The following is a bibliography of the works of W. Somerset Maugham, one of the most prolific and popular English writers of the 20th century.
Liza of Lambeth (1897)
[A slum novel. Maugham's first book ever. Its modest success was enough for Maugham to leave medicine and become a professional writer.]
The Making of a Saint (1898)
[A historical novel of Renaissance Italy.]
The Hero (1901)
[A social satire. Maugham would later use, broadly speaking, the same plot in his play The Unknown, 1920.]
Mrs Craddock (1902)
[A 'feminist' novel. Censored by Heinemann for being too sexually explicit. Published after but actually written before The Hero.]
The Merry-go-round (1904)
[A multiplot novel. One of the subplots is taken straight from the play A Man of Honour, 1902.]
The Bishop's Apron (1906)
[A potboiler by way of novelised play: Loaves and Fishes, 1902. No modern edition!]
The Explorer (1908)
[A potboiler by way of novelised play: The Explorer, 1899]
The Magician (1908)
[A Black magic novel.]
Of Human Bondage (1915)
[Maugham's first true masterpiece – in terms of both style and content.]
The Moon and Sixpence (1919)
[Maugham's first 'exotic' novel. Based extremely loosely on the life of Paul Gauguin.]
The Painted Veil (1925)
[Maugham's second 'exotic' novel.]
Cakes and Ale: or, the Skeleton in the Cupboard (1930)
[Maugham's most devastating literary satire.]
The Narrow Corner (1932)
[Maugham's third and last 'exotic' novel.]
Theatre (1937)
[Maugham's tribute to the vocation of an actress.]
Christmas Holiday (1939)
[A disturbing story set in Paris and inspired by a murder trial which the author attended there.]
Up at the Villa (1941)
[Maugham's shortest novel, or longest short story if you like.]
The Hour Before Dawn (1942)
[Maugham's worst mature novel. Pure propaganda. He never allowed it to be reprinted in England.]
The Razor's Edge (1944)
[Maugham's 'mystical' novel. Also, his last major one.]
Then and Now (1946)
[A historical novel of Renaissance Italy. Vastly different than Maugham's first attempt – 48 years ago]
Catalina (1948)
[Maugham's last work of fiction: something between romance and fairy tale set in XVI century Spain.]
See the short story section for more information as regards contents and publication history.
The Land of the Blessed Virgin: Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia (1905)
[Maugham's first travel book - and the only typical one. Unusually florid style for Maugham.]
On A Chinese Screen (1922)
[Maugham's first mature travel book. Contains 58 short sketches from his sojourn in China, 1919/20.]
Contents
I The Rising of the Curtain - II My Lady's Parlour - III The Mongol Chief - IV The Rolling Stone - V The Cabinet Minister - VI Dinner Parties - VII The Altar of Heaven - VIII The Servants of God - IX The Inn - X The Glory Hole - XI Fear - XII The Picture - XIII His Britannic Majesty's Representative - XIV The Opium Den - XV The Last Chance - XVI The Nun - XVII Henderson - XVIII Dawn - XIX The Point of Honour - XX The Beast of Burden - XXI Dr Macalister - XXII The Road - XXIII God's Truth - XXIV Romance - XXV The Grand Style - XXVI Rain - XXVII Sullivan - XXVIII The Dining-Room - XXIX Arabesque - XXX The Consul - XXXI The Stripling - XXXII The Fannings - XXXIII The Song of the River - XXXIV Mirage - XXXV The Stranger - XXXVI Democracy - XXXVII The Seventh Day Adventist - XXXVIII The Philosopher - XXXIX The Missionary Lady - XL A Game of Billiards - XLI The Skipper - XLII The Sights of the Town - XLIII NIghtfall - XLIV The Normal Man - XLV The Old Timer - XLVI The Plain - XLVII Failure - XLVIII A Student of the Drama - XLIX The Taipan - L Metempsychosis - LI The Fragment - LII One of the Best - LIII The Sea-Dog - LIV The Question - LV The Sinologue - LVI The Vice-Consul - LVII A City Built on a Rock - LVIII A Libation to the Gods
Note.
The Consul and The Taipan were later published under the same titles in The Complete Short Stories (1951). They also appeared in magazines in 1922 (The Consul as Mr Pete.)
The Gentleman in the Parlour: A Record of a Journey From Rangoon to Haiphong (1930)
Notes.
Five chapters were published in The Complete Short Stories under different titles as follows: Chapter VI - Mabel. Chapter X - Masterson. Chapter XXXII - Princess September. Chapter XXXIV - A Marriage of Convenience. Chapter XLIII - Mirage.
A Marriage of Convenience is of course a rewritten version of the early short story with the same name that is reprinted in Seventeen Lost Stories (1969); the later version appeared in magazine under the same title and so did Mirage (both in 1929). In magazines Masterson and Princess September were published as On the Road to Mandalay (1929) and The Princess and the Nightingale (1922), respectively.
Mirage, Princess September and A Marriage of Convenience also appeared as The Opium Addict, September's Bird and The French Governor, respectively, in a volume titled The Maugham Reader (1950, Doubleday, with an Introduction by Glenway Wescott).
Don Fernando (1935)
[Maugham's mature tribute to his beloved Spain. Collection of essays separated into chapters, so to say.]
The Summing Up (1938)
[Maugham's most personal and profound book. No autobiography. Candid self-portrait and outlook.]
France At War (1940)
[More like a pamphlet. Pure propaganda. To raise the morale of the English by making them aware of the 'heroic' French resistance.]
Books and You (1940)
[Maugham's brief but worth considering recommendations for reading that may enrich your personality.]
This book consists of three magazine articles with reading recommendations collected together. Originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post as Books and You (4 February 1939), You and Some More Books (11 March 1939) and The Classic Books of America (6 January 1940). The book was published in March 1940.
Strictly Personal (1941)
[One of the very few times when Maugham did write autobiography. Describes his flight from France during the Second World War.]
Great Novelists and Their Novels (1948)
[Collection of essays on ten novels and their authors. Later expanded as Ten Novels and Their Writers, 1954]
Contents:
All essays but the one about Tolstoy appeared in Atlantic Monthly between November 1947 and July 1948. All ten pieces served as introductions to abridged versions of the novels published by Winston (1948–49). The abridgement was done by Maugham.
A Writer’s Notebook (1949)
[Maugham's notes, 1892–1941. Contains also two postscripts, from 1944 and 1949, and original preface.]
The Vagrant Mood (1952)
[Six essays.]
Augustus - Zurbaran - The Decline and Fall of the Detective Story - After Reading Burke - Reflections on a Certain Book - Some Novelists I Have Known
Ten Novels and Their Authors (1954)
[Significantly expanded version of Great Novelists.... New concluding chapter. The introductory essay titled The Art of Fiction]
All essays, including the introductory and concluding chapters, in this volume appeared on the pages of Sunday Times serialised as Somerset Maugham and the Greatest Novels (June–October, 1954).
Points of View (1958)
[Five essays. Maugham's last full-length book, as announced by himself.]
The Three Novels of a Poet - The Saint - Prose and Dr. Tillotson - The Short Story - Three Journalists
The Complete Short Stories. Heinemann, 1951, 3 vols.
Reprinted in 1952. Contains 91 short stories: 84 from all collections but Orientations (1899) and 7 pieces from the travel books: two from On A Chinese Screen (1922) and five from The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930). Maugham also wrote a New Preface to each volume and arranged the order in which the stories appear.
The Complete Short Stories. Doubleday, 1952, 2 vols., First American Edition.
Reprinted by The Reprint Society in 1954. The same 91 short stories as in the Heinemann edition above but with completely different Prefaces. Vol. 1 is titled East and West, was first published in 1934, also under the English title Altogether, and contains new 26 pp preface on the art of short story. Vol. 2 is titled The World Over, was first published in 1952 and contains new 8 pp preface. Both prefaces are reprinted in Selected Prefaces and Introductions (1963) with minor omissions done on Maugham's request.
The Collected Plays. Heinemann, 1952, 3 vols.
Contain 18 plays and New Preface to each volume. First published in 1931–34 in 6 vols., as a beginning of The Collected Edition. The plays in the 1952 edition are identical, the prefaces were only slightly adjusted.
I. Lady Frederick - Mrs. Dot - Jack Straw - Penelope - Smith - The Land of Promise.
II. Our Betters - The Unattainable - Home and Beauty - The Circle - The Constant Wife - The Breadwinner.
III. Caesar`s Wife - East of Suez - The Sacred Flame - The Unknown - For Services Rendered - Sheppey.
The Selected Novels. Heinemann, 1953, 3 vols.
Contain 9 novels and New Preface to each volume.
I. Liza of Lambeth - Cakes and Ale - Theatre
II. The Moon and Sixpence - The Narrow Corner - The Painted Veil
III. Christmas Holiday - Up at the Villa - The Razor's Edge
Note. The prefaces to the first two volumes are taken almost verbatim from the corresponding pieces Maugham wrote for The Collected Edition nearly two decades ago; the exception is Cakes and Ale, the preface to which is similar to the one Maugham wrote for the Modern Library edition in 1950. The third volume, however, is another matter: this is the only place where Maugham wrote about these three novels.
The Partial View. Heinemann, 1954.
Contains The Summing Up (1938) and A Writer's Notebook (1949) in one volume with new 5pp preface.
The Travel Books. Heinemann, 1955.
Contains On A Chinese Screen (1922), The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930), Don Fernando (1935) in one volume with new preface. The parts about the first two books are copied from the prefaces for The Collected Edition, but the part about Don Fernando is unique in Maugham's oeuvre.
Selected Prefaces and Introductions. Doubleday, 1963. Reprinted by Heinemann in 1964.
The Art of Fiction from Ten Novels and their Authors (1954) - Preface to A Writer's Notebook (1949) - Foreword to Of Human Bondage (1915) - Excerpt from the Preface to Vol. III of The Collected Plays (1931) - Prefaces to both volumes of the First American edition of The Complete Short Stories - General Introduction to Traveller's Library (1933) - Introduction to Tellers of Tales (1939) - Introduction to A Choice of Kipling's Prose (1952)
Note.
The date given for the Foreword to Of Human Bondage is incorrect. It was written in 1936 for the First Illustrated Edition by Doubleday.
Collected Short Stories, 4 vols, paperback. The same 91 short stories as above. The order is slightly modified, the prefaces are virtually the same as in the definitive Heinemann edition from 1951. Published numerous times: Penguin, 1963; Mandarin, 1990; Vintage, 2000–2002, to name but a few. The Vintage edition is the only one still in print, but all others can easily be found second hand, often at embarrassingly cheap prices.
Tha Maugham Reader, Doubleday, 1950.
With Introduction by Glenway Wescott and Frontispiece portrait of portrait by Graham Sutherland. Pagination: xxxvi, 1217 pp. [Stott]. Contains 2 novels, 2 plays, 14 short stories, 1 essay and the complete The Summing Up (1938), all previously published but some under very different titles:
The Painted Veil - Jane - The Opium Addict - The Facts of Life - Rain - The Treasure - The Outstation - The French Governor - Our Betters - The Summing Up - The Constant Wife - Red - A String of Beads - The Door of Opportunity - September's Bird - The Alien Corn - The Round Dozen - The Vessel of Wrath - Christmas Holiday - El Greco
September's Bird, The Opium Addict and The French Governor are alternative titles for Princess September, Mirage and A Marriage of Convenience, respectively; the latter can be found in The Complete Short Stories editions as well, occasionally with very slight textual changes; all three stories also appeared in The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930), as chapters XXXII, XLIII and XXXIV, respectively. So far as can currently be ascertained, the alternative titles in The Maugham Reader were never used before or since in any other volume with Maugham's works.
El Greco is reprint from Don Fernando (1935; Revised, 1950) where the piece is not titled. The version here was most probably taken from the revised edition.
Mr. Maugham Himself, Doubleday, 1954.
Selected and with Introduction by John Beecroft. Pagination: x, 688 pp. [Stott]. Contains 1 novel, 2 short stories, 2 essays, excerpts from A Writer's Notebook (1949) and the complete The Summing Up (1938), all previously published:
Of Human Bondage - Some Novelists I Have Known - Mr Harrington's Washing - The Book Bag - El Greco - The Summing Up - Excerpts from 'A Writer's Notebook'.
The so called Excerpts from A Writer's Notebook are actually the two postscripts that Maugham wrote in 1944 and 1949; both are of course part of the original edition of the book. Remarkably, this reprinting of The Summing Up contains a unique postscript which is actually a condensed version of Maugham's preface for The Partial View (1954).
Contains 17 early short stories first published between 1899 and 1908, including the six that made Maugham first published collection, Orientations (1899). None of the other 11 had ever appeared in book form before but they were all published in magazines between 1900 and 1908. Includes the early versions of A Marriage of Convenience, The Luncheon and The Happy Couple (See Notes below).
Notes
Contains 65 short pieces spanning 63 years of Maugham's life never published before in any of his books: prefaces and introductions to the works of others, magazine articles, book reviews, curtain-raisers. Almost exclusively non-fiction but it does contain also four short stories, three early ones published in magazines before the First World War and The Buried Talent: first published as late as 1934 but, mysteriously, never reprinted in book form during Maugham's lifetime; the only mature short story of his to have such unusual publishing history.
CURTAIN-RAISERS
1. Marriages are made in Heaven, Venture (1903).
2. A Rehearsal, The Sketch (1905).
ON PLAYERS AND PLAYWRIGHTS
1. Introduction to The Truth at Last by Charles Hawtrey (1924)
2. Preface to Our Puppet Show by Francis de Croisset (1929)
3. Introduction to Bitter-Sweet and Other Plays by Noel Coward (1929)
4. Foreword to Gallery Unreserved by A. Galleryite [F. T. Bason] (1931)
5. Tribute to Marie Tempest, Souvenir Programme (1935)
6. Gladys Cooper - Introduction to Without veils by Sewell Stokes (1953)
ON PAINTERS AND PAINTING
1. Gerald Kelly - A Student of Character, International Studio (1914)
2. Gerald Kelly - Preface to An Exhibition of Paintings by Sir Gerald Kelly, The Leicester Galleries, London (1950).
3. Preface to Catalogue of exhibition Flower Paintings by Marie Laurencin (1934)
4. Paintings I Have Liked, Life (1941)
5. Preface to Peter Arno's Cartoon Review (1942)
6. The Lady from Poonah - Maugham's speech given on 2 May 1951 at the Royal Academy's Annual Banquet in London. Condensed version printed in News Chronicle (1951).
7. Introduction to The Artist and the Theatre by Raymond Mander and Joe Mitcheson (1955)
8. On Having My Portrait Painted, Horizon (1959)
9. On Selling My Collection of Impressionist and Modern Pictures - Preface to Sotheby's Auction Catalogue (1962).
ON WRITERS AND WRITING
1. On Writing for the Films, North American Review (1921)
2. Novelist or Bond Salesman, Bookman (N. Y.) (1925)
3. On Prefaces, Critics and a Novel - Preface to Two Made Their Bed by Louis Marlow (1929).
4. Preface to The House with Green Shutters by George Douglas (1938)
5. Introduction to his anthology Modern English and American Literature (1943)
6. Write About What You Know, Good Housekeeping (1943)
7. Variations on a Theme Dorothy Parker - Introduction to Dorothy Parker, Viking Portable Library (1944).
8. A Plan to Encourage Young Writers - Maugham's Address given on 30 September 1950 at the Book and Author Luncheon in Hotel Astor, N. Y., New York Herald Tribune (1950).
9. On Story-Telling - Address given at the National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, on 17 October 1950. Reprinted in 1950.
10. Preface to Letters from Madame de la Marquise de Sevigne edited by Violet Hammersley (1955)
BOOK REVIEWS
1. The Ionian Sea by George Gissing, Sunday Sun (1901)
2. Growing-Up - Twenty-Five by Beverly Nichols, Sunday Times (1926)
3. Books of the Year, Sunday Times (1955)
ON HIS OWN WORK
1. How Novelists Draw Their Characters, Bookman (1922)
2. Preface to A Bibliography of the Writings of W. Somerset Maugham by F. T. Bason (1931)
3. Of Human Bondage: With Digression on the Art of Fiction - Address given by Maugham on 20 April 1946 to the Library of Congress (1946).
4. Behind the Story, Wings (1946)
5. By A Way of Preface to A Comprehensive Exhibition of Writings of W. Somerset Maugham (1958)
SHORT STORIES
1. The Spanish Priest, Illustrated London News (1906)
2. The Making of Millionaire, Lady's Realm (1906)
3. A Traveller in Romance, Printer's Pie Annual (1909)
4. The Buried Talent, Nash's Magazine (1934)
WARTIME ARTICLES IN AMERICA
1. In the Bus, Allied Relief Ball Souvenir Program (1940)
2. Reading Under Bombing, Living Age (1940)
3. The Culture That is to Come, Redbook (1941)
4. The Noblest Act, This Week (1942)
5. Why D'You Dislike Us?, Saturday Evening Post (1942)
6. To Know about England and the English, Publishers' Weekly (1942)
7. Morale Made in American, Redbook (1942)
8. Virtue, Redbook (1943)
9. Reading and Writing and You, Redbook (1943)
10. We Have a Common Heritage, Redbook (1943)
11. What Reading Can Do For You, Life Story Magazine (1945)
12. 'Above all, love...', Rotarian (1952)
ON PEOPLE AND PLACES
1. My South Sea Island, Daily Mail (1922)
2. Preface to What a Life! by Doris Arthur-Jones (1932)
3. The Terrorist: Boris Savinkov, Redbook (1943)
4. Spanish Journey, Continental Daily Mail (1948)
5. From Nelson Doubleday 1889-1949, privately printed (1950)
6. Eddie Marsh - Proof-Reading as an Avocation, Publishers' Weekly (1939).
7. Eddie Marsh - From Sketches for a composite literary portrait of Sir Edward Marsh, London, Lund Humphries, (1953).
8. Foreword to Memoirs of Aga Khan (1954)
ON HIMSELF
1. On the Approach of Middle Age, Vanity Fair (1923)
2. Self-Portrait, from Portraits and Self-Portraits by G. Schreiber (1936)
3. Sixty-Five, in W. Somerset Maugham: Novelist, Essayist, Dramatist, A pamphlet about his work, together with a Bibliography, an Appreciation by Richard Aldington. and New Note on Writing by Mr Maugham (1939)
4. On Playing Bridge
4.1. Introduction to Standard Book of Bidding by C. H. Goren (1944)
4.2. How I Like to Play Bridge, Good Housekeeping (1944)
5. Looking Back on Eighty Years, Listener, Home Service Broadcast on 28 January 1954
6. On His Ninetieth Birthday - W. Somerset Maugham talking to Ewan MacNaughton, Sunday Express (1964)
Notes
Table of Contents:
General Introduction by W. Somerset Maugham
A NOVEL - Nocturne by Frank Swinnerton
SHORT STORIES - Section I - Note by W. Somerset Maugham - Youth by Joseph Conrad - An Outpost of Progress by Joseph Conrad - The Happy Hypocrite by Max Beerbohm - Enoch by Max Beerbohm - The Inmost Light by Arthur Machen - The Country of the Blind by H. G. Wells - The Celestial Omnibus by E. M. Forster - Io by Oliver Onions - The Second-Class Passenger by Perceval Gibbon - The Ginger-Nut by A. Neil Lyons - Bringing a New Boy by C. S. Evans - The Prussian Officer by D. H. Lawrence - The Tillotson Banquet by Aldous Huxley -
ESSAYS - Section I - Note by W. Somerset Maugham - Swinburne by Edmund Gosse - Robert Louis Stevenson by Edmund Gosse - No. 2 The Pines by Max Beerbohm - Wordsworth in the Tropics by Aldous Huxley - Reminiscences on Conrad by John Galsworthy - A Hermit's Day by Desmond MacCarthy - Dr Burney's Evening Party by Virginia Woolf - How to Know a Good Book from a Bad by H. W. Garrod -
POEMS - Section I - Note by W. Somerset Maugham - The Making of a Poet by Roy Campbell - The Serf by Roy Campbell - Horses on Camargue by Roy Campbell - On Some South African Novelists by Roy Campbell - Blighters by Siegfried Sassoon - Base Details by Siegfried Sassoon - Idyll by Siegfried Sassoon - Vision by Siegfried Sassoon - Everyone Song by Siegfried Sassoon - Tarantella by Hilaire Belloc - Lines to a Don by Hilaire Belloc - The Statue by Hilaire Belloc - On a Dead Hostess by Hilaire Belloc - On a Great Election by Hilaire Belloc - Partly From the Greek by Hilaire Belloc - Autumn Evening by Frances Cornford - To a Lady Seen From the Train by Frances Cornford - In the Caves of Auvergne by W. I. Turner - The Bull by Ralph Hodgson - The Mystery by Ralph Hodgson - Leisure by William H. Davies - Sea-Fever by John Masefield - I See His Blood Upon the Rose by Joseph Plunkett - The Rio Grande by Sacheverell Sitwell
A NOVEL - Note - On Arnold Bennett by W. Somerset Maugham [Reprinted in Some Novelists I Have Known from The Vagrant Mood, 1952] - The Old Wives' Tales by Arnold Bennett -
POEMS - Section II - Note by W. Somerset Maugham - A Passer-By by Robert Bridges - On a Dead Child by Robert Bridges - Nightingales by Robert Bridges - Renouncement by Alice Meynell - The Hound of Heaven by Francis Thompson - The Kingdom of God (In No Strange Land) by Francis Thompson - The Soldier by Rupert Brooke - The Hill by Rupert Brooke - The Old Vicarage, Grantchester by Rupert Brooke - Heaven by Rupert Brooke - An Epitaph by Walter de la Mare - The Three Strangers by Walter de la Mare - The Little Salamander by Walter de la Mare - Arabia by Walter de la Mare - The Listeners by Walter de la Mare - The Golden Journey to Samarkand: Prologue by James Elroy Flecker - War Song of the Saracens by James Elroy Flecker - The Old Ships by James Elroy Flecker - Brumana by James Elroy Flecker - Hyali by James Elroy Flecker - Down by the Sally Garden by William Butler Yeats - The Lake Isle of Innisfree by William Butler Yeats - When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats - To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to a Nothing by William Butler Yeats - That Night Come by William Butler Yeats -
ESSAYS - Section II - Note by W. Somerset Maugham - Florence Nightingale by Lytton Strachey - Religion and Science: Old Wine in New Bottles by Julian Huxley - The Last Judgment by J. B. S. Haldane - On the Value of Scepticism by Bertrand Russell - Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness by Bertrand Russell - A Free Man's Worship by Bertrand Russell - A Night at Pietramala by Aldous Huxley -
SHORT STORIES - Section II - Note by W. Somerset Maugham - Mrs. Johnson by Norah Hoult - The Machine Breaks Down by Osbert Sitwell - The Man With the Broken Nose by Michael Arlen - Biography by Martin Armstrong - The Poet and the Mandrill by Martin Armstrong - The Big Drum by William Gerhardi - Pictures by Katherine Mansfield - Psychology by Katherine Mansfield - Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield - The Marquis de Chaumant by Harold Nicolson - Arketall by Harold Nicolson - Lady Into Fox by David Garnett - Louise by Saki (H. H. Munro) - Tabermory by Saki (H. H. Munro) - Esme by Saki (H. H. Munro) -
A NOVEL - Note by W. Somerset Maugham - Trent's Last Case by E. C. Bentley -
Table of Contents:
Introduction by W. Somerset Maugham
Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving - The Stout Gentleman by Washington Irving - La Grande Breteche by Honore de Balzac - The Gray Champion by Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Crimson Curtain by Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly - The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe - A Simple Heart by Gustave Flaubert - Krambambuli by Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach - The Outcasts of Poker Flat by Francis Bret Harte - Olympe and Henriette by Villiers de l'Isle Adam - - The Three Strangers by Thomas Hardy - The Jolly Corner by Henry James - The Procurator of Judaea by Anatole France - Youth by Karl Emil Franzos - Markheim by Robert Louis Stevenson - The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant - The Legacy by Guy de Maupassant - Useless Mouths by Octave Mirbeau - The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde - The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans by Arthur Conan Doyle - Typhoon by Joseph Conrad - The Fate of the Baron by Arthur Schnitzler - The Whirlgig of Life by O. Henry - Without Visible Means by Arthur Morrison - The Stricken Doe by Pierre Mille - The Monkey's Paw by W. W. Jacobs - The Coach by Violent Hunt - The Last Visit by Tristan Bernard - The Man Who Would be King by Rudyard Kipling - Without Benefit of Clergy by Rudyard Kipling - Papago Wedding by Mary Austin - Uncle Franz by Ludwig Thoma - The Door in the Wall by H. G. Wells - An Experiment of Misery by Stephen Crane - Tobermory by Saki - To Build a Fire by Jack London - The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy - The Toupee Artist by Nicolai Lyeskov - Mouzhiks by Anton Chekhov - Twenty-Six and One by Maxim Gorky - Sunstroke by Ivan Bunin - Captain Ribnikov by Alexander Kuprin - Hydromel by Vassili Iretsky - Without Cherry Blossom by Pantaleimon Romanof - In the Town of Berdichev by Vassili Grossman - Hunger by Alexander Neweroff - Romance by Vera Inber - ''Earth of the Hands by Boris Pilnjak - A Letter by Isaac Babel - The Child by Vsevolod Ivanov - The Customer by Georgy Peskov - The Knives by Valentine Katayev - Pippo Spano by Heinrich Mann - Old Rogaum and His Theresa by Theodore Dreiser - A. V. Laider by Max Beerbohm - The Amulet by Jacob Wassermann - Cavalry Patrol by Hugo von Hofmannsthal - Seeds by Sherwood Anderson - The Other Woman by Sherwood Anderson - Early Sorrow by Thomas Mann - Mr and Mrs Abbey's Difficulties by E. M. Forster - The Invisible Collection by Stefan Zweig - Uncle Fred Flits By by P. G. Wodehouse - In the Last Coach by Leonhard Frank - Counterparts by James Joyce - The Tragedy of Goupil by Louis Pergaud - Odour of Chrysanthemums by D. H. Lawrence - The Chink by Alexandre Arnoux - Haircut by Ring Lardner - Champion by Ring Lardner - A Balaam by Arnold Zweig - Old Man Minick by Edna Ferber - The Golden Beetle by Bruno Frank - The Catalan Night by Paul Morand - Silent Snow, Secret Snow by Conrad Aiken - The Lovely Day by Jacques de Lacretelle - On the Farm by Hans Friedrich Blunck - The Killers by Ernest Hemingway - The Strangers by Katherine Mansfield - The House of Mourning by Franz Werfel - A Start in Life by Ruth Suckow - The Desert Islander by Stella Benson - Big Blonde by Dorothy Parker - Orphant Annie by Thyra Samter Winglow - Nuns at Luncheon by Aldous Huxley - The Rich Boy by F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Imposition by L. A. G. Strong - Turn About by William Faulkner - The Doll by J. Kessel - Reduced by Elizabeth Bowen - Maria Concepcion by Katherine Anne Porter - The Cherry Feast by Ernst Glaeser - No More Trouble for Jedwick by Louis Paul - If You Can't Be Good, Be Cautious by T. O. Beachcroft - The Ball by Irene Nemirovsky - Kneel to the Rising Sun by Erskine Caldwell - The Novaks by Christopher Isherwood - Convalescence by Kay Boyle - The Station by H. E. Bates - Oklahoma Race Riot by Frances W. Prentice -
Table of Contents:
Introduction by W. Somerset Maugham
[Commentary by WSM. Short stories:] - Petrified Man by Eudora Welty - The Visit by Andy Logan - The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze by William Saroyan -
[Commentary by WSM. Letters:] - An Airman's to His Mother, Anonymous - Three War Letters from Britain -
[Commentary by WSM. Poems:] - Boy with His Hair Cut Short by Muriel Rukeyser - The Express by Stephen Spender - In Railway Halls by Stephen Spender - What I Expected by Stephen Spender - Birmingham by Louis MacNeice - Tempt Me No More by Cecil Day Lewis - Look, Stranger, at This Island Now by W. H. Auden - A Shilling Life Will Give All the Facts by W. H. Auden - As I Walked Out One Evening by W. H. Auden - No Doubt Left. Enough Deceiving by James Agee -
[Commentary by WSM. Short stories:] - The Gift by John Steinbeck - The Erne from the Coast by T. O. Beachcroft - Maria by Elizabeth Bowen - The People vs Abe Lathan, Colored by Erskine Caldwell - Night Club by Kathrine Brush - The Lily by H. E. Bates - Mary by John Collier - Brotherhood by H. A. Manhood -
[Commentary by WSM. Essays:] - Let Freedom Ring by Alva Johnston - Art and Isadora by John Dos Pasos -
[Commentary by WSM. Poems:] - To a Fat Lady Seen from the Train by Frances Cornford - Unfortunate Coincidence by Dorothy Parker - Godspeed by Dorothy Parker - Social Note by Dorothy Parker - Indian Summer by Dorothy Parker - Healed by Dorothy Parker - Kindly Unhitch that Star, Buddy by Ogden Nash - If You Can't Eat, You Got To by E. E. Cummings - The Noster Was a Ship of Swank by E. E. Cummings - The Fish by Marianne Moore - In Westminster Abbey by John Betjeman - On His Books by Hilaire Belloc - On Noman, a Guest by Hilaire Belloc - On Lady Poltagrue by Hilaire Belloc - Epitaph on the Politician by Hilaire Belloc - Another on the Same by Hilaire Belloc - Fatigue by Hilaire Belloc - On a Dead Hostess by Hilaire Belloc - On Some South African Novelists by Roy Campbell -
[Commentary by WSM. Short stories:] - Babylon Revisited by F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway - A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner - Bill's Eyes by William March - Defeat by Osbert Sitwell - Legend of the Crooked Coronet by Michael Arlen -
[Commentary by WSM. Letters:] - Letter to T. D. D. by D. H. Lawrence - Letter to Lady Ottoline Morrell by D. H. Lawrence - Letter to Herbert S. Houston by Walter Hines Page - Letter to Mr Wu by Oliver Wendell Holmes - Letter to Mrs Winthrop Chanler by John Jay Chapman - Letter to William James by John Jay Chapman - Letter to His Wife by John Jay Chapman - Letter to Mrs Winthrop Chanler by John Jay Chapman - Letter to S. S. Drury by John Jay Chapman -
[Commentary by WSM. Poems:] - For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon - Everyone Sang by Siegfried Sassoon - From My Diary by Wilfrid Owen - Greater Love by Wilfrid Owen - Breakfast by Wilfrid Owen - The Soldier by Rupert Brooke - I Have a Rendezvous with Death by Alan Seeger - The Song of the Ungirt Runners by Charles Hamilton Sorley - - Epitaph on an Army of Mercenaries by A. E. Housman -
[Commentary by WSM. Short stories:] - The Avenging Chance by Anthony Berkeley - The Crime in Nobody's Room by Carter Dickson - A Man Called Spade by Dashiell Hammett -
[Commentary by WSM. Poems:] - Ash-Wednesday by T. S. Eliot - The Hollow Men by T. S. Eliot - Mr Eliot's Sunday Morning Service by T. S. Eliot -
[Commentary by WSM. Essays:] - Comfort by Aldous Huxley - Mary Wollstonecraft by Virginia Woolf - What I Believe by E. M. Forster - How Writing in Written by Gertrude Stein -
[Commentary by WSM. Short stories:] - The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet - - Flowering Judas by Katherine Anne Porter - The Greatest Man in the World by James Thurber - There's Money in Poetry by Konrad Berkovici - The Foghorn by Gertrude Atherton -
[Commentary by WSM. Poems:] - Chicago by Carl Sandburg - Leisure by William Henry Davies - What Lips My Lips Have Kissed by Edna St. Vincent Millay - O World, Be Nobler by Lawrence Binyon - Blue Girls by John Crave Ransom - Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens - Shine, Perishing Republic by Robinson Jeffers - Promise of Peace by Robinson Jeffers - The Call by Charlotte Mew -
[Commentary by WSM. Essays:] - Dr Arnold by Lytton Strachey - Phineas Taylor Barnum by Gamaliel Bradford -
[Commentary by WSM. Short stories:] - At the End of the Passage by Rudyard Kipling - Roman Fever by Edith Wharton - I'm a Fool by Sherwood Anderson - The Golden Honeymoon by Ring Lardner - The Match-Maker by H. H. Munro (Saki) - Revelations by Katherine Mansfield -
[Commentary by WSM. Short stories:] - The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James -
[Commentary by WSM. Poems:] - The Ghosts of the Buffaloes by Vachel Lindsay - Benjamin Pantier by Edgar Lee Masters - Mrs Benjamin Pantier by Edgar Lee Masters - Saint Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day by James Weldon Jonhson - Miniver Cheevy by Edward Arlington Robinson - Richard Cory by Edward Arlington Robinson - Once by the Pacific by Robert Frost - The Pasture by Robert Frost - The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost - Puritan Sonnet by Elinor Wylie -
[Commentary by WSM. Essays:] - Seeing People Off by Max Beerbohm - Afterthoughts by Logan Pearsale Smith - Classic Liberty by George Santayana - Dunkirk by Winston Churchill -
[Commentary by WSM. Poems:] - The Listeners by Walter de la Mare - An Epitaph by Walter de la Mare - Mandalay by Rudyard Kipling - A Shropshire Lad, XXII by A. E. Housman - Last Poems, XI by A. E. Housman - Last Poems, XXVI by A. E. Housman - More Poems, XII by A. E. Housman - More Poems, XXXVI by A. E. Housman - In Time of The Breaking of Nations by Thomas Hardy - The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy - In Tenebris by Thomas Hardy - Nightingales by Robert Bridges - When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats - The Wild Swans at Coole by William Butler Yeats - Sailing to Byzantium by William Butler Yeats - In No Strange Land by Francis Thompson -
Contents
Introduction by W. Somerset Maugham
The Finest Story in the World - The Man Who Was - The Tomb of His Ancestors - At the End of the Passage - Wireless - On Greenhow Hill - Love-o'-women - The Brushwood Boy - The Man Who Would Be King - William the Conqueror - They - Tods' Amendment - Mowgli's Brothers - The Miracle of Purun Bhagat - Without Benefit of Clergy - The Village that Voted the Earth Was Flat -
This list represents in chronological order the first printing date of every article or contribution made by Maugham to journals and periodicals during his lifetime. Maugham often tested his audience and his own interest in a story by serialising it through newspaper or magazine periodicals, then later released the story as a novel, or part of a collected short stories book.
[Type of the piece. Where is to be found in book form.]
There have been a number of confused speculations about exactly how many short stories Somerset Maugham really wrote. As he was undoubtedly one the greatest masters in the genre, the matter deserves at least an attempt for thorough study and explanation. In the process certain criteria about alternative titles, publishing history and revisions had to be made for the sake of clarity and completeness.
Short Story Collections
During his long and productive life Somerset Maugham published exactly nine short story collections, altogether containing 90 pieces:
1. Orientations (1899), 6 pieces.
2. The Trembling of a Leaf (1921), 6 pieces
3. The Casuarina Tree (1926), 6 pieces.
4. Ashenden (1928), 6 pieces.
5. First Person Singular (1931), 6 pieces.
6. Ah King (1933), 6 pieces.
7. Cosmopolitans (1936), 29 pieces.
8. The Mixture as Before (1940), 10 pieces.
9. Creatures of Circumstance (1947), 15 pieces.
Notes
The original volume Ashenden (1928) actually contained 16 chapters; 15 of them were later merged into six long short stories; one was omitted.
Short Stories in Travel Books
In addition, there are seven short stories which actually made their first appearances in book form as parts of Maugham's travel books. They are as follows:
On a Chinese Screen (1922)
1. The Consul
2. The Taipan
The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930)
1. Mabel (Chapter VI)
2. Masterson (Chapter X)
3. Princess September (Chapter XXXII)
4. A Marriage of Convenience (Chapter XXXIV)
5. Mirage (Chapter XLIII)
Notes
The names given above are those used in Maugham's collections of short stories.
Princess September was first published as he Princess and the Nightingale in Queen's Dolls' House Library (1924). In 1939 it appeared as a pamphlet under the same title as well.
A Marriage of Convenience is a rewritten version of the early short story with the same name that is reprinted in Seventeen Lost Stories (1969, see below).
In magazines Masterson, Mabel and Princess September were published as On the Road to Mandalay (1929), The Woman Who Wouldn't Take a Hint (1924) and The Princess and the Nightingale (1922), respectively. Mirage appeared in under the same title (1929).
Mirage, Princess September and A Marriage of Convenience also appeared as The Opium Addict, September's Bird and The French Governor, respectively, in a volume titled The Maugham Reader (1950, Doubleday, with an Introduction by Glenway Wescott).
Collected Editions of Maugham's Short Stories
There are three major, multi-volume collections of Maugham's short stories. Each one of these exactly the same 91 pieces: 84 from all collections save Orientations (1899) and the 7 pieces from the travel books just mentioned above. The editions are:
The Complete Short Stories. Heinemann, 1951, 3 vols.
The Complete Short Stories. Doubleday, 1952, 2 vols., First American Edition.
Vol. 1: East and West (1934).
Vol. 2: The World Over (1952).
The Collected Short Stories. Penguin, 1963, 4 vols. Reprinted later by Pan, Mandarin, Vintage.
The Heinemann edition is considered to be definitive. The stories are arranged in order chosen by Maugham himself and he wrote a new preface to each volume in 1951. The edition in four volumes titled The Collected Short Stories is virtually identical with the Heinemann's. Few slight changes in the order and in the prefaces were made to accommodate one volume more. Otherwise the two editions are identical, save for the word 'complete' being substituted with 'collected'.
The First American Edition is quite another matter. The stories are absolutely the same and the order is again chosen by Maugham himself, but the prefaces are very different indeed. The First volume - East and West - was first published in 1934 and contains a 26 pp. preface which is one of Maugham's most important contributions to the theory of the art of writing short stories. It contains 30 pieces, in other words: all collections published between 1921 and 1933. The Second volume - The World Over - was first published in 1952. It too contains new preface that has nothing to do with Heinemann's edition, but it is only 8 pp. long.
Short Stories in Posthumously Published Volumes
Notorious for his scathing self-criticism towards his early works, Maugham never allowed the short stories he wrote before the First World War to be reprinted during his lifetime. After his death his decision was overruled. There are two important books in this respect:
Seventeen Lost Stories. Doubleday, 1969. Edited by Craig Showalter.
Contents
1. A Bad Example (1899)
2. Daisy (1899)
3. De Amicitia (1899)
4. Faith (1899)
5. The Choice of Amyntas (1899)
6. The Punctiliousness of Don Sebastian (1899)
7. Lady Habart (1900)
8. Cupid and the Vicar of Swale (1900)
9. Pro Patria (1903)
10. A Point of Law (1903)
11. An Irish Gentleman (1904)
12. A Marriage of Convenience (1906)
13. Flirtation (1906, written in 1904)
14. The Fortunate Painter (1908)
15. Good Manners (1907)
16. Cousin Amy (1908)
17. The Happy Couple (1908)
Notes
The volume contains 17 early short stories first published between 1899 and 1908, including the six from Orientations (1899). None of the other 11 had ever appeared in book form before but they were all published in magazines between 1900 and 1908.
A Marriage of Convenience was later significantly rewritten and published as part of the travel book The Gentleman in the Parlour (1930).
Cousin Amy was later significantly rewritten and published under the title The Luncheon in the short story collection Cosmopolitans (1936).
The Happy Couple was later significantly rewritten and published under the same name in the short story collection Creatures of Circumstance (1947).
Traveller in Romance. Clarkson N. Potter, 1984. Edited by John Whitehead.
Contains the following short stories:
1. The Spanish Priest, Illustrated London News (1906)
2. The Making of Millionaire, Lady's Realm (1906)
3. A Traveller in Romance, Printer's Pie Annual (1909)
4. The Buried Talent, Nash's Magazine (1934)
Notes
The volume contains 65 short pieces spanning 63 years of Maugham's life never published before in any of his books, including, among many other pieces, four short stories:
The Buried Talent can also be found in the collection Far Eastern Tales (Mandarin, Vintage), selected by John Whitehead.
Total Number of Somerset Maugham's Short Stories
Overall, during career as a short story writer spanning some half a century, Somerset Maugham wrote no fewer than 112 short stories which can be distributed thus:
The Complete Short Stories (1951) - 91 short stories (84 pieces from all collections but Orientations plus 7 pieces from the travel books);
Seventeen Lost Stories (1969) - 17 short stories (all from Orientations plus 11 magazine pieces);
Traveller in Romance (1984) - 4 short stories (miscellaneous pieces from magazines that had never before been published in book form).
Two more notes should be made in order to explain why the list below contains only 110 stories.
The total number of Maugham's short stories may be considered, wrongly, to be 109 since there are three short stories in his oeuvre - A Marriage of Convenience, Cousin Amy/The Luncheon and The Happy Couple - which exist in two very different versions: early one included in Seventeen Lost Stories (1969) and significantly rewritten later one included in The Complete Short Stories (1951). As obvious from the titles, in two of the cases both versions have the same title and thus appear in the list below as one short story, though there in fact two different stories with that name, as made clear by the information in the brackets. In the case of Cousin Amy/The Luncheon, both titles are given separately of course.
There is one and only one case when Maugham was sufficiently satisfied with an early story as to revise it only very slightly for later publication. This is the The Mother which published in Story-Teller in 1909. Almost forty years later Maugham revised the story but slightly for inclusion in his last collection of short stories, Creatures of Circumstance (1947). In this case the revisions are very minor and two versions are sufficiently close as to be considered as one short story. The early version is extremely rare and has been published only once in book form: The Cassell Miscellany (1958).
What follows is a complete list of all Somerset Maugham's short stories ever published; the final and most well-know titles are given. In square brackets: the year of first publication - usually, but not always, in a magazine - and the alternative title, if any. If the story has never been published in magazine, the first appearance in book form is given, including the title of the volume.
For those who wants to know more about Maugham's short stories, a brief bibliography of the separate volumes follows:
SOMERSET MAUGHAM'S SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS
[first published in magazine under alternative title if any]
1. Orientations. 6 Short Stories.
Short Publication History and Contents
Notes
2. The Trembling of a Leaf. Little Stories from the South Sea Islands. 6 short stories together with two short pieces as an introduction and an epilogue.
Short Publication History and Contents
3. The Casuarina Tree. 6 short stories. Original preface The Casuarina Tree and Postscript.
Short Publication History and Contetns
The Casuarina Tree [preface]
The Letter [1924]
Before the Party [1923]
P. & O. [1923, as Bewitched]
The Outstation [1924]
The Force of Circumstance [1924]
The Yellow Streak [1925]
Postscript
4. Ashenden. Or the British Agent.
Contains 16 chapters.
Short Publication History and Contents
1. R. - 2. A Domiciliary Visit - 3. Miss King - 4. The Hairless Mexican - 5. The Dark Woman - 6. The Greek - 7. A Trip to Paris - 8. Giulia Lazzari - 9. Gustav - 10. The Traitor - 11. Behind the Scenes - 12. His Excellency - 13. The Flip of a Coin - 14. A Chance Acquaintance - 15. Love and Russian Literature - 16. Mr. Harrington's Washing
15 of chapters were later merged into six short stories:
Notes
Chapter 13, The Flip of a Coin, was never published separately
5. Six Stories Written in the First Person Singular. 6 short stories. Original preface without title
Short Publication History and Contents
6. Ah King. 6 short stories. Original preface Ah King.
Short Publication History and Contents
Notes
Ray Long was compelled to turn down The Book-Bag since its plot is concerned with incest; although Maugham does not mention the word even once, the short story was considered too scandalous for the pages of Cosmopolitan. Ray Long, however, did publish the story in a book form after all; it was included in a volume with his favourite short stories and subtitle 20 Best Short Stories in Ray Long's 20 Years as an Editor. He named the book The Book-Bag.
7. Cosmopolitans. 29 short stories. Original Preface.
Short Publication History and Contents
Notes
The Luncheon is significantly rewritten version of Cousin Amy which was first published in magazine in 1908 but had to wait more than 60 years to appear in book form: Seventeen Lost Stories (1969).
8. The Mixture as Before. 10 short stories. Original Foreword.
Short Publication History and Contents
9. Creatures of Circumstance. 15 short stories. Original preface The Author Excuses Himself.
Short Publication History and Contents
The Mother appears to be one of the very few cases when Maugham was satisfied with an early work of his. The Mother was first published in magazine in 1909 under the title The Cachirra and later was only slightly revised for its inclusion in book form. Apparently, the early version was reprinted in magazine form the same year (Liberty, 26 April 1947) and even appeared in book form 11 years later: The Cassell Miscellany (1958). I am almost sure about the latter, but I might well be wrong about the former.
The Happy Couple was first published in Cassell's Magazine in 1908 but later significantly rewritten. The later version appeared in Redbook (February, 1943) and in Creatures of Circumstance four years later. The early version is reprinted in Seventeen Lost Stories (1969).
A Man from Glasgow exists as an early version titled Told in the Inn at Algeciras. It is reprinted in The Ash-Tree Press Annual Macabre, 1999, ed. Jack Adrian.