W Somerset Maugham Ordre des livres (chronologique)

In Up at the Villa, W. Somerset Maugham portrays a wealthy young English woman who finds herself confronted rather brutally by the repercussions of whimsy. On the day her older and prosperous friend asks her to marry him, Mary Leonard demurs and decides to postpone her reply a few days. But driving into the hills above Florence alone that evening, Mary offers a ride to a handsome stranger. And suddenly, her life is utterly, irrevocably altered. For this stranger is a refugee of war, and he harbors more than one form of passion. Before morning, Mary will witness bloodshed, she will be forced to seek advice and assistance from an unsavory man, and she will have to face the truth about her own yearnings. Erotic, haunting, and maddeningly suspenseful, Up at the Villa is a masterful tale of temptation and the capricious nature of fate.

Mary Panton, une jeune Anglaise ravissante, est veuve depuis peu de temps. Sa brève union l'a laissée désenchantée. Venue passer quelques mois à Florence, elle compte sur la beauté des œuvres d'art et la douceur des paysages toscans pour lui rendre sa joie de vivre. Plusieurs hommes sont très épris d'elle. Mais la nostalgie qui l'habite la laisse indifférente à leurs hommages. Un soir, dans un restaurant où un petit orchestre minable joue des airs napolitains, Mary remarque le jeune violoniste. Il n'a aucun talent, mais il est beau et la pâleur de son visage exprime à la fois la passion et la souffrance. Leurs regards se croisent. Le trouble leur fait détourner les yeux. Mary rentre chez elle et s'arrête sur la terrasse pour contempler Florence sous le clair de lune. Un léger bruit la fait tressaillir. Dans l'ombre d'un cyprès, elle devine une présence. Un homme est là. Elle le reconnaît. Elle s'avance vers lui... Il suffira de ce geste, de cet élan du cœur, de cet instant d'une nuit, pour que la vie de Mary Panton bascule dans le drame un drame que la détonation d'un coup de feu manquera de faire tourner pour elle à la catastrophe. Nul n'excelle autant que W. Somerset Maugham à livrer la clef de ces secrets qui composent la réalité cachée d'un être et qui, d'une heure sur l'autre, peuvent bouleverser son existence.

From 1892, when he was 18, until 1949, when this book was first published, Somerset Maugham kept a notebook. Part autobiographical, part confessional, this is a collection of Maugham's observations, confidences, aspirations and arbitrary jottings.

Autobiographical and confessional, and yet not, this is one of the most highly regarded expressions of a personal credo – both a classic avowal of an author’s ideas and his craft.

Excellent Book

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY NICHOLAS SHAKESPEARE Cakes and Ale is both a wickedly satirical novel about contemporary literary poseurs and a skilfully crafted study of freedom. As he traces the fortunes of Edward Driffield and his extraordinary wife Rosie, one of the most delightful heroines of twentieth-century literature, Maugham's sardonic wit and lyrical warmth expertly combine in this accomplished and unforgettable novel.

This final classic collection reveals Somerset Maugham's unique talent for exposing and exploring the bitter realities of human relationships in tales of love, infidelity, passion and prejudice. The stories range from "The Lotus Eater" where a man envisions a life of bliss in the Mediterranean, to the astringent tales of "The Outstation" and "The Back of Beyond" in Malaya and South East Asia.

William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and short story writer. He was one of the most popular authors of his era, and reputedly the highest paid of his profession during the 1930s. By 1914 he was famous, with 10 plays produced and 10 published novels. His masterpiece is generally agreed to be Of Human Bondage (1915), a semi-autobiographical novel that deals with the life of the main character Philip Carey, who like Maugham, was orphaned, and brought up by his pious uncle. His last major novel, The Razor's Edge, published in 1944, was a departure for him in many ways. While much of the novel takes place in Europe, its main characters are American, not British. His other works include: Liza of Lambeth (1897), Mrs Craddock (1902), A Man of Honour (1903), The Land of the Blessed Virgin (1905), The Bishop's Apron (1906), Lady Frederick (1907), The Magician (1908), Home and Beauty (1909), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), The Circle (1921), The Trembling of a Leaf (1921), and On a Chinese Screen (1922).

First published in 1925, The Painted Veil is an affirmation of the human capacity to grow, change, and forgive. Set in England and Hong Kong in the 1920s, it is the story of the beautiful but shallow young Kitty Fane. When her husband discovers her adulterous affair, he forces her to accompany him to a remote region of China ravaged by a cholera epidemic. Stripped of the British society of her youth and overwhelmed by the desolation around her, she is compelled by her awakening conscience to reassess her life. She takes up work with children at a convent, but when her husband dies, she is forced to return to England to her father, her one remaining relative, to raise her unborn child. Though too late for her marriage, she has learned humility, independence, and how to love.