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Showing posts from April, 2015

Contemporary Literary Criticism Vols. 1, 11, 15 - Maugham Entries

Gunton, Sharon, et. al., eds. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research Co., 1973–1980
It is with a heavy heart that I write this post. I came across this mighty reference series by chance and upon reading the Maugham entries, I am very surprised at the errors and the editors' choice of extracts to be included, presumably to give the readers a general impression of individual authors.

The main problem that such errors cause is naturally their perpetuation, since they s…

Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham - Sun Dial Edition

Cakes and Ale: Or The Skeleton in the Cupboard - Inverted Symbol
This post is about a specific edition of Cakes and Ale that I recently found, and I will not talk about the novel itself, which can be found in another post about some Historical and Cultural References in it.


This is my third copy of Cakes and Ale; for those who have some knowledge about Maugham's first editions must have heard of the famous anomaly of The Hero (1901), published by Hutchinson & Co., on the cover of which…

Analysis: "As Mean As Cat's Meat" and W. Somerset Maugham in OED

After talking about the "blue bag" in my last post on W. Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale, I think I better discuss another curious phrase before I forget about it.

As Mean As Cat's Meat - "The Voice of the Turtle"
In the short story "The Voice of the Turtle," first published in 1935 and later incorporated in The Mixture As Before, Maugham tells the story about a young rising writer, Peter Melrose, who goes to stay with the narrator for a few days in the…

Analysis: Historical and Cultural References in Cakes and Ale - W. Somerset Maugham

Cakes and Ale (London: Heinemann, 1930)
Part of this post was written on 24 October 2013; that must be the last time I finished reading Cakes and Ale. Yes, I do feel pathetic. Somehow I left whatever that I thought about it in mid-air. Recently I reread the book and I am again driven by this uncontrollable urge to talk about it; I hope this time I will make it.

On second thought, after rereading what I wrote in 2013, I will just write the whole thing all over again.

Then, here I face a most s…