Although primarily homosexual, he attempted to conform to some extent with the norms of his day.
Maugham's plain prose style became known for its lucidity, but his reliance on clichés attracted adverse critical comment.ĭuring the First World War Maugham worked for the British Secret Service, later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the 1920s. More recent assessments generally rank Of Human Bondage − a book with a large autobiographical element − as a masterpiece, and his short stories are widely held in high critical regard. His great popularity and prodigious sales provoked adverse reactions from highbrow critics, many of whom sought to belittle him as merely competent. His short stories were published in collections such as The Casuarina Tree (1926) and The Mixture as Before (1940) many of them have been adapted for radio, cinema and television. Maugham's novels after Liza of Lambeth include Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), The Painted Veil (1925), Cakes and Ale (1930) and The Razor's Edge (1944). He wrote his 32nd and last play in 1933, after which he abandoned the theatre and concentrated on novels and short stories. By 1908 he had four plays running at once in the West End of London. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), a study of life in the slums, attracted attention, but it was as a playwright that he first achieved national celebrity. He never practised medicine, and became a full-time writer. He became a medical student in London and qualified as a physician in 1897. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university.
William Somerset Maugham CH ( / m ɔː m/ MAWM 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories.
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