毛姆 演讲件.ppt

William Somerset Maugham 威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆 A famous British novolist , playwright and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s.  His father was a lawyer who handled the legal affairs of British embassy in Pairs, and Maugham was born there. When he was 8 years old, his mother passed away, and at the age of 10, his father also passed away. And he inherited parents legarcy which was 300 pounds every year.  He attended The King‘s School, Canterbury, which was also difficult for him. He was teased for his bad English (French had been his first language) and his short stature, which he inherited from his father. Maugham developed a stammer that would stay with him all his life, although it was sporadic and subject to mood and circumstance. Heidelberg University Maugham had been writing steadily since the age of 15 and fervently wished to become an author During the 5 years he studied medicine at St Thomas Hospital in Lambeth, London, he not only had a chance to know the living condition of the lowest class people, but developed keen eyes to analyse human and society as well. Sexual affairs During his year in Heidelberg, Maugham met and had a sexual affair with John Ellingham Brooks, an Englishman ten years his senior. Marriage Although Maugham‘s first and many other sexual relationships were with men, he also had sexual relationships with a number of women. He had an affair with Syrie Wellcome, the wife of Henry Wellcome, the American-born English pharmaceutical magnate. In May 1917, Syrie Wellcome and Maugham were married. They had a daughter named Mary Elizabeth Wellcome. But Syrie finally divorced him in 1929, finding his relationship and travels with Haxton too difficult to live with. Experiences During World War1, he worked to save the wounded soilders at the frontline, especially the firing l