inspired his novels. He became known as a writer who portrayed the last days of colonialism in India, Southeast Asia, China and the Pacific, although the books on which this reputation rests represent only a fraction of his output. On this and all subsequent journeys, he was accompanied by Haxton, whom he regarded as indispensable to his success as a writer. Maugham was painfully shy, and Haxton the extrovert gathered human material which the author converted to fiction. Adapted for the stage from a story first published in 1924 in Hearst 's International and reprinted in his collection The Casuarina Tree ( 1926 ), Maugham 's play The Letter, starring Gladys Cooper, had its premiere in London in 1927. Later, he asked that Katharine Cornell play the lead in the 1927 Broadway version. The play was adapted as a film by the same name in 1929 with Jeanne Eagels taking Cornell 's part, and again in 1940, for which Bette Davis received an Oscar nomination. In 1951, Cornell was a great success playing the lead in his comedy The Constant Wife. In 1926, Maugham bought the Villa La Mauresque, on 9 acres ( 3.6 hectares ) at Cap Ferrat on the French Riviera, and it was his home for most of the rest of his life. There he hosted one of the great literary and social salons of the 1920s and 30s. He continued to be highly productive, writing plays, short stories, novels, essays and travel books. By 1940, when the collapse of France and its occupation by the German Third Reich forced Maugham to leave the French Riviera, he was a refugee -- but one of the wealthiest and most famous writers in the English - speaking world. Maugham 's short fable `` An Appointment in Samarra '' ( 1933 ) is based on an ancient Babylonian myth : Death is both the narrator and a central character. The American writer John O'Hara credited Maugham 's tale as the inspiration for the title of his novel Appointment in Samarra. Grand old man of letters Maugham, by then in his sixties, spent most of the Second World War in the United States, first in Los Angeles ( he worked on many scripts, and was one of the first authors to make significant money from film adaptations ) and later in the South. While in the US, he was asked by the British government to make patriotic speeches to induce the US to aid Britain, if not necessarily become an allied combatant. After his companion Gerald Haxton died in 1944, Maugham moved back to England. In private, Maugham espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories about Jewish refugees, noting that ' the Gestapo is known to have had spies among refugees, and these have not seldom been Jews '. He returned in 1946 to his villa in France, where he lived, interrupted by frequent and long travels, until his death. Maugham began a relationship with Alan Searle, whom he had first met in 1928. A young man from the London slum area of Bermondsey, Searle had already been kept by older men. He proved a devoted if not a stimulating companion. One of Maugham 's friends, describing the difference between Haxton and Searle, said simply : `` Gerald was vintage, Alan was vin ordinaire. '' Maugham 's love life was almost never smooth. He once confessed : `` I have most loved people who cared little or nothing for me and when people have loved me I have been embarrassed... In order not to hurt their feelings, I have often acted a passion I did not feel. '' In 1962 Maugham sold a collection of paintings, some of which had already been assigned to his daughter Liza by deed. She sued her father and won a judgment of £ 230,000. Maugham publicly disowned her and claimed she was not his biological daughter. He adopted Searle as his son and heir, but the adoption was annulled. In his 1962 volume of memoirs, Looking Back, he attacked the late Syrie Maugham and wrote that Liza had been born before they married. The memoir cost him several friends and exposed him to much public ridicule. Liza and her husband Lord Glendevon contested the change in Maugham 's will in the French courts, and it was overturned. However, in 1965 Searle inherited £ 50,000, the contents of the Villa La Mauresque, Maugham 's manuscripts and his revenue from copyrights for 30 years. Thereafter the copyrights passed to the Royal Literary Fund. There is no grave for Maugham. His ashes were scattered near the Maugham Library, The King 's School, Canterbury. Liza Maugham, Lady Glendevon, died aged 83 in 1998, survived by her four children ( a son and a daughter by her first marriage to Vincent Paravicini, and two more sons to Lord Glendevon ). One of her grandchildren is Derek Paravicini, who is a musical prodigy and autistic savant. Achievements Commercial success with high book sales, successful theatre productions and a string of film adaptations, backed by astute stock market investments, allowed Maugham to live a very comfortable life. Small and weak as a boy, Maugham had been proud even then of his stamina, and as an adult he kept churning out the books, proud that he could. Yet, despite his triumphs, he never attracted the highest respect from the critics or his peers. Maugham attributed this to his lack of `` lyrical quality '', his small vocabulary, and failure to make expert use of metaphor in his work. In 1934 the American journalist and radio personality Alexander Woollcott offered Maugham some language advice : `` The female implies, and from that the male infers. '' Maugham responded : `` I am not yet too old to learn. '' Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as `` such a tissue of clichés that one 's wonder is finally aroused at the writer 's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way ''. For a public man of Maugham 's generation, being openly gay was impossible. Whether his own orientation disgusted him ( as it did many at a time when homosexuality was widely considered a moral failing as well as illegal ) or whether he was trying to disguise his leanings, Maugham wrote disparagingly of the gay artist. In Don Fernando, a non-fiction book about his years living in Spain, Maugham pondered a ( perhaps fanciful ) suggestion that the painter El Greco was homosexual : It can not be denied that the homosexual has a narrower outlook on the world than the normal man. In certain respects the natural responses of the species are denied to him. Some at least of the broad and typical human emotions he can never experience. However subtly he sees life he can not see it whole... I can not now help asking myself whether what I see in El Greco 's work of tortured fantasy and sinister strangeness is not due to such a sexual abnormality as this. But Maugham 's homosexuality or bisexuality is believed to have shaped his fiction in two ways. Since he tended to see attractive women as sexual rivals, he often gave his women characters sexual needs and appetites, in a way quite unusual for authors of his time. Liza of Lambeth, Cakes and Ale, The Painted Veil, Neil MacAdam and The Razor 's Edge all featured women determined to feed their strong sexual appetites, heedless of the result. As Maugham 's sexual appetites were then officially disapproved of, or criminal, in nearly all of the countries in which he travelled, the author was unusually tolerant of the vices of others. Some readers and critics complained that Maugham did not condemn what was bad in the villains of his fiction and plays. Maugham replied : `` It must be a fault in me that I am not gravely shocked at the sins of others unless they personally affect me. '' Maugham 's public view of his abilities remained modest. Toward the end of his career he described himself as `` in the very first row of the second - raters ''. In 1948 he wrote `` Great Novelists and Their Novels '' in which he listed the ten best novels of world literature in his view. In 1954, he was made a Companion of Honour. Maugham had begun collecting theatrical paintings before the First World War ; he continued to the point where his collection was second only to that of the Garrick Club. In 1948 he announced that he would bequeath this collection to the Trustees of the National Theatre. From 1951, some 14 years before his death, his paintings began their exhibition life. In 1994 they were placed on loan to the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden. Significant works This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( January 2011 ) Maugham 's masterpiece is generally agreed to be Of Human Bondage, a semi-autobiographical novel that deals with the life of the main character Philip Carey, who, like Maugham, was orphaned, and brought up by his pious uncle. Philip 's clubfoot causes him endless self - consciousness and embarrassment, echoing Maugham 's struggles with his stutter and, as his biographer Ted Morgan notes, his homosexuality. Two of his later novels were based on historical people : The Moon and Sixpence is about the life of Paul Gauguin ; and Cakes and Ale contains what were taken as thinly veiled and unflattering characterizations of the authors Thomas Hardy ( who had died two years previously ) and Hugh Walpole. Maugham himself denied any intention of doing this in a long letter to Walpole : `` I certainly never intended Alroy Kear to be a portrait of you. He is made up of a dozen people and the greater part of him is myself '' -- yet in an introduction written for the 1950 Modern Library edition of the work, he plainly states that Walpole was the inspiration for Kear ( while denying that Thomas Hardy was the inspiration for the novelist Driffield ). Maugham 's last major novel, The Razor 's Edge ( 1944 ), was a departure for him in many ways. While much of the novel takes place in Europe, its main characters are American, not British. The protagonist is a disillusioned veteran of the First World War who abandons his wealthy friends and lifestyle, traveling to India seeking enlightenment. The story 's themes of Eastern mysticism and war - weariness struck a chord with readers during the Second World War. It was adapted into a major motion picture released in 1946, then again in 1984 starring Bill Murray. Among his short stories, some of the most memorable are those dealing with the lives of Western, mostly British, colonists in the Far East. They typically express the emotional toll the colonists bear by their isolation. `` Rain '', `` Footprints in the Jungle '', and `` The Outstation '' are considered especially notable. `` Rain '', in particular, which charts the moral disintegration of a missionary attempting to convert prostitute Sadie Thompson, has kept its reputation. It has been adapted as a play and as several films. His The Magician ( 1908 ) is based on British occultist Aleister Crowley. Maugham was one of the most significant travel writers of the inter-war years, and can be compared with contemporaries such as Evelyn Waugh and Freya Stark. His best efforts in this line include The Gentleman in the Parlour, dealing with a journey through Burma, Siam, Cambodia and Vietnam, and On a Chinese Screen, a series of very brief vignettes that might have been sketches for stories left unwritten. Influence In 1947 Maugham instituted the Somerset Maugham Award, awarded to the best British writer or writers under the age of thirty - five for a work of fiction published in the past year. Notable winners include V.S. Naipaul, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis and Thom Gunn. On his death, Maugham donated his royalties to the Royal Literary Fund. Other writers acknowledged his work. Anthony Burgess, who included a complex fictional portrait of Maugham in the novel Earthly Powers, praised his influence. Ian Fleming noted that he wrote the short story `` Quantum of Solace '' as an homage to Maugham 's writing style. George Orwell said that Maugham was `` the modern writer who has influenced me the most, whom I admire immensely for his power of telling a story straightforwardly and without frills. ''. In his novel Misery, Stephen King poses a rich collection of Maugham 's books in the house where most of the plot is set, incidentally praising his mastery of storytelling. Portraits Maugham was the subject of this caricature by David Low. Many portraits were painted of Somerset Maugham, including that by Graham Sutherland in the Tate Gallery, and several by Sir Gerald Kelly. Sutherland 's portrait was included in the exhibit Painting the Century : 101 Portrait Masterpieces 1900 -- 2000 at the National Portrait Gallery. Bibliography Main article : List of works by W. Somerset Maugham Film adaptations The Land of Promise ( 1917 ) directed by Joseph Kaufman and starring Thomas Meighan. Based on the 1913 play of the same name. Smith ( 1917 ) directed by Maurice Elvey, based on the 1913 play of the same name. The Divorcee ( 1919 ) directed by Herbert Blaché, based on the 1907 play Lady Frederick. East of Suez ( 1925 ) directed by Raoul Walsh based on the novel of the same name. The Circle ( 1925 ) Directed by Frank Borzage, based on the 1921 play of the same name. The Canadian ( 1926 ) directed by William Beaudine. Based on the 1913 play, `` The Land of Promise, '' this was a remake of the 1917 film of that name, with Thomas Meighan reprising his role as protagonist Frank Taylor. The Magician ( 1926 ) Based on the 1908 novel of the same name. Sadie Thompson ( 1928 ), a silent movie starring Gloria Swanson and Lionel Barrymore. Based on the short story `` Miss Thompson '', which was later retitled `` Rain ''. The Letter ( 1929 ) featuring Jeanne Eagels, O.P. Heggie, Reginald Owen and Herbert Marshall. Based on the play of the same name. Rain ( 1932 ), the first sound version of the short story `` Miss Thompson '' ( retitled as `` Rain '' ), with Joan Crawford and Walter Huston. The Narrow Corner ( 1933 ) directed by Alfred E. Green and starring Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Based on the novel of the same name. Of Human Bondage ( 1934 ) starring Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. Based on the novel of the same name. The Painted Veil ( 1934 ) featuring Greta Garbo and Herbert Marshall. Based on the novel of the same name. Secret Agent ( 1936 ) with John Gielgud, Peter Lorre, Madeleine Carroll, and Robert Young, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Based on Ashenden. The Vessel of Wrath ( 1938 ) starring Charles Laughton ; released in the United States as The Beachcomber. Based on the novella of the same name. The Letter ( 1940 ) featuring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, Frieda Inescort and Gale Sondergaard. Based on the play of the same name. Too Many Husbands ( 1940 ) featuring Jean Arthur, Fred MacMurray, and Melvyn Douglas. Based on the play `` Home and Beauty ''. The Moon and Sixpence ( 1942 ) with George Sanders. Based on the novel of the same name. Christmas Holiday ( 1944 ) starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly, based on the novel of the same name. The Hour Before the Dawn ( 1944 ) starring Veronica Lake, based on the novel of the same name. Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A. ( 1946 ). Unauthorized film version of `` Miss Thompson '' with an all - black cast, directed by Spencer Williams. The Razor 's Edge ( 1946 ) featuring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney. Based on the novel of the same name. Of Human Bondage ( 1946 ) version starring Eleanor Parker. Quartet ( 1948 ) Maugham appears as himself in introductions. Based on four of his short stories. Trio ( 1950 ) Maugham appears as himself in introductions. Another collection based on short stories. Encore ( 1951 ) Maugham appears as himself in introductions. A third collection of Maugham short stories. Miss Sadie Thompson ( 1953 ), a semi-musical version in 3 - D, featuring Rita Hayworth and José Ferrer. The Seventh Sin ( 1957 ) with Eleanor Parker. Based on the novel The Painted Veil. The Beachcomber ( 1958 ). Based on the novella The Vessel of Wrath ; not to be confused with the 1938 film. Julia, du bist zauberhaft ( 1962 ) starring Lilli Palmer and Charles Boyer. Based on the novel Theatre. Of Human Bondage ( 1964 ) with Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak. The Letter ( 1969 ) starring Eileen Atkins. Based on play of the same name. ( Made for television. ) Theatre ( 1978 ) starring Vija Artmane. Based on the novel of the same name. The Letter ( 1982 ) featuring Lee Remick, Jack Thompson and Ronald Pickup. Based on play of the same name. ( Made for television. ) The Razor 's Edge ( 1984 ) with Bill Murray. Based on the novel by the same name. Up at the Villa ( 2000 ) starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn, directed by Philip Haas. Based on the novella of the same name. Being Julia ( 2004 ) featuring Annette Bening. Based on the novel Theatre. The Painted Veil ( 2006 ) with Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. Based on the novel of the same name. See also List of ambulance drivers during World War I References and notes Jump up ^ `` W. Somerset Maugham '', The Literature Network Jump up ^ Maugham, Somerset 1962. Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, p. 4. Jump up ^ Maugham, Robin 1977. Jump up ^ Outlines ( 1823 ). Outlines of character, the great character, the English character ( &c. ) by a member of the Philomathic institution. ^ Jump up to : Hastings, Selina. The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham, 2010 Jump up ^ Meyers, 2004, p. 11. Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, pp. 8 -- 9. Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, p. 17. Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, p. 24. Jump up ^ Epstein, 1991, p. 189. ^ Jump up to : Maugham, Somerset ( 1938 ). The Summing Up. London : William Heinemann. Jump up ^ Maugham, Liza of Lambeth ( Rockville, MD : Serenity Publishers, 2008 ), p. 10. Jump up ^ Maugham, The Partial View ( Heineman 1954 ), p. 8. Jump up ^ Crowley 's Vanity Fair review is reprinted in Anthony Curtis and John Whitehead, eds., W. Somerset Maugham The Critical Heritage ( Routledge Kegan & Paul, 1987 ), pp. 44 -- 56. Jump up ^ Haxton appears as Tony Paxton in Maugham 's 1917 play, Our Betters. Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, p. 188. Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, pp. 197 -- 8. Jump up ^ Ruth Franklin, `` The Great and the Good, '' The New Yorker, 31 May 2010, retrieved 6 September 2012 Jump up ^ ( Her birth name is recorded as Mary Elizabeth Wellcome in the immigration and naturalization files of Ellis Island, along with her mother, who is listed as Syrie Wellcome, on the 21 July 1916 manifest of the HMS Baltic. ) Jump up ^ Bailey, Penny. `` Syrie and Mounteney Wellcome ''. Wellcome Trust. Retrieved 2013 - 11 - 11. Jump up ^ Hastings 2010, p. 39. Jump up ^ Meyers 2010, p. 86. Jump up ^ Klein 2014, p. 142. Jump up ^ Calder, Robert ( 1992 ). introduction. Of Human Bondage. By Maugham, W. Somerset. Penguin. p. x. ISBN 9780140185225. Francis King argues that Philip 's clubfoot was ' a metaphor for a graver disability than the stammer that most critics have assumed it to have been ' : that is, his homosexuality Jump up ^ Klein, Fritz ( 2014 ). The Bisexual Option. Routledge. p. 142. ISBN 9781317713210. By the time he fell in love with an actress ( identified only by the first name of Nan ) he was financially independent.... He was in love with her for eight years. Jump up ^ Tamagne, Florence ( 2004 ). A History of Homosexuality in Europe. 1. Algora Publishing. p. 229. ISBN 9780875861999. From 1920 on, Maugham was exclusively homosexual Jump up ^ `` I remain an agnostic, and the practical outcome of agnosticism is that you act as though God did not exist, '' Maugham wrote in his memoir The Summing Up ( 1938 ). Jump up ^ `` In The Summing Up ( 1938 ) and A Writer 's Notebook ( 1949 ) Maugham explains his philosophy of life as a resigned atheism and a certain skepticism about the extent of man 's innate goodness and intelligence ; it is this that gives his work its astringent cynicism. '' ' Maugham, W. Somerset ', Encyclopædia Britannica, accessed August 16, 2017. Jump up ^ `` I 'm glad I do n't believe in God. When I look at the misery of the world and its bitterness I think that no belief can be more ignoble. '' - A Writer 's Notebook, 1949 Jump up ^ `` The evidence adduced to prove the truth of one religion is of very much the same sort as that adduced to prove the truth of another. I wonder if that does not make the Christian uneasy to reflect that if he had been in Morocco he would have been a Mahometan, if in Ceylon a Buddhist ; and in that case Christianity would have seemed to him as absurd and obviously untrue as those religions seem to the Christian. '' D. 1965 Jump up ^ `` I do not believe in God. I see no need of such idea. It is incredible to me that there should be an after - life. I find the notion of future punishment outrageous and of future reward extravagant. I am convinced that when I die, I shall cease entirely to live ; I shall return to he earth I came from. '' -- W. Somerset Maugham, A Writer 's Notebook ( 1949 ). ^ Jump up to : Popplewell 1995, p. 230. Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, p. 227. Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, p. 226. Jump up ^ Woods 2007, p. 55. Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, p. 206. Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, pp. 245, 264. Jump up ^ Tad Mosel, Leading Lady : The World and Theatre of Katharine Cornell, Little, Brown & Co., Boston ( 1978 ) Jump up ^ K-State.edu Baker, `` Maugham 's version of An Appointment in Samarra '', Kansas State University Jump up ^ An older version of An Appointment in Samarra is recorded in the Babylonian Talmud, Sukkah 53a. Jump up ^ Kushner, Tony. The Persistence of Prejudice : Antisemitism in British Society during the Second World War. Manchester : Manchester UP, 1989, p. 117 Jump up ^ Morgan, 1980, p. 495. Jump up ^ Wilson, Scott. Resting Places : The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. : 2 ( Kindle Location 30808 ). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition. Jump up ^ `` Camilla 's nephew, the tortured musical genius ''. Evening Standard. 7 April 2007. Retrieved 6 April 2016. Jump up ^ `` In the key of genius ''. Daily Telegraph. 17 September 2006. Retrieved 6 April 2016. Jump up ^ Hoyt, Edwin P. ( 1968 ). Alexander Woollcott : The Man Who Came to Dinner. New York : Abelard - Schuman. p. 258. Jump up ^ Edmund Wilson, quoted in Gore Vidal, 1990, p. 10. Jump up ^ Don Fernando 1935, revised 1950, p. 141 of Mandarin edition of 1990. Jump up ^ Pritchett, V.S. ( 1987 ). `` V ''. In Curtis, Anthony ; Whitehead, John. W. Somerset Maugham. New York, NY : Routledge. p. 339. ISBN 9780415159258. Retrieved 2 October 2014. Jump up ^ Maugham, William Somerset ( 1954 ). Mr. Maugham Himself. Garden City, NY : Doubleday. p. 564. OCLC 365977. Jump up ^ Anne Skillion, ed., The New York Public Library Literature Companion ( NY : Free Press, 2001 ), 159 Jump up ^ David Wilson Taylor. `` Somerset Maugham 'S Ten Best Novels Of The World ''. Home.comcast.net. Retrieved 2014 - 08 - 05. Jump up ^ Mander & Mitchenson, 1980. Jump up ^ National Theatre. Jump up ^ National Theatre. Jump up ^ Ted Morgan. Maugham : A Biography. Simon and Schuster, 1984. ISBN 978 - 0671505813 Jump up ^ Hart - Davis, Rupert ( 1985 ). Hugh Walpole. Hamish Hamilton. pp. 316 -- 317. ISBN 0 - 241 - 11406 - 3. Jump up ^ Morgan, Ted. Somerset Maugham. London : Jonathan Cape. p. 118. ISBN 0224018132. ^ Jump up to : Meyers, Jeffrey ( 2004 ). Somerset Maugham : A Life. New York : Alfred A. Knopf. Jump up ^ Chancellor 2005, p. 148. Jump up ^ Orwell, George ( 1968 ). My Country Right or Left : 1940 -- 43. London : Secker & Warburg. Jump up ^ Sutherland, Graham, Somerset MAUGHAM Archived 14 April 2008 at the Wayback Machine. 1949. Oil on canvas, Tate Gallery. Sources Hastings, Selina, 2009 The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham -- A biography. London, John Murray. ISBN 978 - 0 - 7195 - 6554 - 0 Hastings, Selina, 2009 `` A blackstable boyhood '' Mander, Raymond & Mitchenson, Joe, 1955 The Artist and the Theatre. William Heinemann Ltd Mander, Raymond & Mitchenson, Joe, 1980 Guide to the Maugham Collection of Theatrical Paintings. Heinemann & the National Theatre Maugham, Robin, 1970, Escape from the Shadows. Wiedenfeld and Nicholson Publishers. Maugham, Robin, 1977, Somerset and all the Maughams. Greenwood Press. ISBN 0 - 8371 - 8236 - 0 Maugham, Robin, 1977, Search for Nirvana. W.H. Allen. Maugham, W. Somerset, 1938, The Summing Up. Garden City Publishing Company. Maugham, W. Somerset, 1962, Looking Back. As serialised in Show, June, July & August. Meyers, Jeffrey, 2004, Somerset Maugham : A life. Knopf. ISBN 978 - 0 - 375 - 41475 - 6 Milton, Giles Russian Roulette : How British Spies Thwarted Lenin 's Global Plot, Sceptre, 2013. ISBN 978 - 1 - 4447 - 3702 - 8 Morgan, Ted, 1980, Somerset Maugham Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0 - 224 - 01813 - 2 Morgan, Ted, 1984, Maugham Touchstone Books. ISBN 0 - 671 - 50581 - 5. Nichols, Beverley 1966, A Case of Human Bondage Rogal, Samuel J., 1997, A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia Greenwood Press. ISBN 0 - 313 - 29916 - 1. Vidal, Gore, 1 February 1990, The New York Review of Books. Popplewell, Richard J. ( 1995 ), Intelligence and Imperial Defence : British Intelligence and the Defence of the Indian Empire 1904 -- 1924., Routledge, ISBN 0 - 7146 - 4580 - X. Woods, B.F. ( 2007 ), Neutral Ground : A Political History of Espionage Fiction., Algora Publishing, ISBN 0 - 87586 - 535 - 6. Epstein, Joseph ( 1991 ), Partial Payments, W.W. Norton & Company, ISBN 978 - 0 - 393 - 30716 - 0 Venkataramiah, Munagala, 15 October 1938, Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi. Munagala, Venkataramiah ( 1938 ), Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Ramanashramam, Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu, India, ISBN 81 - 88018 - 07 - 4, archived from the original on 28 August 2013. Further reading Editions Burgess, Anthony ( ed. ) Maugham 's Malaysian Stories ( Hong Kong : Heinemann, 1969 ) ( no ISBN ). Selected and introduced by Anthony Burgess. Includes The Vessel of Wrath, The Force of Circumstance, The Door of Opportunity, The Four Dutchmen, P. & O., and A Casual Affair. Out of print. Maugham, W. Somerset Collected Stories ( London : Everyman 's Library, 2004 ) ISBN 9781857152760. External links Library resources about W. Somerset Maugham Resources in your library Resources in other libraries Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Somerset Maugham. Wikiquote has quotations related to : William Somerset Maugham Wikisource has original works written by or about : William Somerset Maugham Caxton Club Biography The British Empire, Biographies, Authors Works by Somerset Maugham at Project Gutenberg Works by W. Somerset ( William Somerset ) Maugham at Faded Page ( Canada ) Works by or about W. Somerset Maugham at Internet Archive Works by W. Somerset Maugham at LibriVox ( public domain audiobooks ) W. Somerset Maugham on IMDb W. Somerset Maugham at the Internet Broadway Database W. Somerset Maugham at Internet Off - Broadway Database National Theatre, Maugham 's Theatrical Collection National Theatre, Shakespearean Characters Maugham 's The Razor 's Edge William Somerset Maugham 's stories on Malaya, Borneo and Singapore W.S. Maugham : correspondence, contracts & manuscripts in Indiana University W. Somerset Maugham at the Internet Book List `` The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham '' -- A Biography of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings. Works by W. Somerset Maugham Novels Liza of Lambeth ( 1897 ) Mrs Craddock ( 1902 ) The Magician ( 1908 ) Of Human Bondage ( 1915 ) The Moon and Sixpence ( 1919 ) The Painted Veil ( 1925 ) Cakes and Ale ( 1930 ) The Narrow Corner ( 1932 ) Theatre ( 1937 ) The Summing Up ( 1938 ) Up at the Villa ( 1941 ) The Razor 's Edge ( 1944 ) Then and Now ( 1946 ) Catalina ( 1948 ) Short story collections The Casuarina Tree ( 1926 ) Ashenden ( 1928 ) Ah King ( 1933 ) The Mixture as Before ( 1940 ) Creatures of Circumstance ( 1947 ) Plays Lady Frederick ( 1907 ) Penelope ( 1909 ) The Land of Promise ( 1913 ) Our Betters ( 1917 ) The Circle ( 1921 ) The Constant Wife ( 1926 ) The Letter ( 1927 ) The Sacred Flame ( 1928 ) The Bread - Winner ( 1930 ) For Services Rendered ( 1932 ) Sheppey ( 1933 ) Non-fiction On a Chinese Screen ( 1922 ) Ten Novels and Their Authors ( 1954 ) Related Somerset Maugham Award Hindu -- German Conspiracy Background Indian independence movement ( militant ) Shyamji Krishna Varma Bhikaiji Cama India House Anushilan Samiti Jugantar Alipore Bomb Case Delhi Conspiracy More Ghadar Hardayal Sohan Singh Pandurang Khankhoje Hindustan Ghadar Ghadar di gunj Ghadar Party Tarak Nath Guran Ditt Baba Gurdit Singh Komagata Maru Bhagwan Singh Bhai Parmanand Ram Chandra Kartar Singh Ganesh Pingle Kanshi Ram Agnes Smedley More Berlin Committee Chatto Champak A.R. Pillai M.P.T. Acharya Barkatullah Bhupendranath Datta Abhinash Bhattacharya Mahendra Pratap Herambalal Gupta More Indian figures Bagha Jatin Rash Behari Sachin Sanyal Bhavabhushan Mitra M.N. Roy Pritam Singh Amarendranath Chatterjee Atulkrishna Ghosh Deobandi Mahmud al - Hasan Ubaidullah Sindhi Sufi Amba Prasad More German figures Theobald von Bethmann - Hollweg Zimmermann Intelligence Bureau for the East Max von Oppenheim Papen von Bernstorff George Rodiek Hentig Niedermayer More Conspiracy Annie Larsen SS Maverick February plot Singapore mutiny Lahore Conspiracy Case trial Christmas Day Plot Silk Letter Conspiracy Kabul Mission Provisional Government of India Hindu -- German Conspiracy Trial More Counter-intelligence W.C. Hopkinson John Wallinger Indian Political Intelligence Basil Thomson MI5 ( g ) Vernon Kell Robert Nathan Kirpal Singh Oren Vincent Kraft William Wiseman Charles Tegart Guy Gaunt W. Somerset Maugham East Persia Cordon Related topics Lawrence of Arabia Defence of India Act 1915 Ingress into India Ordinance Sidney Rowlatt Rowlatt Committee Jallianwala Bagh massacre Pan-Asianism Tōyama Mitsuru W. Somerset Maugham 's The Painted Veil Films The Painted Veil ( 1934 ) The Seventh Sin The Painted Veil ( 2006 ) Soundtrack VIAF : 66470937 LCCN : n79036830 ISNI : 0000 0001 2137 1781 GND : 104298324 SELIBR : 195403 SUDOC : 02701830X BNF : cb11915212t ( data ) MusicBrainz : e16861d2 - 523d - 401d - 9819 - a2237932a065 NLA : 35335578 NDL : 00449188 NKC : jn19990005484 ICCU : IT ICCU CFIV 009392 BNE : XX955693 RKD : 351427 SNAC : w65m63m5 Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=W._Somerset_Maugham&oldid=834259827 '' Categories : W. Somerset Maugham 1874 births 1965 deaths 19th - century British novelists 19th - century British short story writers 20th - century English novelists 20th - century British dramatists and playwrights Alumni of King 's College London Bisexual men Bisexual writers British expatriates in France British expatriates in the United States British male dramatists and playwrights British medical writers English agnostics English atheists English dramatists and playwrights English male novelists English male short story writers English short story writers Heidelberg University alumni Hindu -- German Conspiracy LGBT dramatists and playwrights LGBT novelists LGBT writers from England Maugham family Members of the Order of the Companions of Honour People educated at The King 's School, Canterbury People from Paris People with speech impediment Secret Intelligence Service personnel Victorian novelists World War I spies for the United Kingdom Hidden categories : All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from December 2017 Articles with permanently dead external links Webarchive template wayback links Use British English from December 2015 All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from August 2017 All articles with specifically marked weasel - worded phrases Articles with specifically marked weasel - worded phrases from August 2017 Articles with unsourced statements from November 2012 Articles with unsourced statements from October 2014 Articles with specifically marked weasel - worded phrases from January 2011 Articles needing additional references from January 2011 All articles needing additional references Articles with unsourced statements from August 2014 Articles with Project Gutenberg links Articles with Internet Archive links Articles with LibriVox links Articles with IBDb links Use dmy dates from August 2010 AC with 15 elements Wikipedia articles with VIAF identifiers Wikipedia articles with LCCN identifiers Wikipedia articles with ISNI identifiers Wikipedia articles with GND identifiers Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers Wikipedia articles with BNF identifiers Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers Wikipedia articles with NLA identifiers Wikipedia articles with SBN identifiers Wikipedia articles with RKDartists identifiers Wikipedia articles with SNAC - ID identifiers Talk More Contents About Wikipedia Wikiquote Wikisource Afrikaans Aragonés Azərbaycanca تۆرکجه বাংলা Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български Bosanski Català Чӑвашла Čeština Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Gàidhlig Galego 한국어 Հայերեն Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ქართული Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Magyar Македонски മലയാളം मराठी Bahasa Melayu Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Polski Português Română Русский Scots Simple English Slovenčina کوردی Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Татарча / tatarça తెలుగు Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 53 more Edit links This page was last edited on 4 April 2018, at 19 : 24. 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Question: name the british novelist born in paris and trained as a doctor
Answer: William Somerset Maugham