Speaking about writers

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Literary destiny of William Somerset Maughan (1874-1965) is just paradoxical. A fruitful writer, who left more than a dozen novels, several books of memories, plenty of plays and short stories, his works still haven’t found their own place in English literature of the twentieth century.

He was born in Paris, started to speak French and only then English. He began studying in Germany. The second part of his long life he spent in the Mediterranean. And his most popular works are about the British, though about wandering British.

Maugham was called an “English Maupassant” and it is not by accident: he went through the French school of literary style. He called Voltaire his favourite author.

Yet admiring the French he went on to be just English writer. Maugham’s satire (making us recall Swift and Thackeray) is typically English. His adherence to the truth of life he was always aiming for, and “innate humanity” being seen through all his best works, associate with Dickens.

Maugham is not a stepchild of English refined literature, he is a writer who owes his literary ups and downs to the British literary traditions. Yet academic literary study still goes on disregarding Maugham undeservedly. In English language there are two terms to designate an author of fictional works – a writer and a story-teller. So Maugham as a rule is considered a story-teller. It should be said in all fairness that the writer, in his turn, in his interviews and essays spoke of the academic literary criticism with the same undisguised disregard.

Plays by Maugham with their finished dialogues and stage merits do not outstand the bounds of so called “a well-made play” presented in English literature by A.Pinero and J.Barrie. His novels and stories are absolutely different. “Rain” and “The Book -Bag” have already entered the classics of Britain literature, his novels “Of Human Bondage”, “The Moon and the Sixpence”, “Cakes and Ale”, “Theatre”, “The Razor’s Edge”, the book of memories “The Summing Up” are far from being of second-rank.

The literary style of some talented writers is able to hypnotize. Doubtless Maugham is talented. His peculiar autoirony, his chaffing the weak points of his own works, shaking frankness of his sayings about writer’s ethics – all this as if hypnotized critics. And they probably decided: if the author does not respect his own works, they do not have to admit these works to be worth serious considering. As a result “English Maupassant” still holds the place somewhere between “real literature” and “fiction”.

It is unfair. Maugham’s best novels and short stories contain everything necessary and sufficient to enter “serious” English literature and to take a proper place in it.

Spontaneous impression after reading books by Maugham is – the author knows what he is writing about. He is extremely exact at conducting the signs of time, space and social environment. His characters are given individuality; far not very handsome but pretty vivid individuality creating an illusion of pictorial image. The plot of Maugham’s works is, as a rule, simple, refine and amusing.

His best books do not lack great and important problems. Sense of human life (“Of Human Bondage”, 1915), nature of arts (“The Moon and the Sixpence”, 1919; “Theatre”, 1937) and of literature (“Cakes and Ale”, 1930), dogma and reality collision (“Rain”) – that’s what Maugham was interested in. But when he starts speaking about bourgeois moral and outlook of arts, the intonation of narrating and objective style give place to his brilliant irony.

Maugham possesses rare proportionality of sense contain, sound and sign “framing” of a phrase and even of a word. That’s why Maugham’s prose is so impressive at the absence of any style extravagance. His language can be called a standard of lively, vivid English literary language.

II. Put 15 questions to the text and discuss it with your mates. If you have ever read any books by Maugham, share your impressions with the group. Give some details of the plot.