Somerset Maugham was a British secret agent, a London physician, and the highest paid author in the world in the thirties, writing countless stories and creating plays so successful that he opened four different shows on the London stage at the same time. Ian Fleming’s spy novels were inspired by Maugham’s sophisticated secret agent stories (Maugham’s spy stories, based upon his own experiences working for British intelligence while posing as an author/playwright visiting foreign locales, also inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s 1937 film “Secret Agent”). Maugham was the modern author who most influenced George Orwell, and he was universally praised by other authors from Graham Greene to John le Carre (“Maugham…is a genius.” Theodore Dreiser).
Among Maugham’s novels, short stories and stage comedies, his travel stories have become the most enduring, as they manage to capture remote locations and times that Maugham personally experienced, and depicted characters and cultures now vanished.
Like Hemingway and Fitzgerald, Maugham volunteered with an army ambulance corps during the Great War; he thereafter was recruited by British intelligence to serve as a secret agent.
During his British Intelligence years, and in constant search for interesting literary material, Maugham travelled to revolutionary Russia (ordered by the head of the British secret service—known only as “R”—to “stop the Bolshevik revolution;” Maugham reported that he had arrived too late to do so, but observed that, if he’d gotten there a few months earlier he believed he might have been able to do so!)
Following the War, Maugham traveled extensively through British India, Malaysia, and sailed throughout the South Seas. Maugham owned a villa in the South of France where he composed his stories. His villa was seized by the Nazis during the Second World War and Maugham thereupon escaped Europe for Los Angeles, where he enjoyed yet another profitable career as a Hollywood screenwriter.
This SDG will take a tour of Maugham’s travel writing and examine the life and times of Maugham’s autobiographical characters, from pre-1914 Europe and the embryonic USSR to British India, Pago Pago, France, Spain and diverse foreign locales, featuring Maugham’s assortment of memorable characters, including the author’s suave prototype for James Bond.
Travels with Somerset Maugham
Week 1: During the Great War, Maugham volunteered with the ambulance corps and was recruited to become a secret agent assigned to Geneva and thereafter Russia. His short stories track his experiences (and efforts to stop the Bolshevik revolution) and introduce his popular character Ashenden, a coolheaded, world-weary British spy. The Writer’s Notebook, pp. 90-96; Skeptical Romancer (“SR”), pp. 146-154; “Russia,” (SR, pp. 177-184); Read these short stories: “R.” https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2016/07/s-r.html?m=1 “Traitor” https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2016/07/s-the-traitor.html?m=1 “Love and Russian Literature” https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2016/07/s-love-and-russian-literature.html?m=1 Maugham’s personal interactions with Chairman Kerensky and Prime Minister Lloyd George while serving as a British agent during the Russian Revolution will be distributed with the Week 1 outline.
Week 2: Alfred Hitchcock adapted Maugham’s Ashenden stories for the silver screen. “Secret Agent” introduced the spy genre to motion pictures with Maugham’s aloof, flip, stylish spy, featuring suspense, humor and a beautiful woman. In the nineties, BBC produced the television series “Ashenden” based upon Maugham’s spy stories. For our SDG meeting, read the short story: “The Hairless Mexican” https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2016/07/s-the-hairless-mexican.html?m=1 and “The Dark Woman” https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2016/07/s-the-dark-woman.html and “The Greek” https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2016/07/s-the-greek.html?m=1 Watch the BBC’s “Ashenden” Episode 4 at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=O2mK7NYXBzU based upon those stories. At your option, you can also enjoy Alfred Hitchcock’s 1936 film “Secret Agent,” starring John Gielgud, available on YouTube for a glimpse of the Maugham character who inspired Ian Fleming, another former spy/author, to write his James Bond series.
Week 3: While a young man, Maugham abandoned England and his medical profession to pursue travel and literature. Following his early literary success, Maugham departed for the Mediterranean and lived most of his adult life abroad discovering characters and stories that will appear in his various books and scripts. Read “Looking Back,” excerpts from Maugham’s memoirs that will be distributed with the Week 3 Outline; Skeptical Romancer, pp. 143-146 (“Early Travels”); Skeptical Romancer, pp. 3-31 (“Spirit of Andalusia” through “Adios”). “The Punctiliousness of Don Sebastian” https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-punctiliousness-of-don-sebastian.html?m=1
Week 4: Maugham’s novel “Of Human Bondage” was adapted for a film that made Bette Davis a motion picture star. The text is available online: https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/Of-Human-Bondage1/ From this online version, read only Parts 4 (Chapter XXXIX) through Part 6 (Chapter LI) which tell the story of Philip Carey living in Paris seeking to become an artist. The film continues the story of Carey after Paris, when he becomes an unhappy medical student in London, and his relationship with working class girl Mildred, played by Bette Davis. Watch the 1934 film “Of Human Bondage” on YouTube or Amazon Prime Video. Reading the remainder of Maugham’s lengthy semi-autobiographical novel is optional.
Week 5: Maugham’s novel about Paul Gauguin “Moon and Sixpence” presents the story of an artist who abandoned his family and country to become a painter in the South Seas. The story’s narrator, a young author, heads to the South Seas on his own quixotic journey. Read “Moon and Sixpence,” pp. 182-210 (Chapters LII - LVIII); excerpts will be distributed with the Week 5 Outline, which contain the narrator’s search in Tahiti for Gauguin, or “Strickland” as Maugham re-names him in his book. (Sir Laurence Olivier and Dame Judith Anderson starred in a 1959 live television version; At your option, watch Chapters 9, 10 and 11 on a DVD version available on Amazon.)
Week 6: Maugham’s famous South Seas stories depict hypocrisy, colonialism and Maugham's experiences traveling through Polynesia (and his purchase of a unique Gauguin painting there). A Writer’s Notebook, pp. 109-145; Skeptical Romancer, “Tahiti,” pp. 167-177. “Rain” https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2016/04/s-rain-1921.html Watch Joan Crawford as Sadie Thompson in the film “Rain” on YouTube.
Week 7: British India and Southeast Asia: Maugham’s stories of contrasting cultures are set during the waning days of European colonialism. Writer’s Notebook, pp. 276-292; Skeptical Romancer, “The Sultan” through “Madura,” pp. 185-195; “Mandalay” through “Siam,” Skeptical Romancer, pp. 76-94; “Saigon” through “Night on the River,” pp 112-119
Week 8: Maugham’s journals and stories track the slow demise of the British empire. Skeptical Romancer, pp. 376-47; “Why the British Are Hated in Asia;” https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2020/06/why-british-are-hated-in-asia-1954.html ; “The Philosopher” (SR, pp. 55-61); “The Missionary Lady” (SR, pp. 62-63). Maugham’s stories pre-figure novels of Graham Greene and other writers.
Week 9: Maugham’s novel “Painted Veil,” a story of British newlyweds resident in China during the colonial era, was adapted for a 1934 film, featuring Greta Garbo, and a 2006 film production with Naomi Watts. Read the text: https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/maughamws-paintedveil/maughamws-paintedveil-00-h.html Watch the Naomi Watts film available on Amazon and Netflix.
Week 10: Maugham reflections on his writing and double life: Maugham lived to age 91 and published extensively during his final decades about his unusual life and times and on aging. An interview with Maugham at his Villa on the French Riviera—where he entertained friends ranging from Virginia Woolf to Winston Churchill, Pablo Picasso and the Duke of Windsor—is accessible at: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=35zdFvas0uQ At age 64, Maugham composed his “Summing Up,” Please read Chapters 6-8,18-20,28-29,43,46,51,56): https://www.fadedpage.com/showbook.php?pid=20160539 (Select the HMTL format and then scroll down to read the chapters designated above)