num_pages: 308
description: Cakes and Ale is a delicious satire of London literary society between the Wars. Social climber Alroy Kear is flattered when he is selected by Edward Driffield's wife to pen the official biography of her lionized novelist husband, and determined to write a bestseller. But then Kear discovers the great novelist's voluptuous muse (and unlikely first wife), Rosie. The lively, loving heroine once gave Driffield enough material to last a lifetime, but now her memory casts an embarrissing shadow over his career and respectable image. Wise, witty, deeply satisfying, Cakes and Ale is Maugham at his best.
language: English
title: Cakes and Ale
titlecomplete: Cakes and Ale
characters: Alroy Kear, William Ashenden, Edward Driffield, Rosie Driffield
genres: Classics, British Literature, English Literature, Humor, Novels, Historical Fiction, Literature, 20th Century, Literary Fiction, Fiction
ratings_count: 7092
places: Blackstable, Kent, England
publisher: Vintage