Liza of Lambeth by W Somerset Maugham
Somerset Maugham was a British novelist, short story writer and playwright. He was born in 1874 in Paris. During the 1930's his popularity soared and he became the highest paid author of his era. Maugham's father was a British lawyer working for the embassy in Paris. In France anyone born on French soil must serve in the army. To avoid this Maugham was born at the embassy, which was technically on British soil. After five years in medical school Maugham began a successful writing career. While Maugham worked in midwifery training in a London slum during medical school he learned about the working classes which later became a part of Liza of Lambeth. The story is about adultery and it's consequences. Maugham was one of the social realist writers who felt it necessary to write about working class people as accurately as possible. Toward the beginning of this work he wrote, .it is impossible always to give the exact unexpurgated words of Liza and the other personages of the story; the reader is therefore entreated with his thoughts to piece out the necessary imperfections of the dialogue. Liza of Lambeth was extremely popular with the first printing selling out in a few weeks.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. Born in Paris, he was orphaned as a boy and sent to live with an emotionally distant uncle. He struggled to fit in as a student at The King’s School in Canterbury and demanded his uncle send him to Heidelberg University, where he studied philosophy and literature. In Germany, he had his first affair with an older man and embarked on a career as a professional writer. After completing his degree, Maugham moved to London to begin medical school. There, he published Liza of Lambeth (1897), his debut novel. Emboldened by its popular and critical success, he dropped his pursuit of medicine to devote himself entirely to literature. Over his 65-year career, he experimented in form and genre with such works as Lady Frederick (1907), a play, The Magician (1908), an occult novel, and Of Human Bondage (1915). The latter, an autobiographical novel, earned Maugham a reputation as one of the twentieth century’s leading authors, and continues to be recognized as his masterpiece. Although married to Syrie Wellcome, Maugham considered himself both bisexual and homosexual at different points in his life. During and after the First World War, he worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service as a spy in Switzerland and Russia, writing of his experiences in Ashenden: Or the British Agent (1927), a novel that would inspire Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. At one point the highest-paid author in the world, Maugham led a remarkably eventful life without sacrificing his literary talent.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781513135694 |
| ISBN 10 | 1513135694 |
| Title | Liza of Lambeth |
| Author | W Somerset Maugham |
| Series | Mint Editions |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | West Margin Press |
| Year published | 2022-03-31 |
| Number of pages | 106 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |