“Maugham is a great artist. . . . A genius.” —Theodore Dreiser
“An expert craftsman. . . . His style is sharp, quick, subdued, casual.” —The New York Times
“Maugham has given infinite pleasure and left us a splendour of writing which will remain for as long as the written English word is permitted to exist.” —The Daily Telegraph
“The modern writer who has influenced me most is Somerset Maugham.” —George Orwell
“Maugham remains the consummate craftsman. . . . [His prose is] so compact, so economical, so closely motivated, so skillfully written, that it rivets attention from the first page to last.” —The Saturday Review of Literature
“It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham. . . . He was always so entirely there.” —Gore Vidal
Introduction by Pico Iyer
Select Bibliography
Chronology
A Very Young Traveller in Spain (from The Land of the Blessed Virgin)
The Spirit of Andalusia
The Churches of Ronda
The Mosque at Cordova
The Court of Oranges
Seville
The Giralda
Gaol
Corrida de Toros
Wind and Storm
Jerez
Cadiz
Adios
Sketches of China (from On a Chinese Screen)
My Lady’s Parlour
The Cabinet Minister
Dinner Parties: Legation Quarter
The Inn
Her Britannic Majesty’s Representative
The Last Chance
Henderson
Romance
The Song of the River
The Stranger
The Philosopher
The Missionary Lady
The Plain
A Student of the Drama
A City Built on a Rock
Across Southeast Asia (from The Gentleman in the Parlour)
Pagan
Mandalay
The Nuns at Mengon
On the Trail
The Salween
The Market
Keng Tung
The Solitary
Siam
Bangkok
Buddha
The Fever
Angkor
A Last Day in Angkor
Saigon and Tourane
Hue¨
A Night on the River
A Classmate in Haiphong
A Life in Retrospect (from The Partial View, comprising The Summing Up and A Writer’s Notebook)
Early Travels
Mobility
Capri
At War
Hawaii
The Missionary and Miss Thompson
A Castaway
Tahiti
Russia
The Nevsky Prospekt
Opium Dream
The Sultan
A Dream
India
Benares
The Taj
Madura
In Texas
