W. Somerset Maugham. Biography.
W. Somerset Maugham was born in Paris as the sixth and youngest son of the solicitor to the British embassy. He learned French as his native tongue.
When Maugham was born—in the British Embassy in Paris in 1874—he was destined to become a lawyer. His father and grandfather had been prominent attorneys, and his oldest brother went on to become England's Lord Chancellor. However, Maugham had a severe stammer, which left him afraid to speak; so there were no plans for him to following the family tradition. Furthermore, he was orphaned by the age of 10 and was sent to England to be raised by an uncle, a clergyman.
These circumstances led the young Maugham to be shy and withdrawn; consequently he became an observer rather than an active participant, but he was able to turn this to his advantage as a writer. The unhappiness and anxiety of his early life were recounted in his autobiographical novel, Of Human Bondage (1915), in which his stammer became a deformed foot for the protagonist
Educated at King's School, Canterbury, and Heidelberg University, Maugham then studied six years medicine in London. He qualified in 1897 as doctor from St. Thomas' medical school but abandoned medicine after the success of his first novels and plays.
It is not widely known today that Maugham realized his first major success not as a novelist or short story writer but as a playwright. After Liza of Lambeth, he spent 10 years turning out unsuccessful novels, short stories, and plays. An admirer of Ibsen, he wanted to write dramas confronting social issues of the day. His first produced play, A Man of Honour (1903), a starkly realistic drama of the consequences of misguided virtue, had little success. This play's distinction today is for the collector, and Maugham later referred to it as his scarcest work. The most readable novel from this early period is probably Mrs.Craddock (1902), with its theme of a woman's liberation from traditional Victorian society.
Disguising as a reporter, Maugham worked for British Intelligence in Russia during the Russian Revolution in 1917, but his stuttering and poor health hindered his career in this field. He then set off with a friend on a series of travels to eastern Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Mexico. His most famous story, which became the play RAIN and was made into several movies, was inspired by a missionary and prostitute among his fellow passengers on a trip to Pago Pago. In the 1928 he settled in Cape Ferrat in France. His plays, among them THE CIRCLE (1921), a satire of social life, OUR BETTERS (1923), about Americans in Europe, and THE CONSTANT WIFE (1927), about a wife who takes revenge on her unfaithful husband, were performed in Europe and in the United States. Maugham's famous novel THE MOON AND THE SIXPENCE (1919) was the story of Charles Strickland (or actually Paul Gauguin), an artist, whose rejection of Western civilization led to his departure for Tahiti. There he is blinded by leprosy but continues painting. TREMBLING OF A LEAF (1921) included the story 'Rain,' made into a play by John Colton and Clemence Randolph in 1922. RAZORS EDGE (1944), about a spiritual quest, was made into film two times. "This book consists of my recollections of a man with whom I was thrown into close contact only at long intervals, and I have little knowledge of what happened to him in between," Maugham wrote in the beginning of the story. "I have invented nothing." Maugham tells of a young American veteran who moves through superbly described settings: Italy, London, the Riviera, Montparnasse. He seeks in the end relief in India from the horrors of war and gains a sense of being at one with the Absolute, through the Indian philosophical system known as Vedanta.
In 1907, Maugham achieved the fame and success that he had worked for. Since his early writing was described by critics as gloomy and depressing, he tried his hand at lighter social themes.Lady Frederick (1907), the story of a high society lady who tries to discourage a persistent young suitor, was an instant success with a long run in London's West End. By 1908, he had four plays running simultaneously in London. With the exception of Of Human Bondage, Maugham did not return to writing novels or short stories for more than 10 years. He became a man-about-town, the successful, rich, and witty satirist of British society.
It is said that the modern spy story began with Maugham's ASHENDEN; OR THE BRITISH AGENT (1928). It was partly based on the author's own experiences in the secret service. Alfred Hitchcock used in his film Secret Agent (1936) specifically the stories 'The Traitor' and 'The Hairless Mexican'. In the film, set in Switzerland, agents kill a wrong man and then they go to after the right one.
Sometimes Maugham's stories were thinly disguised episodes involving his host or others he had met on his travels—circumstances that occasionally resulted in threats and lawsuits. The Painted Veil(1925) was revised at least twice to eliminate references to people still living in Hong Kong, and the various issues of this book remain of great interest to Maugham collectors. Wilmon Menard, an American writer, followed Maugham's footsteps throughout the Far East, interviewing those who had known and entertained Maugham. Menard's book, The Two Worlds of Somerset Maugham(1965), makes interesting reading.
Maugham believed that there is a true harmony in the contradictions of mankind and that the the normal is in reality the abnormal. "The ordinary is the writer's richest field", he stated in THE SUMMING UP (1938).
A number of Maugham's short stories have been filmed. Quartet (1948) consisted of four stories introduced by the author - 'The Facts of Life', 'The Alien Corn', 'The Kite', and 'The Colonel's Lady.' In 'The Kite' the protagonist, Herbert, starts to fly kites with his parents in childhood. After marriage Herbert continues his hobby, although Betty, his wife, considers it childish. When Herbert wants to buy a new kite, Betty packs his bag and Herbert returns to his parents' house. Betty smashes the kite. The magistrate orders him to pay Betty alimony, twenty-five shillings a week, but Herbert don't obey the order and chooses the prison. "It may be that in some queer way he identifies himself with the kite flying so free and so high above him, and it's as it were an escape from the monotony of life. It may be that in some dim, confused way it represents an ideal of freedom and adventure, And you know, when a man once gets bitten with the virus of the ideal not all the King's doctors and not all the King's surgeons can rid him of it."
In 1927, Maugham left England amid scandal and moved to France, where he spent the rest of his life. Although he had married the popular Syrie Wellcome, Maugham throughout his marriage (and known to his wife) had maintained a relationship with an American man, Gerald Haxton. By 1927, the situation had become intolerable to Syrie, and they were divorced. Maugham bought a villa in Cap Ferat on the French Riviera, and Haxton, who had been deported from England, joined him there. Maugham enjoyed a royal lifestyle at the Villa Mauresque, and an invitation by Maugham to spend a few weeks there was highly prized by the literary and social elite. In spite of his relocation, he continued his disciplined habit of writing several hours every morning and his love of travel.
Maugham visited Chicago several times and once gave a lecture at the University of Chicago.
During World War II, Maugham lived in the United States and became a popular figure in Hollywood. Many of his stories and plays have been—and continue to be—made into motion pictures. "Rain" was filmed three times with Sadie Thompson first portrayed by Gloria Swanson, then by Joan Crawford, and finally by Rita Hayworth. After the war, Maugham returned to the Villa Mauresque, where he continued to write and entertain the rich and famous. He died in 1965 at the age of 91. The Maugham persona of the sophisticated world traveler and story teller, rather than the social dramatist, is his legacy.