ISBN: 9780099288909    Publisher: Random House Year of publishing: 2000     Format:  Paperback No of Pages: 272        Language: English

Eclectic and illuminating, these essays are the last that Maugham published. Ranging from an appreciation of Goethe's novels, to an encounter with an Indian holy man, with a considered analysis of the form at which Maugham himself excelled - the short story - they present the enduring views and opinions of this eminent writer.
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William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, 'Liza of Lambeth,' published in 1897, won him over to literature. 'Of Human Bondage,' the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of 'The Moon and Sixpence' his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical 'The Summing Up' and 'A Writer's Notebook'. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965
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