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Summary: Unforeseen Twists of Fate
Review: As a master of the short story, W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was the highest paid author in the 1930's. He was born in the British Embassy in Paris, on January 25, 1874.He wrote with a sense of irony and wit. Often, he would express a cynical attitude towards life and his love of traveling found its way into his writing. He didn't confine himself to one genre, but also wrote novels, essays and plays. His purpose was to entertain his readers, although you do learn the subtleties of human nature from many of his stories. His keen eye for the minute details of life is combined with his writing style in such away as to capture and keep your attention. It is said that due to becoming an orphan at the age of 10, he was shy and tended to be more of a passive observer rather than an active participant. This explains some of the detachment that you feel in various stories. "I have never pretended to be anything but a story teller. It has amused me to tell stories and I have told a great many. It is a misfortune for me that the telling of a story just for the sake of the story is not an activity that is in favor with the intelligentsia. In endeavor to bear my misfortunes with fortitude." (from Creatures of Circumstance, 1947) In this collection you will find stories that are filled with tales of the South Seas, Europe and America. They are concise and persuasive and evoke a time and place where you completely are absorbed into a story that often has a nice unforeseen twist right at the end. Either you are surprised, laughing, sad life took a certain turn, or very amused. My Favorite Stories in this Collection : The Vessel of Wrath: A tale of love between a missionary and a drunken reprobate that has a most surprising ending. It deals with how humans draw foregone conclusions and how people can change for the better. The Force of Circumstance: Story of almost unavoidable circumstances and deals with the emotions a woman feels when she finds out her husband has had children with a native woman in the village and seems to have neglected to inform her. The Colonel's Lady: A wife publishes her poetry without her husband's knowledge. He can't understand her or why everyone loves her writing. The reader might not understand him, but might understand his wife's need to express her creativity in her own way as obviously, he is not aware of that part of her life. The Round Dozen: Amusing and almost unavoidable ending. These are stories you can read when you have an hour here or there to read a few stories at a time. Some are short enough to be read in 15 minutes or less and are only a few pages long. I enjoyed the slightly longer ones as the character development intensifies and Maugham's powers of observation have time to play out to the full extent. An escape to another time and place.
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Summary: Looking up an old friend
Review: Forty years ago, as a teenager, I was hooked on Somerset Maugham. He is the master of not only the short story but the Saga type novel too. See 'Of Human Bondage'. His elegant, if a little outdated prose manages to re-create the elegance of a by- gone age while his masterful drawing of character manages, at the same time to render his work timeless. Another reviewer asked if he is studied in High Schools. My children read him, at my behest, but I think the subtlty was lost on them. They are now enjoying, as I am, re-reading him now. A very unfashionable writer, but one definitely worth trying.
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Summary: This applies to all 4 volumes of his short stories
Review: His short stories whetted my appetite for good reading as I was learning the subtle nuances of English language as an adolescent in 1970s. Like healthy food healthy books also need some effort at resisting junk while cultivation of a taste is ongoing in one's reading adolescence. English was only a second language for me after Oriya those days. One of my favorites is "Bookbag", where a British Colonial Civil Servant survives his outpost reading books and late delivery periodicals in chronological order.(Like watching a video tape of a soap opera in right order) I sought out all his books as well as books about him. One of them called "Somerset and all the Maughams" is written by his nephew Robin Maugham. In that he also mentions about a maternal uncle of Somerset Maugham, a black sheep named Charles Snell, who died an untimely death in Cuttack,a town in eastern India where I happened to spend a good part of my youth. I found his tomb stone in a cemetary known to locals as white mans' burial ground. Each epitaph in that cemetary may as well be spun into a Maugham story. No one, including Times Literary Supplement seemed interested in this kind of trivia when I tried reporting about an author whose books don't seem to sell at Airports or train station bookstores anymore. I think he is one of the most under-rated literary prodigies of last century. Do any English Professors teach his books in a undergraduate class ?
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Summary: Essential for the Maugham reader
Review: I came to know Maugham through his novels, especially The Razor's Edge, Of Human Bondage, and Cakes and Ale. I purchased this collection not knowing what to expect. The stories are character focused, at times incredibly witty and amusing, at times melancholy and near heart-breaking. As in his novels, Maugham has the ability to make the reader see what is not written. Highlights include The Rain, a commentary on the work of missionaries, and The Pool, one of the saddest shorts ever written. Others, such as The Three Fat Women of Antibbes, will probably make you laugh out loud. A first rate collection.
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Summary: The Writer's Writer
Review: I've only just discovered the wonders of W. Somerset Maugham. This was the first of his works that I have ever read, and it was an absolute pleasure. There are other reviewers on these pages who are more knowledgeable and better critics than I, so I am just going to tell you how much I enjoyed this particular compilation. Every story was a treasure. Every single character was so well drawn, that for the first time in a long time I found myself empathising with these people, loving them, hating them, lamenting for them and genuinely caring about what happened to them. Every story started off in a fairly prosaic, nondescript fashion. But every story had me hooked by at least the first page. Sometimes they unfolded as funny stories, other were tales about how an individual's world had changed catastrophically. I never got bored, and the writing was never predictable, Maugham always had a surprisingly poetical observation to make that would send me into raptures. This is truly a writer of sensitivity and talent. I can honestly say that I have been searching for a writer of this calibre for a long time. If you care anything at all about the amazing stories that ordinary, little people have, then read this book and Maugham's other works. He truly is a master.
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Summary: Short Story Classic
Review: Maugham's style is perfectly suited for short story writing. His facility of communicating all kinds of ideas is truly amazing. Thus his stories feel like a light read, but they also often give you pause--Maugham is trying to pry deep into what makes people think and act the way they do. He wrote his stories a century ago, and the mark of the time lies firmly upon some of them. It is clear that he was influenced by psychological insgihts and ideas that have penetrated intellectual circles of his time. Read these stories for their ease of communication, ideas about human nature, and vivid images, such as those of the South Pacific and the industrial landscape of the rising American giant.
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Summary: The greatest of snobs excoriates snobbery.
Review: That Maugham was an inveterate snob was at first a surprise to me. His stories are filled with sensitivity for the indigenous people of what we now call third world countries.
He managed to convey this without any political agenda or attempt to idealize the 'natives.' As far as the British colonials, he spared nothing, and yet his mockery and exposure of the epitome of `politically incorrect' was hardly a call for colonial overthrow. To the contrary, the calamitous occupiers were more condemned for their vulgarity than for their imperialism. In his personal life he made no bones about his general contempt for our species. Yet as a whole, these stories are often exquisitely, understated works of compassion and tenderness. Is this some kind of Jungian shadow?
Maugham would despise any such analysis, but the fact remains, these are the best short stories I've ever read. (V.S.Pritchet is second.) Reading Maugham is addictive, his plots and settings are exotic however that Anglo observer is straight up British. My own favorite is "A force of Circumstance." It depicts an almost biological racist reaction and features that universal troublemaker, sexual desire. His most famous, "Rain" is also a winner. Many people weigh in at the "Three Fat Women from Antibes." He is merciless in all of these and the twists in plot are simply brilliant. I only wish I could find some hidden treasure of ones I haven't read. Basically, I'm not a fan of the short story form, Maugham's writing is an exception. The end of his stories feels complete and absolute. He embodies what he is- a story teller. No postmodern 'suggestions of a resolution that cheats the reader. Furthermore, they're incredibly well written and (a feature that seems out of date) interesting. To paraphrase, you can't stop at one. I definitely recommend this collection as one of the finest collections in twentieth century letters. People criticize Maugham for never creating a main character that is likable. I say, so what? What is likable about Europeans feasting and demeaning entire societies, to say nothing about the arrogance and cruelties? Have no fear- their vanities and faults are hilarious. He is no do-gooder bore. Reading Maugham is like reading about hidden caverns in human nature. His short stories, in my opinion, (and far more deserving critics' I might add,) are artistically superior to his novels and (less than accurate) character enhancing autobiographies. Maugham was a genius; physician turned author, tyranical dilettante and snob- even more reason to read him,
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Summary: An unmatched short-story writer
Review: The first of four volumes of the collected short stories of Somerset Maugham is a glimpse of what is to come. A fine, detached, subtle but always unsparing observer of human nature, Maugham tells us stories about human weakness with a humorous, at the same time cynical and compassionate tone. Maugham expects very little from humans, and so, when they do sublime and even heroic things, it is all the more suprising. Perhaps the contemporary word which can best describe his attitude towards his characters is "cool". We humans are a mix of perversion, weakness, solidarity and real goodness. Maugham knows. So he is always willing to forgive his characters, as long as they know that their actions will have irremediable consequences. Hard but touching, Maugham sees the world from afar, from the internal wisdom which lets him know that nothing is too bad and nothing is too good. The tales I liked the most are "Rain", about the unlikely relationship between a couple of puritan missionaries and a prostitute, "Before the party", about terrible marital secrets revealed right before an important party, and, above all, "The fall of Edward Barnard", simply a masterpiece of storytelling. First time I read it, I decided to become Edward Barnard myself. Go figure. Maugham's style is anything but experimental. He is not trying to find a voice: he has one and he's pretty much sure about its value. And he's right. The way he uses words is the exact measure of craftmanship: not one word is missing, not one is futile. Precision, concision, wisdom, irony and humanism: the best mix for a reading. After you finish this, you'll go to the other three volumes, little by little, enjoying every story.
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Summary: Contains multiple masterpieces
Review: This collection of stories clearly demonstrates the remarkable talent of this writer in a format that is his forte. Some of the stories herein are classics, paticularly Rain,but they all resonate with real flesh and blood characters ,tight well constructed plots and incredible insight into human nature.
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