author
W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
1874–1965
Sharp, worldly, and wonderfully readable, these stories come from a writer who had a gift for seeing the private motives behind polished manners. His fiction moves easily between London drawing rooms and far-off colonial outposts, always with a cool eye for human weakness and desire.
28 Audiobooks
Of Human Bondage
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Moon and Sixpence
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Mrs. Craddock
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Merry-go-round
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Land of Promise: A Comedy in Four Acts
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Orientations
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Circle: A Comedy in Three Acts
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Magician
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Trembling of a Leaf: Little Stories of the South Sea Islands
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Canadian Photoplay title of The Land of Promise
by D. Torbett, W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Plays: Lady Frederick, The Explorer, A Man of Honour
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Landed Gentry: A Comedy in Four Acts
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Painted Veil
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
On a Chinese Screen
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Cæsar's Wife: A Comedy in Three Acts
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Hero
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Making of a Saint
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Unknown; A Play in Three Acts
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Penelope: A Comedy in Three Acts
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Bishop's Apron: A study in the origins of a great family
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Explorer
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Liza of Lambeth
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Jack Straw: A Farce in Three Acts
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Land of The Blessed Virgin; Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
East of Suez: A Play in Seven Scenes
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Mrs. Dot: A Farce
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
The Tenth Man: A Tragic Comedy in Three Acts
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
Cakes and ale
by W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham
About the author
Born in Paris in 1874, W. Somerset Maugham became one of the best-known English writers of the 20th century. He trained in medicine in London, and his early experience with patients in poor neighborhoods helped shape his first novel, Liza of Lambeth. He went on to write novels, plays, essays, and many celebrated short stories in a style often praised for its clarity and control.
Maugham had a remarkable popular career. His major works include Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, Cakes and Ale, and The Razor’s Edge, and for a time his plays were major successes on the London stage. Readers were drawn to his calm, direct prose, his international settings, and his sharp understanding of ambition, love, compromise, and self-deception.
He spent much of his later life in the south of France and died in 1965. Although literary fashions changed around him, his work has lasted because it is so approachable: elegant without being difficult, and honest about the odd, often uncomfortable truths people hide from one another and from themselves.