William Somerset Maugham毛姆简介精品管理.docVIP

William Somerset Maugham毛姆简介 1874-1965 小说：Liza of Lambeth兰贝思的莉莎;Of Human Bondage人类枷锁;Cakes and Ale寻欢作乐;The Moon and Six Pence月亮与六便士短篇小说：Complete Short Stories短篇小说集剧本：Smith ;The Circle;Our Betters位居我们之上的人们 in full? William Somerset Maugham ? born Jan. 25, 1874, Paris, Fr. ? died Dec. 16, 1965, Nice W. Somerset Maugham. English novelist, playwright, and short-story writer whose work is characterized by a clear unadorned style, cosmopolitan settings, and a shrewd understanding of human nature. Maugham was orphaned at the age of 10; he was brought up by an uncle and educated at Kings School, Canterbury. After a year at Heidelberg, he entered St. Thomas medical school, London, and qualified as a doctor in 1897. He drew upon his experiences as an obstetrician in his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), and its success, though small, encouraged him to abandon medicine. He traveled in Spain and Italy and in 1908 achieved a theatrical triumph—four plays running in London at once—that brought him financial security. During World War I he worked as a secret agent. After the war he resumed his interrupted travels and, in 1928, bought a villa on Cape Ferrat in the south of France, which became his permanent home. His reputation as a novelist rests primarily on four books: Of Human Bondage (1915), a semi-autobiographical account of a young medical students painful progress toward maturity; The Moon and Sixpence (1919), an account of an unconventional artist, suggested by the life of Paul Gauguin; Cakes and Ale (1930), the story of a famous novelist, which is thought to contain caricatures of Thomas Hardy and Hugh Walpole; and The Razors Edge (1944), the story of a young American war veterans quest for a satisfying way of life. Maughams plays, mainly Edwardian social comedies, soon became dated, but his short stories have increased in popularity. Many portray the conflict of Europeans in alien surroundings that provoke strong emotions, and Maughams skill in handling plot, in the m