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Showing posts from March, 2014

Home and Beauty by W. Somerset Maugham - First Edition

Home and Beauty. A Farce in Three Acts (London: Heinemann, 1923)
Home and Beauty by W. Somerset Maugham is a hilarious play, written when Maugham was staying at the sanatorium at Nordrach-on-Dee to recover from tuberculosis of the lungs, produced on August 30, 1919, and published in book form in 1923.

The story itself is an old tale. Maugham is able to draw out all the comedy from the ridiculous situation. It must be fun to see it on stage.

Home and Beauty - Storyline
From the very beginning Ma…

A Maugham Medallion

I found this by chance one day while browsing the internet. I had not read anything about it before and I have not been able to find any mention of the medallion. It is described in Norman Moore's catalogue:
Medallion
Brass medallion with image of Maugham based on the famous Karsh portrait. W. Somerset Maugham lettered around the circumference.
Yousuf Karsh's portrait of Maugham:


The portrait is used as the cover of the April issue of Wisdom in 1957, so it must have been done before …

France At War (1940) by W. Somerset Maugham -- First Edition

France At War (London: Heinemann, 1940)
France At War is one of the books of propaganda that W. Somerset Maugham wrote during WWII, as a show of patriotism towards his country using the skills he had to make whatever contributions he could.

Besides talking about what this book is about and the first edition, I will also discuss some of the background, without which the reader would have lost a lot of savour of the book.

France At War
The book consists of articles that were originally publishe…

Loaves and Fishes (1924) by W. Somerset Maugham -- First Edition

Loaves and Fishes. A Comedy in Four Acts (London: Heinemann, 1924)
Loaves and Fishes is a play by W. Somerset Maugham, written as early as 1903 but wasn’t produced until 1911. As a matter of fact, it was turned into a play from a novel of the same name written in 1902, and then a few years later, in 1906, it was again rewritten as a novel and became The Bishop’s Apron.

The story of Canon Spratte is a demonstration of Maugham’s resilience and determination to become a professional writer, workin…

Analysis: Some References in The Bishop's Apron by W. Somerset Maugham

In the last post, I have looked at the story and the first colonial edition of The Bishop's Apron by W. Somerset Maugham. Even though it was written over a century ago, many pages still make me chuckle. Maugham's acrid humour and subtle characterization of the formidable Theodore Spratte and his family are highly entertaining.

In this post, I will examine two interesting references in the novel about the drinking-cup and a quote attributed to the Swan of Avon.

Poculum, poculum elevatu…

The Bishop's Apron by W. Somerset Maugham - First Colonial Edition

The Bishop’s Apron. A Study in the Origins of a Great Family (London and Bombay: George Bell & Sons, 1906)
The Bishop’s Apron is one of W. Somerset Maugham’s early novels. It has a curious history of being transferred from one genre to another. The skeleton of the story is already present in the story “Cupid and the Vicar of Swale” (1900), then it was written in 1902 as a novel called Loaves and Fishes; when it failed to find a publisher, Maugham rewrote it into a play of the same name in 19…

W. Somerset Maugham, Eighteenth-Century Writer?

This will be my last post about misinformation. I may consider putting them all on one page. It would be interesting to see who long it will get.

W. Somerset Maugham, one of the great British writers of the late 18th century, wrote a fictionalized memoir called “The Razor’s Edge,” which in a somewhat roundabout way documents the life of Larry, a wealthy boy in search of meaning. At one point, Maugham the character is speaking with Larry’s soon-to-be jilted widow, and she is trying to recall a …

Maugham Sounds Like Kerouac?

I know, I know, it seems that I am changing the direction of the blog. Instead of talking about first editions and books I am chattering about this and that; but since Maugham can't answer, perhaps we who think he deserves better should. After all, it's not an opinion, but chronological error. It is thus I console myself that I am not really a busybody....

The English professor Gary Carlson said in the news:
"I thought, gosh, this sounds like Kerouac," Carlson said of the nov…

Maugham Celebrated

We live to see the day when the prophet is welcome in his homeland, well, sort of.


I don't think Maugham hated Whitstable; Cakes and Ale was written with relish and nostalgia. My imagination fails me as to what the festival will turn out to be like. Can't help thinking of the scene of Jamie being welcomed home in The Hero, with a touch of our liquid modern media frills.... Anyone thinks of going?

To console those unfortunate souls (like me) who can't or won't go to this celeb…