Maugham writer biography. Somerset Maugham: biography, personal life, works, photos

Somerset Maugham is a famous English prose writer of the 30s, as well as an agent of British intelligence. Born and died in France. He lived a bright long life and died at 91. Years of life - 1874-1965. Somerset Maugham's father was a lawyer at the British Embassy in France, thanks to which the writer automatically received French citizenship at birth in Paris.

At the age of 8, Somerset lost his mother, and at 10 he lost his father, after which he was sent to be raised by relatives in the city of Whitstable. Since Somerset Maugham's grandfather, as well as his father, was engaged in law, and was the most famous lawyer at that time, his parents predicted a career in the same field for the writer. But their expectations were not justified.

Somerset, after graduating from school in Canterbury, entered the University of Heidelberg, where he comprehended such sciences as philosophy and literature. After the writer studied at the medical school at St. Thomas' Hospital in London. Somerset wrote his first manuscript while still studying at the University of Heidelberg. It was a biography of the composer Meyerbeer, but since it was not printed, it was burned by the author.

Being a homosexual, in May 1917 Maugham married the decorator Siri Wellcome, with whom they had a daughter, Mary Elizabeth Maugham. The marriage was not successful, in 1929 the couple divorced. In old age, Somerset admitted: "My most big mistake was that I imagined myself to be three-quarters normal and only one-quarter homosexual, when in reality it was the other way around.”

In 1987, Somerset Maugham wrote his first novel, Lisa of Lambeth. but success came to him only in 1907 after the publication of the play "Lady Frederick". As an intelligence officer, Somerset Maugham was an agent of British intelligence and conducted espionage in Russia. But he did not complete his mission. The writer tells about this life experience in his work "Ashenden" ("British Agent", written in 1928. Somerset Maugham visited Malaysia, China, USA. New countries inspired him to create different creative works. As a playwright, Somerset Maugham wrote many plays.

One of his best works is the play "Circle" written in 1921; "Shepi" - 1933; the novel "Pies and Beer" - 1930; "Theater" - 1937 and many other works. This text outlined Somerset Maugham's biography. Certainly not all were fully covered life situations this brightest figure, but the main stages are reflected, which makes it possible to compose certain picture about this person.

In 1947, the writer approved the Somerset Maugham Prize, which was awarded to the best English writers under the age of thirty-five.

Maugham gave up traveling when he felt that they could give him nothing more. “There was nowhere else for me to change. The arrogance of culture flew off me. I accepted the world as it is. I have learned tolerance. I wanted freedom for myself and was ready to give it to others. After 1948, Maugham left the dramaturgy and fiction, wrote essays, mostly on literary topics.

Maugham's last lifetime publication, the autobiographical notes A Look into the Past, was published in the fall of 1962 on the pages of the London Sunday Express.

Somerset Maugham died on December 15, 1965 at the age of 92 in the French town of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, near Nice, from pneumonia. According to French law, patients who died in the hospital were supposed to undergo an autopsy, but the writer was taken home, and on December 16 it was officially announced that he had died at home, in his villa, which became his last refuge. The writer does not have a grave as such, since his ashes were scattered under the wall of the Maugham Library, at the Royal School in Canterbury.

Curious facts:
- Maugham always put a desk against a blank wall, so that nothing distracts from work. He worked three or four hours in the morning, fulfilling the self-imposed norm of 1000-1500 words.
- Dying, he said: “Dying is a boring and bleak business. My advice to you is never do this.”
- Before writing new novel, I always re-read Candide, so that later I unconsciously follow this standard of clarity, grace and wit.
- Maugham about the book “The Burden of Human Passions”: “My book is not an autobiography, but an autobiographical novel, where facts are strongly mixed with fiction; the feelings described in it, I experienced myself, but not all episodes happened as they are told, and they are partly taken not from my life, but from the life of people I know well.
- "I would not go to see my plays at all, neither on the evening of the premiere, nor on any other evening, if I did not consider it necessary to check their effect on the public in order to learn from this how to write them."

William Somerset Maugham

Date and place of birth - January 25, 1874, Embassy of the United Kingdom, Paris, French Third Republic.

British writer, one of the most successful prose writers of the 1930s, author of 78 books, British intelligence agent.

William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 in Paris, where his father was a lawyer at the British Embassy. Having lost eight years of his mother and ten years of his father, Maugham was brought up in London by his uncle, in whose house an atmosphere of puritanical severity reigned. Then he studied at a boarding school in Canterbury and at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

In order to acquire a profession, he entered the medical institute at St. Thomas in London. Here he acquired knowledge in medicine and a certain life experience. He faced not only the physical suffering of a person, but also the poverty of the inhabitants of the slums of London's East End, with social inequality.

Medical practice, which brought him closer to ordinary people, gave him material for entry into literature. The success of the first novels "Lisa of Lambeth" and "Mrs. Cradock", although it was very modest, forced Maugham to part with medicine and devote himself entirely to writing. True, the first novels did not bring him much income. Later becoming one of the wealthiest writers in the world, Maugham recalled with a chuckle that for the first ten years he earned with his pen an average of about a hundred pounds a year, which was not much higher than the earnings of low-paid day laborers.

Pushed by material motives, Maugham is fond of dramaturgy. During the first two decades present century he writes play after play. Some of them, in particular "A Man of Honor", "Lady Frederick", "Smith", "Promised Land", "Circle", were successful, and there were such years when more Maugham's plays than Bernard Shaw were on the stages of England at the same time. .

However, the work on the plays did not bring complete satisfaction to the author himself. He wrote for the theater most of all caring about the scenic entertainment of his works. This determined his success with the viewer, but also limited creative possibilities, forcing to put the rich life material in the Procrustean bed of a certain plot, no matter how skillfully and fascinatingly it was built. At the zenith of his dramaturgical fame, Maugham decided to write a novel so that, as he later admitted, "to free himself from a huge number of painful memories that did not cease to haunt me." After the publication of this novel - "The Burden of Human Passions", - which brought the author wide fame, he increasingly takes up the pen of a narrator, and not a playwright.

In the twenties of our century, Maugham also asserts himself as a master of storytelling. His short stories, diverse in form, reveal to the reader inner world person. Maugham tries to show the soul of a person, sometimes snatching him out of the social environment.

B the burden of human passions

But still among a large number novels, plays, short stories and essays by Maugham, the novel “The Burden of Human Passions” is most famous both in England and abroad. By the way, we note that for the title of the novel, the heading of one of the sections of Spinoza's "Ethics" is taken, which in literal translation reads: "On human slavery." However, in order for the title of the novel itself to convey the meaning that this chapter of Spinoza's treatise has, Maugham agreed that this work should be called in the Russian edition “The Burden of Human Passions”.

The writer himself, answering the question why he does not consider “The Burden of Human Passions” his best novel, indicated that this is just an “autobiographical book”, which reflects his own painful experiences. IN author's preface to one of the American editions of the novel, Maugham calls it “semi-autobiographical” and remarks: “I say semi-autobiographical because such a work is still fiction, and the author has the right to change the facts with which he deals as he sees fit.”

And indeed, many of the facts of his life, which the author tells about in the novel, are changed - some are weakened, others are strengthened, others are given a different interpretation or expression. For example, the lameness that brings so much inconvenience and moral torment to the hero of the novel, Philip Carey, did not torment Maugham himself, but the writer suffered from another physical defect, stuttering, which caused him almost the same trouble and moral pain. The experiences of young Philip, judging by the confessions of the author himself, largely coincide with those of Maugham. Like his hero, he lost his parents early, was brought up in a family of relatives, went through all the stages of youthful searches.

But it would be wrong to assume that in the novel “The Burden of Human Passions” the author simply told the story of one hero, close to his own. own biography. The reader is presented with a motley gallery of various types, having their own biographies, characters, written out by the author with amazing thoroughness.

Maugham painted the life of some sections of England at that time with such brilliance that in many respects The Burden of Human Passions can be put on a par with the significant works of the largest English writers-realists.

The idealistic conception of people underlies the main storyline novel - Philip's love for a woman who, according to all existing norms of the relationship between a man and a woman, could not be loved by him. Maugham wanted to prove that a person can love not only contrary to reason, but also contrary to his very nature. This is love for a limited, stupid, vicious, unscrupulous woman on the part of a man who is disgusted by everything ugly, who has refined tastes sometimes seems simply unthinkable.

F acts from life

Somerset Maugham was born and died in France, but the writer was a subject of the British crown - the parents predicted the birth so that the child was born in the embassy.

“I would not go to see my plays at all, neither on the evening of the premiere, nor on any other evening, if I did not consider it necessary to check their effect on the public in order to learn from this how to write them.”

From the age of 10, Maugham began to stutter, from which he was never able to get rid of.

Although Somerset Maugham was for a long time married to Siri Wellcome, with whom he had a daughter, Mary Elizabeth, the writer was bisexual. At one time he was in love with actress Sue Jones, whom he was ready to marry again. But Maugham had the longest relationship with the American Gerald Haxton, an avid gambler and drunkard, who was his secretary.

During the First World War, he collaborated with MI5. After the war, he worked in Russia on a secret mission, was in Petrograd in August-October 1917, where he was supposed to help the Provisional Government stay in power, fled after the October Revolution.

Until the age of ten, William spoke only French. English language the writer began to teach after moving to England after the death of his parents.

Celebrities often visited his house on Cape Ferrat - Winston Churchill, HG Wells, Jean Cocteau, Noel Coward, and even several Soviet writers.

The work of the intelligence officer was reflected in the collection of 14 short stories "Ashenden, or the British Agent" -1928.

In 1928, Maugham bought a villa on the French Riviera. For forty years, about 30 servants helped the writer. However, the fashionable atmosphere did not discourage him - every day he worked in his office, where he wrote at least 1,500 words.

“Before writing a new novel, I always re-read Candide, so that later I unconsciously follow this standard of clarity, grace and wit.”

Maugham's last lifetime publication, the autobiographical notes A Look into the Past, was published in the fall of 1962 on the pages of the London Sunday Express.

Dying, he said: “Dying is a boring and bleak business. My advice to you is never do this.”

In 1947, the Somerset Maugham Prize was established, which was awarded to English writers under the age of 35.

Maugham always placed his desk against a blank wall so that nothing would distract him from his work. He worked three or four hours in the morning, fulfilling the self-imposed norm of 1000-1500 words.

Somerset Maugham does not have a grave - his ashes are scattered at the walls of the Maugham Library in Canterbury

Maugham wrote his first novel, Lisa of Lambeth, in 1897, but success came to the writer only in 1907, along with the play Lady Frederick. But his very first literary experience - the biography of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer - he burned because the publisher rejected it.

Quotes and aphorisms

The funny thing about life is that if you refuse to accept anything but the very best, that's often what you get.

People may forgive you for the good you have done for them, but they rarely forget the wrong they have done to you.

More than anything, people love to stick a label on another person that once and for all frees them from the need to think.

A well-dressed person is one whose clothes are ignored.

Dreams are not a departure from reality, but a means to get closer to it.

People are evil to the extent that they are unhappy.

There is no worse torture in the world than to love and despise at the same time.

Love is what happens to men and women who don't know each other.

Writing simply and clearly is just as difficult as being sincere and kind.

There is only one success - spend your life the way you want.

A woman will always sacrifice herself if given the right opportunity. This is her favorite way to please herself.

... for a person who is accustomed to reading, it becomes a drug, and he himself becomes his slave. Try to take the books away from him and he will become gloomy, twitchy and restless, and then, like an alcoholic who, if left without alcohol, attacks the shelves.

Alas, in our imperfect world, it is much easier to get rid of good habits than bad ones.

Kindness is the only value in this illusory world that can be an end in itself.

Life is ten percent what you do in it, and ninety percent how you take it.

Knowing the past is unpleasant enough; to know even the future would be simply unbearable.

Tolerance is another name for indifference.

Each generation laughs at their fathers, laughs, laughs at their grandfathers and admires their great-grandfathers.

Man is not what he wants to be, but what he cannot but be.

The most valuable thing that life has taught me is not to regret anything.

We are no longer the same people we were last year, not the same people we love. But it is wonderful if we, while changing, continue to love those who have also changed.

And women can keep secrets. But they cannot keep silent about the fact that they have kept silent about the secret.

Somerset Maugham - biography, facts, quotes - The burden of human passions updated: October 20, 2017 by: website

Among the twenty novels published Somerset Maugham between 1897 and 1948, both readers and critics - in this sense there is no disagreement - four are recognized as the best: The burden of human passions (1915), moon and penny (1919), Pies and beer (1930) and razor edge (1944). It is a very good idea to compare the novels Pies and beer And razor edge , separated by a decade and a half, completely dissimilar in everyday, social and psychological situations, but still related to each other precisely in that both of them reveal to the reader a slightly different Maugham, enrich our understanding of him. If such a paradoxical image as Maugham the lyricist, Maugham, who looks with tenderness and confidence at the human being that arises under his pen, is possible, then in both books, in each of them in its own way, this image is present. Of course, in each of them there is Maugham the satirist, the skeptic, making his calmly caustic commentary from the fair of worldly vanity - be it a London literary salon of the beginning of the century, or a Chicago aristocratic living room, or haunts of Paris. But an unusually soft, unusually excited intonation constantly breaks through to the surface, as if bifurcating our perception.

Another one common feature of these novels: each of them was associated with certain circumstances of the author's biography. And, finally, both of them had a special reader resonance, although for completely different reasons. Title Pies and Beer, or the Skeleton in the Closet immediately introduces us to the writer's intention: it has both humor and parody. The first half of it is borrowed from Shakespeare's twelfth night (Sir Toby's words to Malvolio: Do you think that if you are such a saint, then there will be no more pies or drunken beer in the world?). The second is a common English idiom meaning a scandalous family secret. The idea, as was often the case with Maugham, was originally intended for a story. An early diary entry contains a plot outline: ... I am asked to write memoirs about a famous novelist, a friend of my childhood, who lives in U. with his wife, an ordinary woman who is by no means faithful to him. There he writes his great works. He later marries his secretary, who babysits him and gradually makes him outstanding personality . In the 1880s, an obscure writer lived in Whitestable with his family, a good-natured and sociable man who led a rather bohemian lifestyle and one day disappeared from the city with all his household, leaving a lot of debts. The story was never written, and the figure of an obscure writer served his purpose in Pies and beer - with her was partly decommissioned Edward Driffield at the time of his obscurity.

Maugham rarely depicted the literary milieu in his prose, Pies and beer - and in this sense an unusual book: in addition to the fact that a good part of the story is devoted to scenes from the life of literary London late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, his three main characters are writers. These are: Edward Driffield, Elroy Kier and the narrator himself Willie Ashenden - another literary mask of Somerset Maugham. Here he appears at his own age, in the guise of a rather dry, sarcastic, shrewd gentleman, an author with a strong, though not sensational, reputation. In Elroy Cyrus, a fashionable and punchy novelist, a snob, a good-natured self-lover and a careerist (all these qualities successfully replace his talent), Hugh Walpole, a very popular novelist in his time, recognized himself with horror. Obviously, the portrait was deadly similar - many recognized the original. (Maugham denied that it was Walpole who served as the prototype this character, but later admitted this in private conversations.) But if Elroy Cyrus was met in literary circles with cheerful good nature, Edward Driffield proved to be a source of great trouble for Somerset Maugham. In 1928 - two years before the release of the novel - Thomas Hardy died, by that time he had been quite long and thorny for this title. In Driffield, both criticism and readership learned Thomas Hardy, which caused a general and noisy indignation. The shocking analogies were largely justified: Driffield's appearance - both in his mature years and in extreme old age, the position of a patriarchal writer, which came only in his declining years, two marriages, and finally, the harsh realism of his later rural novels, once condemned as excessive, - all this was really associated with the author Tess And Jude the Obscure . On the other hand, between in a literary way and the real face were fundamental differences: Driffield's plebeian background, his past as a sailor, his penchant for simple entertainment, lack of scrupulousness in money matters, and both of his wives - all this had nothing to do with the life and character of Hardy. This time, Maugham's categorical statements that Edward Driffield is a collective and fictitious person and in his plan there is no encroachment on honor there was no English classic, they corresponded to the truth. Nevertheless, the success of the novel was accompanied by a scandalous aftertaste, which hurt him a lot. The second part of the title of the book is connected with the Driffield-Ashenden line: ...or Skeleton in the Closet . It seems that it can be more inconsistent in the application of the word skeleton to the heroine of the book - charming, full of health and love of life Rosie? However, it is she, the former barmaid from the sailor's tavern, and then the legal wife of Driffield, who later ran away from him, and it turns out that skeleton in the closet, with whom both the biographer and the second wife of the famous old man do not know what to do. Indeed, the time of Driffield's creative flowering is connected with this "vulgar wench" - after she left her husband for the sake of a Blackstable coal merchant, Driffield did not write anything significant anymore - he only turned into a "living monument" under the auspices of literary ladies like Mrs. Barton Trafford and well-meaning critics like Elroy Cyrus.

Rosie Driffield is also directly related to Ashenden, as it turns out in the course of his memoirs, but her relationship to Maugham himself remained hidden for decades. And the real name of the woman who was her prototype became known only after the death of the writer. In the preface to the reprint Pies and beer (1950) Maugham made a confession that was unexpected for everyone - he encrypted the real face depicted under the name of Rosie so carefully at one time:

In my youth, I was intimate with the young woman whom I have given the name Rosie in this book. She had serious flaws that could infuriate, but she was beautiful and honest. Our connection eventually fell apart, like all connections of this kind, but the memory of this woman lived in me year after year. I knew that sooner or later I would introduce her into the novel.. The real name of the heroine was discovered in the late 60s by the artist Gerald Kelly, who had known her since the early 1900s. It was Ethelwynn Jones, daughter of the famous playwright Henry Arthur Jones, an actress - she also played in Maugham's plays. She was distinguished by an artless, open and benevolent disposition, was very pretty, and in her youth led a very free way of life. Her affair with Maugham lasted eight years, she could, but did not want to become his wife and subsequently married an English aristocrat. Such was the prototype, or rather, the prototype of Rosie Driffield, a peasant girl from Kent who could not stand the role of the wife of a venerable writer. It's no surprise that Rosie was considered a completely fictional figure, given how carefully the author disguised her real-life model. But for Maugham, the secret connection between Rosie and Ethelwynn was absolutely real: he knew his beloved so well that her appearance - unusually soft, feminine, shining with an even light of sweet kindness and calmness - very naturally cast into the appearance of Rosie Driffield. And the most amoralism this unfaithful wife and mistress Maugham - Eshenden perceives as something natural and almost blameless, something akin to the generosity of nature. Of course, all this does not exclude suffering, but in suffering, neither Ashenden nor Driffield show rancor. Rosie is not a destroyer, not a tormentor, like Mildred from The burden of human passions She is just kind and humane. Warm, upbeat sound rosie tunes finds an echo in other themes of the novel. It is curious that Blackstable himself, and the family of the parish priest in which the orphan young Ashenden lives, and even the boarding school in neighboring Terkenbury (read: Canterbury) appear here in a completely different light than in The burden of passion , although the writer is based on the same personal memories that have long tormented Maugham. Everything has taken on a lighter nostalgic-humorous coloring, and instead of the unhappy, difficult-growing Owl Carey, in Ashenden's retrospective story, there is a funny, not coherent, snobbish teenager who has been tamed and warmed suspicious in the eyes of respectable inhabitants of Driffield. And the current Ashenden - a person in general not very attractive, a writer experienced in everyday affairs and the secrets of a career - shows true loyalty to their memory and absolutely does not intend to toss up Elroy Cyrus relevant material for a biography Driffield Monument- that is, to defame his first wife.

If The burden of human passions - the most confessional book Somerset Maugham, moon and penny - the most temperamental Pies and beer - the most cheerful and lyrical, then razor edge - the most philosophical; in fact, it's the only one piece of art, in which the through action is determined by the spiritual searches of the hero. After razor blade Maugham published only two historical novels ( Then and now , 1946, and Catalina , 1948), which are not of serious interest, so that this book can be considered the completion and, to some extent, the result of his work. writer's way. The result, at first glance, is unexpected: not only the content of the novel is unexpected, but also the very position of the narrator, here as close as possible to the author.

Somerset Maugham, a pragmatist, agnostic, completely alien to any mysticism, introduces the theme of Vedanta, the ancient Indian religious teaching, into his narrative and sets out the foundations of this teaching through the mouth of his hero. Some facts literary biography The writer says that his interest in religious and philosophical quests, or rather, religious and moral, was not something completely new or accidental. Modern Saints- kind and disinterested people, ridiculed and scolded by their neighbors, meet him repeatedly, starting with the story bad example (1899) and ending with his last play Shappy (1933). Crime-melodramatic novel tight corner (1932) with genuine Maugham play of dark passions, unfolding against an exotic background, contains reflections on Buddhism, and in the center of the action is the figure of the idealist-romantic Christessen. In the novel Painted veil (1925) the heroine, a bustling young woman, bows to the quiet dedication of Catholic nuns who nurse sick and abandoned children in an epidemic-ridden Chinese city. By the way, we note that the sinister figure of the missionary Davison from the story Rain most of all repels with its merciless intolerant fanaticism; according to Davison - not a hypocrite and not a hypocrite, but a man passionately convinced, not sparing himself in anything: he is ready to send to prison fallen woman, but he executes himself for the fall by death.

Thus, although Maugham never was - and here he did not become a religious writer, this aspect of the novel razor edge prepared by the previous history of creativity and not for the sake of one thing, only for the effect on the question: how long did he work on razor edge The writer replied: sixty years old.

William Somerset Maugham (January 25, 1874, Paris - December 16, 1965, Nice) was an English writer, one of the most successful prose writers of the 1930s, an agent of British intelligence.

Somerset Maugham was born to a lawyer at the British Embassy in France. Parents specially prepared for the birth on the territory of the embassy so that the child had legal grounds to say that he was born in the territory of the UK: a law was expected to be passed according to which all children born in French territory automatically became French citizens and, thus, upon reaching the age of majority, were subject to be sent to front in case of war.

As a child, Maugham spoke only French, mastered English only after he was orphaned at the age of 11 (his mother died of consumption in February 1882, his father died of stomach cancer in June 1884), and was sent to relatives in the English city of Whitstable in Kent, six miles from Canterbury. Upon arrival in England, Maugham began to stutter - this remained for life.

Since William was brought up in the family of Henry Maugham, vicar in Whitstable, he began his studies at the Royal School in Canterbury. Then he studied literature and philosophy at the University of Heidelberg - in Heidelberg Maugham wrote his first work - a biography of the German composer Meerber (when it was rejected by the publisher, Maugham burned the manuscript).

Then he entered the medical school (1892) at the hospital of St. Thomas in London - this experience is reflected in Maugham's first novel, Lisa of Lambeth (1897). The first success in the field of literature Maugham brought the play "Lady Frederick" (1907).

During World War I, he collaborated with MI5, and was sent to Russia as a British intelligence agent. The work of the intelligence officer was reflected in the collection of short stories "Ashenden, or the British Agent" (1928, Russian translation 1992).

In May 1917, Maugham married Siri Wellcome in the United States. Divorced in 1929.

After the war, Maugham continued his successful career as a playwright, writing the plays The Circle (1921) and Sheppey (1933). Maugham's novels were also successful - "The Burden of Human Passions" (1915; Russian translation 1959) - almost an autobiographical novel, "The Moon and a Penny" (1919, Russian translation 1927, 1960), "Pies and Beer" (1930) , "Razor's Edge" (1944).

In July 1919, Maugham traveled to China in pursuit of new experiences, and later to Malaysia, which gave him material for two collections of short stories.

Maugham died on December 15, 1965 in a hospital in Nice from pneumonia. But since, according to French law, patients who died in the hospital were supposed to be autopsied, he was taken home and only on December 16 was it reported that Somerset Maugham died at home, at the Villa Moresque, in the French town of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat near Nice .

On December 22, his ashes were buried under the wall of the Maugham Library at the King's School, Canterbury.

Books (7)

razor edge

"The Razor's Edge" is not just a novel, but a genuine "school of manners" of English bohemia of the early 20th century, a book that is caustic to the point of mercilessness, but at the same time full of subtle psychologism.

Somerset Maugham does not make diagnoses and does not pronounce sentences - he paints his own "chronicle of lost time", which the reader will have to know!

Five Best Novels (compilation)

Best Novels Somerset Maugham - in one volume.

Very different, but invariably bright and witty, full of deep psychologism and impeccable knowledge of human nature.

In them, the writer raises eternal themes: love and betrayal, art and life, freedom and dependence, relations between men and women, creators and the crowd...

However, Maugham does not make diagnoses and does not pass sentences - he paints his own "chronicle of lost time", which the reader will have to know.

Collected works in five volumes. Volume 1

Volume one. The burden of human passions.

The first volume of the Collected Works of the famous English writer William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) includes the novel The Burden of Human Passions, written in 1915, and autobiographical essays of recent years.

Collected works in five volumes. Volume 5

Volume five. Plays. On a Chinese screen. Summing up. Essay.

In the fifth volume of the Collected Works of W.S. Maugham included his plays: "Circle", "For Merits", travel essays "On a Chinese Screen", the writer's creative confession "Summing up", as well as essays from various collections.

Reader Comments

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 09/19/2013 Most people think little. They unquestioningly accept their presence in the world; blind slaves of the power that drives them, they rush about in all directions, trying to satisfy their natural impulses, and when the power runs out, they go out like a candle flame.

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 09/19/2013 “Good” and “bad” are empty words, and the rules of behavior are a convention invented by people for selfish purposes.

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 09/19/2013 Much has been written about the fact that no two people are the same, that each person is uniquely original. This is partly true, but it is only theoretical; In practice, all people are very similar to each other.

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 09/19/2013 Listening to how any judge in the Old Bailey court unctuously read morals, I asked myself, has he really forgotten his human essence as thoroughly as it is clear from his words? And I had a desire that next to his mercy, next to a bouquet of flowers, lay a pack of toilet paper. It would remind him that he is the same person as everyone else.

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 09/19/2013 An artist should be indifferent to both praise and scolding, since his creation is interesting to him only in relation to himself, and how the public will treat him - in this he may be interested materially, but not spiritually.

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 09/19/2013 One thing is important for me in a work of art: how I feel about it myself.

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 09/19/2013 Reading makes sense only if it gives pleasure.

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 09/19/2013 I know that if I told you about all the actions that I did in my life, and about all the thoughts that were born in my brain, I would be considered a monster.

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 09/19/2013 We judge others based not on who we are, but on some idea of ​​ourselves that we have created, excluding from it everything that hurts our pride or would lower us in the eyes of the world.

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 19.09.2013 Prestige, which acquaintance with famous person creates for you in the eyes of your friends, it only proves that you yourself are worth little.

Thus spoke Somerset Maugham/ 09/19/2013 It is very easy to convince yourself that a phrase that you do not fully understand is in fact purely significant. And from here - one step to the habit of fixing your impressions on paper in all their original vagueness. There will always be fools who will find hidden meaning in them.

In the 30s of the twentieth century, the name of Somerset Maugham was known in all circles of European society. Talented prose writer brilliant playwright, political figure and a British intelligence officer... How did all this fit together in one person? Who is Maugham Somerset?

Englishman born in Paris

January 25, 1874 on the territory of the British Embassy in Paris, the future famous writer Somerset Maugham. His father, who comes from a dynasty of lawyers, planned such an unusual birth in advance. All boys born in those years in France, having reached the age of majority, had to go to serve in the army and take part in hostilities against England. Robert Maugham could not allow his son to fight against the homeland of his ancestors. Born in the British embassy, ​​little Somerset automatically became a British citizen.

childhood trauma

Somerset Maugham's father and grandfather were confident that the boy would follow in their footsteps and become a lawyer. But fate went against the wishes of the relatives. William lost his parents early. His mother died in 1882 from consumption, and two years later, oncology took his father's life. The boy was brought up by English relatives from Whitstable, a small town located near Canterbury.

Until the age of 10, the boy spoke only French, and it was difficult for him to master his native, in fact, language. The uncle's family did not become native for William. Henry Maugham, who served as vicar, and his wife treated the new relative coldly and dryly. did not add understanding. The stress of the early loss of parents and moving to another country turned into a stutter, which remained with the writer for life.

Studies

In the UK, William Maugham studied at the Royal School. Because of his fragile physique, short stature and strong accent, the boy was ridiculed by classmates and avoided people. Therefore, he accepted admission to the University of Heidelberg in Germany with relief. In addition, the young man took up his favorite thing - the study of literature and philosophy. Another hobby of Maugham was medicine. In those years, every self-respecting European man had to have a serious profession. Therefore, in 1892, Maugham entered the London Medical School and became a certified surgeon and therapist.

During the First World

The prose writer met the outbreak of the First World War with a service in the British Red Cross. Then he was recruited by British intelligence MI5. Throughout the year, Maugham performed intelligence assignments in Switzerland. In 1917, under the guise of an American correspondent, he arrived on a secret mission in Russian Petrograd. Somerset's task was to keep Russia out of the war. Despite the fact that the mission failed, Maugham was pleased with the trip to Petrograd. He fell in love with the streets of this city, discovered the work of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov. For the sake of reading their works, he began to learn Russian.

Between wars

Since 1919, in search of thrills, Maugham began to travel around Asia and the Middle East. Visited China, Malaysia, Tahiti. The prose writer drew inspiration from travels, which led to fruitful work. Over the course of two decades, many novels, plays, short stories, essays, and essays have been written. As a new direction - a series of socio-psychological dramas. Eminent writers often gathered at his villa, bought in 1928 on the French Riviera. She was visited by Herbert Wells and Winston Churchill. In those years, Maugham was the most successful English writer.

During World War II

The writer met the beginning of this war in France. There he was supposed to monitor the mood of the French and write feature articles that the country would not give up its military positions. After the defeat of France, Somerset Maugham was forced to leave for the United States. There he lived all the years of the Second World War, working on writing scripts for Hollywood. Returning home after the war, the playwright watched with regret the picture of devastation and ruin, but continued to write further.

After the war

In 1947, the Somerset Maugham Award was approved. It was awarded to the best English writers under the age of 35. In 1952, Maugham was awarded a doctorate in literature. He no longer traveled and devoted much of his time to writing essays, preferring them to dramaturgy and fiction.

About personal life

Maugham made no secret of his bisexuality. He tried to start a traditional family, marrying Siri Wellcome in 1917. She was an interior decorator. They had a daughter, Mary Elizabeth. Due to frequent travels in the company of his secretary and lover, Jerold Haxton, Somerset was unable to save the marriage. The couple divorced in 1927. Throughout his life, the writer had novels with both women and men. But after the death of Hexton in 1944, the playwright did not feel such warm feelings for anyone.

Departure from life

William Somerset Maugham passed away at the age of 91 (12/15/1965). The cause of death was pneumonia. The ashes of the prose writer were scattered at the walls of the Maugham Library, located in the Canterbury Royal School.

The beginning of the creative path

Somerset Maugham's first job was to write a biography opera composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. She was written in university years. The essay was not properly rated by the publisher, and young writer burned it in their hearts. But to the delight of future readers, the first failure did not stop the young man.

Somerset Maugham's first serious work was Lisa of Lambeth. It was written after the author's work at St. Thomas Hospital and was well received by critics and readers. This made the writer believe in his talent and try himself as a playwright by writing the play "Man of Honor". The premiere did not make a splash. Despite this, Maugham continued to write and after a few years became successful in drama. The comedy "Lady Frederic", staged at the "Court Theater" in 1908, deserved special love from the public.

creative dawn

After the resounding success of "Lady Frederick" began to be born one after another the best works Somerset Maugham:

• fantasy novel The Magician, published in 1908;
• "Catalina" (1948) - a mystical novel about a girl who miraculously got rid of a terrible disease, but never became happy;
• "Theater" (1937) - an ironically described story of a middle-aged actress who tries to forget her age in the arms of a young boyfriend;
• the novel "Patterned Veil" (1925) - a beautiful and tragic love story, filmed three times;
• "Mrs. Craddock" (1900) - another one life history about the relationship between a man and a woman;
• "The Conqueror of Africa" ​​(1907) - an action-packed novel about love while traveling;
• "Summing up" (1938) - the author's biography in the form of notes about his work;
• "On the Chinese Screen" (1922) - a story full of Maugham's impressions from visiting the Chinese Yangtze River;
• "Letter" (1937) - dramatic play;
• "The Sacred Flame" (1928) - a detective drama with a philosophical and psychological meaning;
• "The Faithful Wife" (1926) - a witty comedy about gender inequality;
• "Shappy" (1933) - social drama about little man in the world of big politics;
• "For services rendered" (1932) - a play about the state of society in the face of the threat of fascism and the Second World War;
• "Villa on the Hill" (1941) - romantic story about the life of a young widow in anticipation of happiness;
• "Then and Now" (1946) - historical novel about Italy at the beginning of the sixteenth century;
• "Close Corner" (1932) - a crime novel containing reflections on Buddhism;
• collections of short stories "On the Outskirts of the Empire", "Open Opportunity", "The Trembling of a Leaf", "Six Stories Written in the First Person", "Ashenden, or the British Agent", "A King", "The Same Blend", "Casuarina "," Toys of fate ";
• collections of essays "Scattered Thoughts", "Changing Mood", "Great Writers and Their Novels".

Along with major works Somerset Maugham's stories were also popular:

• "Unconquered";
• "Something human";
• "The Fall of Edward Barward";
• "Scar Man";
• "Bag of books".

Somerset Maugham. Best essays

Particularly noteworthy is Somerset Maugham's novel The Burden of Human Passions. It was written in 1915 and is considered autobiographical. The protagonist of the work goes through many life tests, but, in spite of everything, finds his place in life. He was left an orphan early, and lameness did not add to his happiness. But this did not stop the hero from desperately searching for the meaning of life. As a result, he finds happiness in simple human life without unnecessary passions. In the 60s, the author removed a significant number of scenes from the novel, presenting to the literary world a new creation by Somerset Maugham, The Burden of Passions. The work was filmed three times.

The next work that won reader love was the novel Pies and Beer, or the Skeleton in the Closet, written in 1930. It is noteworthy that Somerset Maugham borrowed the title of the novel from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The novel is full of sarcasm towards the British literary environment and describes the life of a young talented writer. Along with this, the plot is marked by all manifestations of life - relationships between people, the delusions of youth, the influence of gossip and prejudices on human destiny. One of the heroines of the novel is the prototype of a real woman with whom Maugham had romantic relationship. "Pies and Beer" became the author's favorite work. In the 1970s, a TV series based on the book was released.

"Moon and a penny" by Somerset Maugham is a novel that has earned worldwide fame. He is a biography French painter Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin. For the sake of painting main character Romana changes her life dramatically at the age of 40. He leaves his family, home, permanent job, despite illness, depression and poverty, completely devoted himself to creativity. "Moon and a penny" makes you think about whether everyone dares to change their usual way of life in order to achieve a lofty goal.

Another bestseller from the British novelist is On the Razor's Edge. The novel was published in 1944. It describes the life of different sections of society between the First and Second World Wars. The author covers a large period of time, makes his characters make choices, look for the meaning of life, rise and fall. And of course, love. "On the Razor's Edge" is Maugham's only work in which the writer touches deeply philosophical themes.

This is how one of the most controversial English writers appears before readers and critics. A little extravagant, skeptical in some things, somewhere a satirist, in some ways a philosopher. But in general, a brilliant, inimitable and one of the most widely read authors of world literature is Somerset Maugham, who presented his fans with more than 70 works and 30 plays, many of which were made into excellent adaptations.