Showing results by author "W. Somerset Maugham" in All Categories

In The Moon and Sixpence, Charles Strickland is a respectable London stockbroker who decides in middle age to abandon his wife and children and devote himself to his true passion: art. Strickland's destructive desire for self-expression takes him first to Paris to learn the craft of painting, and finally to Tahiti in the South Pacific. The Moon and Sixpence remains a complex and engaging novel echoing Maugham's own struggles between artistic expression and public respectability.

Set in the bohemian café society of Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century, Maugham's exploration of hypnotism and the occult was inspired by the sinister black magician Aleister Crowley. At the start of this compulsive gothic horror story, Arthur and his beautiful, innocent fiancée Margaret look forward to an idyllic life together, until they encounter the mesmerising and repulsive Oliver Haddo...

Julia Lambert is in her prime, the greatest actress in England. Off stage, however, she is bored by her handsome husband, coquettish, and undisciplined. She is at first flattered and amused by the attentions of a shy and eager young fan, but before long Julia is amazed to find herself falling wildly, dangerously, in love.

Somerset Maugham's success as a writer enabled him to indulge his adventurous love of travel, and he recorded the sights and sounds of his wide-ranging journeys with a unique urbane, wry style. The Gentleman in the Parlour is an account of the author's trip through what was then Burma and Siam, ending in Haiphong, Vietnam. Whether by river to Mandalay, on horse through the mountains and forests of the Shan States to Bangkok, or onwards by sea, Maugham's vivid descriptions bring a lost world to life.

There’s something Constance Middleton’s friends are dying to tell her: her husband is having an affair – with her best friend! Despite their hints, Constance remains ever cool, and seemingly oblivious. Or is she? In this biting comedy of manners, marriages and mistresses, Constance – a not-so-desperate housewife - has some ideas of her own about extra-marital activity that surprise everyone in the end!

Bertha Ley comes of age, inherits her father's money, and promptly marries a handsome, calm, and unimaginative man. Bertha is wildly in love with Edward and believes she can be happy playing the role of a dutiful wife in their country home. But, intelligent and sensual, she quickly becomes bored by her oppressively conventional life, and finds her love for her husband slipping away. Originally rejected by publishers, Mrs. Craddock was first published only on condition that certain "shocking" passages were removed. It was 30 years before the full text could be published.

The Painted Veil is the story of Kitty Garstin, a young socialite who amuses herself with the pursuit of various men until settling into a marriage with a physician, who takes her to Hong Kong to begin his work. Shortly after they move, Kitty meets the charming, yet distasteful, Charlie Townsend, and begins a passionate affair that lasts several years without notice from her husband.

"Canon Spratte saw himself as he thought others might see him: mediocre, pompous, self-assertive, verbose." Maugham could have added ambitious, hypocritical, and vain. In this engrossing social satire, Theodore Spratte, a cleric, motivated by an obsessive desire to be elevated to bishop, embellishes his family history and intrudes upon his son's and daughter's courtships. A reviewer in 1906 wrote, "The whole book is an admirable blend of cynical gaiety and broadly farcical comedy; it is the smartest and most genuinely humorous novel that the season has yet given us."

Charles Strickland, a conventional stockbroker, abandons his wife and children for Paris and Tahiti, to live his life as a painter. While his betrayal of family, duty and honour gives him the freedom to achieve greatness, his decision leads to an obsession which carries severe implications.

At the age of twenty-three, Charlie Mason is endowed with good looks, good manners and a cheerful disposition. Following three years at Cambridge and one working in his father's business, he is looking forward to a jaunt in Paris with Simon, his oldest friend.

The Painted Veil is the story of Kitty Garstin, a young woman living a high social life, who marries Walter Fane, a man that’s declared his love for Kitty, just to avoid being upstaged by her younger and less attractive sister getting married first. Shortly after the marriage, they depart England and head to China where Walter, a bacteriologist and physician, is stationed.

Of Human Bondage, published in 1915, is considered to be W. Somerset Maugham’s best work. Many believe the novel to be one of the world’s literary masterpieces. The story follows Phillip Carey from early childhood through his 30’s. Orphaned at 9, Phillip spends his early years raised by his childless aunt and uncle. His aunt tries to be a mother to Philip, but she is unsure how to behave whereas his uncle, a vicar, takes a cold disposition towards him. Philip is sent to a boarding school but his shyness and his club foot make it difficult for him to fit in. The novel follows this theme ...

Maugham found a parallel to the turmoil of our own times in the duplicity, intrigue, and sensuality of the Italian Renaissance. Then and Now enters the world of Machiavelli, and covers three important months in the career of that crafty politician, worldly seducer, and high priest of schemers.

A parallel story to the life of Paul Gauguin leaving everything for Tahiti and his separation from the rest of the world, with remarkable portraits of those along the way, narrated in an American voice.

"Tired of the everyday grind? Ever dream of a life of… romantic adventure? Want to get away from it all? We offer you… Escape!" Radio Spirits is pleased to present 20 classic tales from one of radio's greatest action and adventure series. This collection will bring you tales of black pearls, headhunters, volcanoes, Nazi convoys and cargos of gold in exotic settings and locales - from South of the Border to Dutch East India, Paris, North Africa and points unknown!

Looking out upon the backstreets, the suburbs and the high society haunts of Edwardian London, the delightfully witty and independent spinster Miss Ley surveys a tangled web of lives; she sympathetically observes the struggle under the pressures of convention, and the complex interplay between love and reason. Through Miss Ley's eyes we witness the brief but happy marriage of a dying poet; a woman's adulterous passion for a young rascal; and finally, an honourable man's decision to take virtue to extremes.

A breathtaking story of a woman marrying, growing up, bravely persevering, and seeing what traditionally was a man's point of view with the insights of a woman growing up in the same way. An insightful novel in so many ways.

En esta novela que es considerada, creo que con razón, como una de las más importantes del siglo XX, el autor nos cuenta como una experiencia vivida, la historia de Larry Darrel. Joven americano nacido en una familia bien situada en Chicago. Cuando Larry vuelve de la guerra, no encuentra sentido a la vida que le espera, y que todo el mundo cree que aceptará encantado: casarse con Isabel, una joven de familia bien de Chicago para anquilosarse en un trabajo que no le interesa, pero que sin duda perpetuaría esa clase de vida de la alta sociedad....

In this tragic-comedic play, history repeats itself in marital break-ups and proposals as exes, in-laws, and offspring spend a few days at a country manor.

Da den udstationerede engelske læge dr. Walter Fane opdager at hans hustru er ham utro udtænker han i sin forbitrelse en ganke særlig straf. Hustruen Kitty tvinges til at ledsage ham i hans arbejde i en landsby i det indre af Kina, hvor koleraen hærger.