W. Somerset Maugham

The Moon and Sixpence

by W. Somerset Maugham

The Moon and Sixpence is a fictional novel heavily influenced by the life of French painter Paul Gauguin. The novel is told first-person, dipping episodically into the mind of the artist. Charles Strickland...

The Magician

by W. Somerset Maugham

Maugham wrote The Magician after meeting the famous magician and occultist Aleister Crowly in Paris. He caricatures Crowly as the protagonist Oliver Haddo, a magician who is attempting to create life. Crowly...

The Razor's Edge

by W. Somerset Maugham

Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of his spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brilliant characters - his fiancée Isabel whose choice between love...

The Moon and Sixpence

by W. Somerset Maugham

Based on the life of Paul Gauguin, The Moon and Sixpence is W. Somerset Maugham's ode to the powerful forces behind creative genius.

Charles Strickland is a staid banker, a man of wealth and privilege.  He...

Liza of Lambeth

by W. Somerset Maugham

Liza of Lambeth (1897) narrates Liza's last four months alive. She lives in a working-class area of London, and as the youngest of thirteen siblings she is left to look after their incompetent mother. She rejects...

Of Human Bondage

by W. Somerset Maugham & Benjamin DeMott

From an orphan with a clubfoot, Philip Carey grows into an impressionable young man with a voracious appetite for adventure and knowledge. Then he falls obsessively in love, embarking on a disastrous relationship...

The Magician

by W. Somerset Maugham & Robert Calder

Maugham's enchanting tale of secrets and fatal attraction The Magician is one of Somerset Maugham's most complex and perceptive novels. Running through it is the theme of evil, deftly woven into a story as memorable...

Christmas Holiday

by W. Somerset Maugham

For Christmas, Charley Mason's father granted him a trip to Paris, all expenses paid. It should have been a lark, but on his first night Charley meets a woman whose story will forever change his life.

For Lydia...

Theatre

by W. Somerset Maugham

In Theatre, W. Somerset Maugham–the author of the classic novels Of Human Bondage and Up at the Villa–introduces us to Julia Lambert, a woman of breathtaking poise and talent whose looks have stood by her...

The Painted Veil

by W. Somerset Maugham

Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, The Painted Veil is the story of the beautiful but love-starved Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to the...

Of Human Bondage: (A Modern Library E-Book)

by W. Somerset Maugham

The first and most autobiographical of Maugham's masterpieces. It is the story of Philip Carey, an orphan eager for life, love and adventure. After a few months studying in Heidelberg, and a brief spell in Paris...

Of Human Bondage: (A Modern Library E-Book)

by W. Somerset Maugham

'It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham,' wrote Gore Vidal. 'He was always so entirely there.' Originally published in 1915,...

The Skeptical Romancer: Selected Travel Writing

by W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham was one of the seminal writers of the twentieth century, and his travel writing has long been considered among his finest work. Now, acclaimed travel writer Pico Iyer maps out a masterful...

Cakes and Ale

by W. Somerset Maugham

Cakes and Ale is a delicious satire of London literary society between the Wars. Social climber Alroy Kear is flattered when he is selected by Edward Driffield's wife to pen the official biography of her lionized...

The Narrow Corner

by W. Somerset Maugham

Filled with adventure, passion, and intrigue, The Narrow Corner is a classic tale of the sea by one of the twentieth-century's finest writers. Island hoping across the South Pacific, the esteemed Dr. Saunders...

A Writer's Notebook

by W. Somerset Maugham

Filled with keen observations, autobiographical notes, and the seeds of many of Maugham's greatest works, A Writer's Notebook is a unique and exhilarating look into a great writer's mind at work. From nearly...

Up at the Villa

by W. Somerset Maugham

Now a major motion picture from USA Films starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn, and director Philip Haas (director of Angels and Insects).

In Up at the Villa, W. Somerset Maugham portrays a wealthy young...