Works concerning W. Somerset Maugham

Waldstein: Very useful source of trivia. Worth having only at a very low price. Sometimes sloppy or biased.

Waldstein: Recommended not so much on its own merits as on the demerits of the other three full-scale biographies (Morgan, Calder, Meyers). Useful for facts and figures.

Waldstein: Well-written book by a fellow globetrotter and sincere admirer. Fascinating research into some of Maugham's most famous South Sea stories ("Rain", "The Pool") and excerpts from interviews with Maugham himself. Both, however, must be taken with a healthy dose of cynicism. Mr Menard's research remains for the most part elusively unsourced and he is apt to mix interviews with published writings, sometimes quoted word for word, sometimes dubiously rehashed. Recommended with caution!

Waldstein: The finest critical study of Maugham's complete works. Period.

Waldstein: Invaluable research tool about the critical reception that Maugham received during his lifetime. Attempt the research at your own peril.

Waldstein: Decent critical study of Maugham's complete works, today of mostly historical interest as the first more or less complete attempt. Contains some insightful touches on the notorious description "enigmatic" that's often attached to Maugham. Biographically obsolete. As literary criticism, entirely dispensable.

Waldstein: Wonderful photographs. For them alone recommended. Mediocre text, briefly summarising Maugham's life, career and personality in a rather prejudiced manner.

Waldstein: Lavishly illustrated account of Maugham's plays, their first nights, casts, revivals (in England up to 1955!) and synopses, including generous excerpts from Maugham's own writings. There are quite a few mistakes, though, and some of the research (most notably the years of writing) is largely unfounded. But one must not be too harsh on Messrs. Mander and Mitchenson: their work was published before even the first version of Mr Stott's bibliography (1956), let alone Morgan's biography (1980), made Maugham's life and work much better known. In spite of its flaws, still an indispensable book.

Waldstein: By far the most comprehensive and authoritative bibliography of Maugham's complete works. It does contain quite a few mistakes and it does tend to be too much collector-orientated, neglecting the contents of the books in favour of their physical appearance. Nevertheless, this is the starting point of any bibliographical research. Supersedes all previous attempts by Mr Stott and others.

Waldstein: Useful supplement to Stott's bibliography; corrects some of his mistakes, adds important details here and there. Sloppy presentation, though. Errors and inaccuracies abound, the illustrations are hideous. Much too collector-orientated. Often echoes the same silly preconceptions that have been so fashionable ever since Morgan's biography was published.

Waldstein: Nicely illustrated and perceptively written appreciation of Maugham's work. Remarkably prescient for its time.

Waldstein: Pedestrian critical study, often tedious and misguided, but not entirely a waste of time. Some interesting bibliographical details.

Waldstein: This seems to be a decent introduction for Maugham beginners... Mr Stott calls it "a not uninteresting study of Maugham’s work, with some occasional shrewd comments."

Waldstein: Recommended only because of the photos. Mr Raphael's text is laboriously written and unduly prejudiced. He reads way too much in the same old cliches about WSM. The Mixture as Before - and After.

Waldstein: Short and useless. Very little new material compared to Morgan and Calder. Literary asinine.

Waldstein: Compassionate and sympathetic account marred by excessive detail and constant harping on homosexual matters.

Waldstein: It seems that the best about this book are the illustrations. Some rare photos here, all reproduced in excellent quality. Reviews by fellow Maughamaniacs are contradictory. After some desultory flipping through, Robin's account of his relatives seems to me unreliable: little is sourced, much is not or seems to come from dubious conversations.

Waldstein: Biographical essay that may serve, at best, as a very short introduction for perfect beginners. Nicely illustrated, though.

Waldstein: Based on reviews by fellow Maughamaniacs, this study looks worth skipping.

Waldstein: Nice photos (some of them hitherto unpublished) and several interesting excerpts from Maugham's letters (e.g. his disparaging Karl Pfeiffer's "candid portrait") do not in the least justify the exorbitant price of this book.

Waldstein: Based on a review by a fellow Maughamaniac, I wouldn't venture on reading this one.

Waldstein: Worthless. Grand on description, short on analysis.

Waldstein: Book version of Mr Holden's dissertation which is available free online. I have read only a few pages of it. But it was enough. Proceed at your own risk. Some quotes:

"Both men become actively involved in a collaborative process of interpretation, making sense of the incident, and implicitly making a clear demarcation between their own, objective and specular narration of the embedded narrative and the ungovernable passions of that narrative's protagonists."

"Narration thus provides a vicarious means of experiencing and curbing passions displaced onto the body of the memsahib, while the device of the framing narrative enables the reinscription of a medievalized Malaya in which ruling passions are sublimated, and everything remains in its proper place."

"...Maugham's sexual difference inverts the dyads of the text and threatens to form new alliances at cross purposes to those the narrative enforces... there is a "yellow streak" in the monumentalism of Maugham's short story that even the finest sutures of contradiction cannot close."

"Nevertheless, Chi Seng's discreetly extravagant mime of British couture suggests a potential appropriation of constructions of manliness based upon observation and somatic repression."

Waldstein : Not really worth reading. Compared Mr Curtis' critical study (#2) and illustrated biography (#15), this pamphlet is indeed wortheless.

Waldstein: Now this looks like another of Mr Rogal's exercises in futility...

Waldstein: Very much to his credit, Mr Calder remains the only one among the four biographers of Maugham (the other three being Morgan, Meyers and Hastings) who has also written a study of his works. This book is not as successful as it might look at first glance. It is limited to the novels, all other works being mentioned in passing, if that. The main argument is compelling but overdone; a lot of far-fetched speculations and quotations from dubious sources further detract from the book's value. Great appendices on Rosie's real foundations and Maugham's spy adventures during WWI, though. For them alone, recommended.

Waldstein: "The Skirmishers" by Desmond MacCarthy is a penetrating and brilliantly written discourse of Maugham's pen. Even better than the much more famous "The English Maupassant".

Waldstein: The finest illustrated biography. Magnificent visual journey. Text far superior to Raphael's barbed account.

Waldstein: Varied, insightful, touching and hard to navigate collection of anecdotes recorded by Mr Kanin. Light but pleasant read for every admirer of Maugham.

Waldstein: Short but powerful defence of Maugham against the highbrow critics. Contains also a fine piece by Maugham himself, titled "Sixty-Five" and reprinted in A Traveller in Romance (1984), ed. John Whitehead. The booklet also contains excerpts from contemporary reviews of most of Maugham's books and a highly dated Bibliography.

danielx: Contains "Red", my favorite of Maugham's short stories, in its original version. The review by Waldstein notes substantial changes/ improvements made in the version included in 1921's collection "The Trembling of a Leaf".

Waldstein: Apparently suitable only for die-hard fans of Mr Nichols.

Waldstein: A great deal of notoriety surrounds this book. Am scared of reading it.

Waldstein: Based on reviews by trusted fellow Maughamaniacs, this looks thoroughly unappetizing.