Liza of Lambeth

by W Somerset Maugham

Overview

LIZA OF LAMBETH is Maugham's first novel, and such is its power that it remains as vital today as when first written. Liza is a warm-hearted young girl, stifled by life in a London tenement.

Liza has been bred to it and externally can cope. But the heart is the problem: it craves love and affection.

"A fine book...shows all the promise of the author's later stories." (Editorial Reviews)

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781646796243
Publisher:	Cosimo Classics
Publication date:	01/01/1900
Pages:	202
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

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.

What People are Saying About This

George Orwell

I believe the modern writer who influenced me most is Somerset Maugham, whom I admire more intensely for his power of telling a story straightforwardly and without frills.

Editorial Reviews

"The modern writer who has influenced me the most." - George Orwell

"One of my favourite writers." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"A writer of great dedication." - Graham Greene

From the Publisher