Friday, August 11, 2006

The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham (Vol. III)

The Complete Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham (Vol. III)

Maugham was a witty fellow. This collection of short stories features the British agent Ashenden - who it is said inspired Ian Fleming’s Bond, particularly with regards to Bond’s interactions with M.

In any case, they revolve around the First World War - and are loosely based on the author’s experience of being an agent for the Intelligence Dept. during this time. As he puts it - ” The work of an agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole monotonous. A lot of it is uncommonly useless. The material it offers for stories is scrappy and pointless, the author has himself to make it coherent, dramatic and probable’

Apparently some of his stories were juicier and closer to the truth but were axed by Winston Churchill because they violated the Official Secrets Act..

Very readable, witty, highly recommended.

Another work - Ashenden: Or the British Agent which Somerset Maugham published in 1928 and is a complete collection of all the Ashenden short stories.











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William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874, his father the solicitor at the British Consulate. He studied literature and philosophy at Heidelberg University, and then medicine at St. Thomas’ in London. It was during this time as a medical student he built on his experiences and published Liza of Lambeth in 1897.

After the 1930s Maugham’s reputation abroad was greater than in England.





x-posted at shorno.net

3 comments:

rama said...

Hullo! Thanks for this SM post, I grew up reading his books!

Glad to visit and read through your blog again!

I'd like to invite you to visit my new on-line poetry collection, at:

inheritance-poesy.blogpsot.com

Thanks and best wishes

rama

Sonia said...

thanks! will have a look..

Jason said...

Maugham's Of Human Bondage is unintentionally hilarious (I hope it's unintentional), the club foot, the horrible vicar stepfather, the simply appalling Mildred. And much too long, too. I am surprised Maugham has a reputation left, but for about, oh, 50 years, it seems no short story anthology of English writers was complete without one of his efforts, so maybe that helped.

Two weeks ago, here in Guatemala, I met a girl who is "learning to write" and is reading some educational tract by Maugham as a starting point. Now that really made me laugh! Poor Maugham is the literary equivalent of a giant bowl of porridge oats, very filling, but lacking in variety.

If I read something from the 30s, I read Denton Welch instead, something elegant, and with an eye for detail. But poor Denton seems to have been forgotten.