W. Somerset Maugham’s Followers (6,146)

W. Somerset Maugham

Born

in British Embassy, Paris, The United Kingdom

January 25, 1874

Died

December 16, 1965

Genre

Fiction, Short Stories

Influences

Guy de Maupassant, Honoré de Balzac, Anton Chekhov, Ramana Maharshi ...more

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William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874. He spoke French even before he spoke a word of English, a fact to which some critics attribute the purity of his style.

His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage, Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays.

Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one ...more

Combine Editions
W. Somerset Maugham’s books

Average rating: 4.06 · 301,335 ratings · 26,976 reviews · 2,141 distinct works • Similar authors

	Of Human Bondage 4.16 avg rating — 61,916 ratings — published 1915 — 22 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Razor’s Edge 4.20 avg rating — 54,330 ratings — published 1944 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Painted Veil 3.98 avg rating — 52,166 ratings — published 1925 — 125 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Moon and Sixpence 4.12 avg rating — 27,431 ratings — published 1919 — 1605 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Theatre 4.18 avg rating — 9,778 ratings — published 1937 — 153 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Up at the Villa 3.74 avg rating — 8,612 ratings — published 1941 — 113 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Cakes and Ale 3.77 avg rating — 8,017 ratings — published 1930 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham, Robert Calder (Introduction) 3.58 avg rating — 5,444 ratings — published 1908 — 842 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ashenden 3.86 avg rating — 4,148 ratings — published 1927 — 242 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Christmas Holiday 3.73 avg rating — 3,286 ratings — published 1939 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by W. Somerset Maugham…

Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We've got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day, according to early...

Polls

February 2015 New School Classic Poll

1958, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, 209 pages

10 votes, 18.5%

1973, Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut, 302 pages

9 votes, 16.7%

1957, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, 304 pages

7 votes, 13.0%

1934, Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, 322 pages

6 votes, 11.1%

1997, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, 321 pages

5 votes, 9.3%

1956, Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, 159 pages

5 votes, 9.3%

1905, The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton, 351 pages

4 votes, 7.4%

1921, The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer, 274 pages

2 votes, 3.7%

1981, The Wave by Morton Rhue, 138 pages

2 votes, 3.7%

1985, Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy, 337 pages

2 votes, 3.7%

1927, Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham, 326 pages

1 vote, 1.9%

1969, Travels With My Aunt by Graham Greene, 254 pages

1 vote, 1.9%

1955, Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute, 285 pages

0 votes, 0.0%

54 total votes

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