Switch to English Switch to French

The Open University  |   Study at the OU  |   About the OU  |   Research at the OU  |   Search the OU

Listen to this page  |   Accessibility

the experience of reading in Britain, from 1450 to 1945...

Reading Experience Database UK Historical image of readers
 
 
 
 

Listings for Author:  

W Somerset Maugham

  

Click check box to select all entries on this page:

 


  

W Somerset Maugham : Cakes and Ale

'He returned to London to . . . Somerset Maugham's "Cakes and Ale", which he admired . . .'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett      Print: Book

  

W. Somerset Maugham : The Moon and Sixpence

'I return "The Moon and Sixpence" and your criticism. I agree with your criticism but I do not think that you have laid sufficient [? stress] on the positive qualities of the book. Any how, I read it with interest, and I think the Tahiti chapters are really very good. Also the man has a sardonic crude humour which pleaseth me.'

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett      Print: Book

  

W. Somerset Maugham : Cakes and Ale

In the main, the reviews of I.P. [Imperial Palace] have been excellent. But it is curious that 2 out of 3 of Max’s papers were excessively rude about it, the third (Sunday Express) was fulsome. I wrote privately to the Editor off the Standard pointing out grave misstatements in fact in Bruce Lockhart’s article on it. He could offer no defence whatever. Similarly I protested to the editor of the Times Lit. Supplement about its assertion that I had been imitating Priestley’s fashion of length, for the sake of gain. . . . Maugham’s 'Cakes & Ale' is 1st rate. But easily the finest of all recent novels is D.H. Lawrence’s 'The Virgin and the Gipsy'. Nothing else exists by the side of it. Believe me. It is marvellous, truly.

Century: 1900-1945     Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Bennett      Print: Book

  

Click check box to select all entries on this page:

 

   
   
Green Turtle Web Design