May 2022: W. Somerset Maugham

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May 2022: W. Somerset Maugham

1AnnieMod
Mar 16, 2022, 2:16 pm

Our May author is W. Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) - a British playwright, novelist and short story writer.

Of Human Bondage is his most recognizable novel and it is at least semi-autobiographical.

So... what are you reading this month?

2MissWatson
Mar 17, 2022, 9:41 am

I'm planning to start with Cakes and Ales, but we all know what happens to plans...

3cindydavid4
Avr 21, 2022, 11:12 pm

Ive read all of his books except for human bondage. Guess this would be a good time to read it. Im remembering liking moon and sixpence alot, as well as painted veil The movie was a diservice as it changes the ending tho it was beautifully filmed

4marell
Avr 30, 2022, 1:29 pm

I’m hoping to read Moon and Sixpence. I remember liking Cakes and Ale and The Painted Veil also. There are also two volumes of short stories I would like to read, but unfortunately I won’t get to them this month.

5john257hopper
Mai 3, 2022, 3:23 pm

Just finished The Painted Veil and really enjoyed it. It was my first book by Somerset Maugham and won't be my last. I was impressed by his writing style, and his analysis of the human emotions in the relationships young British woman Kitty Fane has with her worthy but to her dull and unexciting husband Walter, and her affair with the exciting but less worthy Charlie Townsend. It's set against the colonial backdrop of British colonials in Hong Kong in the early 20th century. Kitty enjoys her affair with Charlie, but when it is threatened with exposure, Charlie backtracks and refuses to leave his wife Dorothy. In exasperation and disgust, she accompanies her husband on a dangerous mission to a cholera-stricken town where Walter, a bacteriologist, is charged with helping the local convent of nuns to alleviate the suffering of the townspeople. He eventually succumbs to the disease and Kitty realises his true worth. Back in Hong Kong, Kitty discovers she is pregnant and is taken in by the Townsends, much to her discomfort. It is an open question whether her baby is Walter's or, more likely, Charlie's. She returns to Britain to find her mother has passed away and she tries to form a relationship with her distant father as he is posted to a new life-changing role in the Bahamas.

I really enjoyed this novel and the author's descriptions of Kitty's emotional traumas and dilemmas, and relations with other characters, which rang as true and realistic, notwithstanding the very different setting (and the typical for the time assumptions of racial superiority of white Europeans over the Chinese). A great read.

6marell
Modifié : Mai 12, 2022, 12:33 am

I finished the absolutely wonderful The Moon and Sixpence. This book never sounded like something I would be interested in reading for some reason, and the first few pages made me wonder if I was right. But I was wrong. Such marvelous writing. I’ll never forget this book. In fact, I think it may be my favorite of his books that I’ve read.

7MissWatson
Mai 24, 2022, 3:32 am

I own a fat hardback containing six of his novels, no introduction, no notes, and no explanation of the order in which they are printed (it's definitely not publication order, as I found out from Wikipedia). I just started Cakes and Ale without any idea what it's about. I am very pleasantly surprised, enjoyed his often snarky comments on the literary scene, and will try to squeeze in Liza of Lambeth in the next week.

8MissWatson
Sep 4, 2022, 8:29 am

It's taken me almost three months to get around to Liza of Lambeth but I have now finished it. Rather unusual for the late Victorian age to write about working class people, is it? I really liked this.