Christmas Holiday [Paperback] Maugham, W. Somerset

Author: Maugham, W. Somerset

Brand: Vintage Classics

Binding: paperback

Number Of Pages: 200

Release Date: 30-05-2001

Part Number: 9780099286851

Details: Product Description
A coming-of-age novel that moves from genteel British society to the grim underworld of Paris before the war. At the age of twenty-three, Charlie Mason is endowed with good looks, good manners and a cheerful disposition. Following three years at Cambridge and one working in his father's business, he is looking forward to a jaunt in Paris with one of his oldest friends. Yet Paris is not what he expects - in just a few days his young eyes are opened to the tragedies and ugly dramas of its underworld.
Review
Contrasts the complacency of prewar Britain with the nastiness of what was brewing on the Continent. It remains effortlessly readable ―
The Times

Brilliant ―
New York Times

One reads it with a feeling of increasing respect for his mastery of the trade. One has the same delight as in watching a first-class cabinet-maker cutting dovetails -- Evelyn Waugh
From the Inside Flap
Published before the outbreak of war in 1939, a warning to the complacent, British middle-class of the upheavals taking place on the Continent.
From the Back Cover
“The modern writer who has influenced me the most.” – George Orwell
About the Author
William Somerset Maugham, famous as novelist, playwright and short-story writer, was born in 1874, and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with a view to practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to letters. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. His position as a successful playwright was being consolidated at the same time. His first play, A Man of Honour, was followed by a series of successes just before and after World War I, and his career in the theatre did not end until 1933 with Sheppey. His fame as a short story writer began with The Trembling of a Leaf, subtitled Little Stories of the South Sea Islands, in 1921, after which he published more than ten collections. His other works include travel books such as On a Chinese Screen, and Don Fernando, essays, criticism, and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook.In 1927, he settled in the south of France, and lived there until his death in 1965.

EAN: 9780099286851

Package Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.0 x 1.0 inches

Languages: English