W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham – Life, Career, and Famous Quotes

Explore the full life and works of W. Somerset Maugham: his biography, major works, quotations, literary style, and enduring influence on 20th-century literature.

Introduction

William Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was a British playwright, novelist, and short-story writer whose lucid, unpretentious style and sharp understanding of human nature won him vast popularity in his own time and a lasting readership thereafter. Born in Paris and educated in England and Germany, Maugham is best known for works such as Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, The Painted Veil, The Razor’s Edge, and the short stories collected in The Trembling of a Leaf.

Though he achieved great commercial success—at one point said to be the highest-paid author in the world—Maugham’s critical reputation has been more mixed, with detractors calling him less ambitious than his modernist contemporaries.

Even so, his penetrating observations on love, ambition, disillusionment, and the human soul give his work a resonance that endures. In this article, we explore his life, his major works, his personality, and some of his most famous quotes.

Early Life and Family

William Somerset Maugham was born on 25 January 1874 in Paris, France, to British parents. Robert Ormond Maugham, was a solicitor attached to the British Embassy in Paris, handling legal affairs. h Mary (née Snell), suffered from tuberculosis and died when Maugham was just eight years old.

Following their deaths, young William was sent to England, where he lived with his uncle, Reverend Henry MacDonald Maugham, a clergyman in Whitstable, Kent. Maugham’s early life was thus marked by loss, displacement, and a search for stability, experiences that would inform much of his later writing.

Youth and Education

Although born in France, Maugham’s upbringing and education were largely British in orientation. He was educated in England and also spent time in Germany, holding enrollment at Heidelberg University.

In his younger years, Maugham chose to study medicine. He was admitted to study in London and qualified as a physician in 1897, though he never practised medicine professionally.

His debut novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), was drawn from his experiences in the slums of London and employed his medical observations in a fictional setting.

After establishing a base in London, he devoted nights to writing while attending to his medical studies. Ultimately, his literary ambitions overtook his medical career, and he became a full-time writer.

Career and Achievements

Early Literary Breakthroughs

Maugham’s early writing was ambitious and prolific. By 1908 he had achieved considerable success as a dramatist: he had four plays running concurrently in the West End of London.

His early novels and plays built on his fluency in vernacular speech, psychological realism, and subtle character study. As his reputation grew, he balanced work in multiple genres: novels, plays, essays, and short stories.

War, Espionage, and Literary Maturation

During the First World War, though Maugham was too old for military enlistment, he volunteered with the British Red Cross in France as an ambulance driver. Frederick Gerald Haxton, with whom he shared an intimate relationship for nearly three decades until Haxton’s death in 1944.

He also engaged in intelligence work. In Switzerland during the war, he acted as a secret agent for British intelligence while using his author identity as plausible cover to travel and liaise with agents.

After the war, Maugham continued writing vigorously. Among his greatest novels is Of Human Bondage (published 1915), in many respects his signature work—an autobiographically inflected bildungsroman, exploring love, frustration, ambition, and the burdens of personal desire. The Moon and Sixpence (1919), The Painted Veil (1925), Cakes and Ale (1930), and The Razor’s Edge (1944).

In The Summing Up (1938), Maugham wrote a literary memoir covering much of his career and reflections on art, life, travel, and writing.

By the 1930s, his popularity was immense: he sold millions of books, and his financial success was considerable.

Later Years, Recognition, and Final Works

During the Second World War, Maugham spent significant time in the United States, writing and maintaining a modest lifestyle despite his wealth. He continued to publish, though he regarded The Razor’s Edge as likely his last major novel, given his advancing age.

After the war, he returned to the South of France (Cap Ferrat) and settled into a quiet life, writing occasional works and memoirs. Somerset Maugham Award, administered by the Society of Authors, to support young British authors.

His final years were complicated by health issues, legal disputes over his will, and controversies over his personal relationships. 15–16 December 1965, aged 91.

Historical Milestones & Context

• Maugham was active across two world wars, and his life spanned the late Victorian era, the Edwardian period, the turbulent interwar years, and postwar modernity.

• His career paralleled the rise of mass publishing, literary modernism, and the film/print culture of the 20th century.

• Maugham’s short stories and novels often explore colonial settings (e.g. in the Pacific, in Southeast Asia) and the encounters of Western characters with unfamiliar cultures—reflecting the global reach and moral ambiguities of imperialism. The Trembling of a Leaf (1921) is one such collection set in South Sea Islands.

• His influence extended into espionage fiction: his Ashenden stories, rooted in his real intelligence work, provided a prototype for the literary spy genre.

• While many modernist writers experimented with form and stream-of-consciousness, Maugham remained committed to clarity, narrative, and psychological insight. This placed him somewhat apart from the avant-garde, but accessible to a broad readership.

Legacy and Influence

Maugham’s legacy is multifaceted:

1. Commercial Success and Popular Appeal
   He sold vast numbers of books during his life, and many of his short stories and novels remain in print in multiple languages.

2. Literary Influence
   Though critics sometimes dismissed him as less daring than his modernist peers, he influenced writers such as Graham Greene, Christopher Isherwood, Kingsley Amis, and George Orwell. Ashenden stories had a direct impact on the development of spy fiction, influencing authors like Ian Fleming and John le Carré.

3. Critical Reassessment
   Over time, there has been renewed interest in Maugham’s craftsmanship, narrative skill, and psychological acuity. Some scholars argue that he represents a bridge between the Victorian/Edwardian tradition and modern sensibilities.

4. Cultural and Adaptation Footprint
   Many of his works have been adapted into films, television plays, and radio dramas (for example, The Painted Veil, The Razor’s Edge, Quartet, Trio, Encore). He also made media appearances introducing adaptations of his own work (e.g. “Somerset Maugham Theater”).

5. Awards and Endowment
   His establishment of the Somerset Maugham Award continues to encourage young literary talent.

Because his style is straightforward and accessible, many readers today discover him as an entry point into 20th-century literature, bridging the gap between classical narrative forms and modern psychological insight.

Personality and Talents

Maugham was known for being pragmatic, observant, somewhat cynical, and adept at social maneuvering. He combined a facility for travel, keen observation of settings and characters, and a mastery of simple but telling prose.

He was also known to stammer—he himself said that his stammer shaped much of his inner life and perhaps pushed him more deeply into writing.

His sexuality, lived discreetly in his time, and his long companion Haxton, remain subjects of biographical interest and debate.

He had a certain cosmopolitan balance: he loved travel, had homes in France, spent time in the United States, and moved fluidly through social circles, yet he never became pretentious or overly experimental in his style.

His writing talent lay in psychological insight, the capacity to sketch characters in a few strokes, and a moral clarity without sentimentality. He was not a grand stylist in the sense of flamboyant metaphors or experimental form, but he often expressed poignancy in everyday language.

Famous Quotes of W. Somerset Maugham

Here are some of Maugham’s most memorable and oft-cited lines:

“There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” “To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.” “The great tragedy of life is not that men perish, but that they cease to love.” “Perfection has one grave defect: it is apt to be dull.” “Simplicity and naturalness are the truest marks of distinction.” “People ask you for criticism, but they only want praise.” “It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent.” “One cannot find peace in work or in pleasure, in the world or in a convent, but only in one’s soul.” “If you don’t change your beliefs, your life will be like this forever. Is that good news?”

These quotations reflect recurring themes in his writing: the tension between idealism and realism, the limits of human control, the search for inner peace, and the sometimes harsh truths of human relationships.

Lessons from W. Somerset Maugham

From his life and work, we can draw several meaningful lessons:

1. Clarity over Ornamentation
   Maugham reminds us that power in prose often lies in simplicity. A well-chosen detail or direct observation can have more emotional weight than elaborate description.

2. Observation as a Writer’s Tool
   His strength came from attentive, unsentimental observation of human nature. To write about humanity, one must see people keenly and sympathetically.

3. Turning Hardship into Art
   Having lost both parents early and struggled with social and personal issues, Maugham often converted pain into insight rather than bitterness.

4. A Life of Discipline and Routine
   He maintained consistent writing habits, travel, and study—even when already famous—and avoided relying solely on inspiration.

5. Integrating the Visible and the Invisible
   Maugham balanced external detail (places, manners, events) with inner life (desires, doubts, regrets). His work teaches writers how to weave both realms.

6. Respect for Reader, Not Pretension
   He rarely writes down to the reader, but he also avoids unnecessary complexity. He trusted readers to follow honest narrative and human truth.

Conclusion

W. Somerset Maugham remains a distinctive figure in 20th-century literature. He occupies a niche: not quite avant-garde, not quite classical, but deeply readable, sharply observant, and quietly influential. His impact lies not in radical formal experiments but in the precision of his insight, the universality of his themes, and the staying power of his stories.

If you are drawn to psychological realism, moral dilemmas, and beautiful economy of language, Maugham’s works will continue to reward you. Explore Of Human Bondage, The Razor’s Edge, and The Summing Up, and ponder his timeless quotes.