Книга: Maugham W. Somerset «The Summing Up»

The Summing Up

Серия: "Vintage Classics"

Impelled by the desire to recapitulate and amplify those subjects that have chiefly interested me during the course of my life, Somerset Maugham wrote The Summing Up when he was sixty-four. Autobiographical without being an autobiography, confessional without disclosing the private self, The Summing Up is one of the most highly regarded expressions of a personal credo. It is not only a classic avowal of a professional author's ideas about style, literature, art, drama and philosophy, but also an illuminating insight into this great writer's craft.

Издательство: "Random House, Inc." (2011)

ISBN: 978-0-09-928689-9

Купить за 978 руб в My-shop

Другие книги автора:

КнигаОписаниеГодЦенаТип книги
MagicianSet in the bohemian cafe society of Paris at the turn of the nineteenth century, Maugham's exploration of hypnotism and the occult was inspired by the sinister black magician Aleister Crowley. At the… — Random House, Inc., - Подробнее...2000805бумажная книга

Maugham, W. Somerset

▪ British writer
in full  William Somerset Maugham  
born Jan. 25, 1874, Paris, Fr.
died Dec. 16, 1965, Nice
 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 King's 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 student's 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 Razor's Edge (1944), the story of a young American war veteran's quest for a satisfying way of life. Maugham's 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 Maugham's skill in handling plot, in the manner of Guy de Maupassant, is distinguished by economy and suspense. In The Summing Up (1938) and A Writer's Notebook (1949) Maugham explains his philosophy of life as a resigned atheism and a certain skepticism about the extent of man's innate goodness and intelligence; it is this that gives his work its astringent cynicism.

* * *

Источник: Maugham, W. Somerset

См. также в других словарях:

  • The Magician (Maugham novel) — The Magician   Author(s) W. Somerset Maugham Country …   Wikipedia

  • Summing the Approach — Infobox Album | Name = Summing the Approach Type = EP Artist = Ativin Released = 1999 05 04 Recorded = Genre = Instrumental rock Math Rock Hard rock Length = 21:46 Label = Secretly Canadian Producer = Last album = German Water (1999) This album …   Wikipedia

  • The Moon and Sixpence — This article is about the novel. For the film adaptation, see The Moon and Sixpence (film). The Moon and Sixpence   …   Wikipedia

  • The Secret Doctrine — For the Morgana Lefay album, see The Secret Doctrine (album). Part of a series on Theosophy Founders of th …   Wikipedia

  • summing up — ˌsumming ˈup noun summings up PLURALFORM [countable usually singular] LAW an occasion when a judge makes a statement at the end of a trial giving the main facts of the trial: • The judge, in his summing up, failed to direct the jury that the… …   Financial and business terms

  • summing-up — plural summings up n a statement giving the main facts but not the details of something, especially made by a judge at the end of a ↑trial ▪ In his summing up, the judge said that it was dangerous to convict on this evidence alone. →sum up(2) …   Dictionary of contemporary English

Поделиться ссылкой на выделенное

Прямая ссылка:
… Нажмите правой клавишей мыши и выберите «Копировать ссылку»