The W. Somerset Maugham Collection brings together six novels and two collections of short fiction by one of the most widely read English writers of the twentieth century. Included are Liza of Lambeth, The Hero, Mrs. Craddock, The Magician, Of Human Bondage, and The Moon and Sixpence, together with The Trembling of a Leaf and Orientations. The Trembling of a Leaf presents Maugham's evocative stories of the South Seas, while Orientations, his early collection published in 1899, contains The Punctiliousness of Don Sebastian, A Bad Example, De Amicitia, Faith, The Choice of Amyntas, and Daisy. Across these works, Maugham explores love, marriage, ambition, artistic obsession, desire, betrayal, morality, social convention, and the struggle between individual freedom and the expectations of society. His settings range from London and provincial England to Spain and the South Seas, providing a varied backdrop for his penetrating examination of human character.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) was an English novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and travel writer whose literary career spanned more than six decades. Born in Paris and educated in England, Maugham studied medicine before turning to literature. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth, appeared in 1897, and he went on to produce such enduring works as The Hero, Mrs. Craddock, The Magician, Of Human Bondage, and The Moon and Sixpence. His experiences as a traveler and keen observer of society provided material for both his novels and short fiction, including the South Sea stories collected in The Trembling of a Leaf. His writing is distinguished by lucid, economical prose, irony, psychological insight, and a remarkably unsentimental understanding of human motives. Whether depicting ordinary lives constrained by social expectations or individuals willing to sacrifice convention in pursuit of love, ambition, or artistic freedom, Maugham consistently turns his attention to the choices, desires, and weaknesses that define human nature.
