Collected Stories (Everyman'S Library)

Description: In this edition of his collected shorter fiction we can see why Somerset Maugham, celebrated as the author of Cakes and Ale and Of Human Bondage, is also regarded as a master of the short story. Open this substantial volume at any page and you will find evidence of his extraordinary art. Without narrative tricks and in a plain prose style, Maugham introduces us to the enormous range of characters and experiences he encountered in an unusually long life and recorded with the cool accuracy of a good doctor diagnosing disease. There are many famous stories here; some of them made into films such as The Force of Circumstance, Rain, P & O and The Colonel's Lady; others, less famous, charting mundane but mysterious events in all four quarters of the world. Author Biography: Nicholas Shakespeare is the author of The Vision of Elena Silves, The High Flyer and The Dancer Upstairs. A major film of The Dancer Upstairs, starring John Malkovitch, is currently in production, for which Nicholas Shakespeare has written the screenplay. He has also written a much acclaimed biography of Bruce Chatwin.