Customer Reviews

The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: A Biography

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've long been a Maugham fan so I looked forward to reading this book. I wasn't disappointed. Hastings includes an amazing level of detail and a nice balance between points about his writing and facts about his personal life. Her source notes, bibliography, and index are about 75 pages and that's without the notes. I find footnotes much more helpful than having to flip to the back. "The Secret Lives" reads like a novel though with lots of specificity. One of the best things was reading Maugham's own thoughts on happenings set against a friend's take on the same incident or perception. It gave a more complete personality study. It was fun to puzzle the relationship between facts and novel characters, speculating how they tied in. This isn't a homage nor is it an expose. Hastings hit a wonderful balance in that regard.

What a life Maugham led. He seems to have known all of English society and people in the arts as well as prominent Americans. Though he was an introvert he loved playing host to his friends but he was strict about blocking out time to write and read. He lost both his parents a few years apart when he was a preteen, he was born in France to a French mother and French was his first language, he stuttered, he had tuberculosis, he worked undercover for Britain in both wars, he spent most of World War II in the American south, he was openly gay around his friends, he spoke many European languages, he had one daughter from an unpleasant marriage, he made lots of money especially from his plays. I enjoyed reading about his travels with his lover through the years and how they worked together to gather expatriot's stories. Many of these stories ended up in his writings. Hastings also included pictures of Maugham and his friends notably one with H.G. Wells and Winston Churchill on an English lawn. Sadly, at the end of his life, he was betrayed by some key people. I could almost understand this if they did it to get his money but they seemed to have done it mostly for a whiff of power. I enjoyed this book immensely; it was well written and well researched.

This biography is thorough, well-written and despite its length and level of detail, leaves you even more curious about Mr. Maugham. It lends a great deal of insight to his actions, choices and the subjects about whom he wrote *without* extending too much bias, which is something from which many biographies suffer.

Maugham was without a doubt one of the most fascinating, dedicated and talented writers in recent history. What a joy to be able to learn about his life, understand the process he used to craft stories, to get a glimpse of so many of his personal letters and to get a taste of the many interesting (and famous in their own right) people and places he knew and loved.

The initial, British reviews suggested that Hastings' book would be lurid and salacious, while the US reviews suggested something more conventional. My own take is more along the lines of the latter. Hastings approaches her subject without the benefit of new material or any real first hand informants. Maugham burned most of his correspondence and instructed his correspondents to do likewise. Hastings does her best to work from Maugham's writings and the work of others.

The book is compelling throughout but several things knocked off a star for me. Hastings begs questions in places. She speaks of his longtime companion and secretary, Gerald Haxton, providing male companions that Maugham liked, except we never know who was his type. Presumably, it wasn't Haxton's type, which seems to have run toward extremes such as underaged boys and rough trade. She characterizes his later companion, Alan Searle as "not a golddigger" although he proceeds to enrich himself through changes to Maugham's will. Hastings seems to miss the obvious ambivalence in Maugham's relationship with his daughter (whose existence led to the loveless, difficult marriage to her mother) to whom he was dutiful but not affectionate. That relationship made it easy for Searle to gain the upper hand in Maugham's will. She seems unclear about Maugham at the end of life and it's unclear whether he was demented or simply frail. Hastings also descends into trying to impress the reader with her vocabulary in places, where simple description would have sufficed.

Shortcomings aside, the book stimulated my interest in reading more of Maugham's work. He was never popular with "serious" or academic critics, although he was admired by some of his contemporaries such as George Orwell. Maugham did not write experimental fiction or follow the writing trends of his time. Instead, his writing was rather simple and direct with an emphasis on observation. His prose is a bit flowery by current standards, but it holds up better than many of the works of his era that continue to be taught and discussed. My first encounters with Maugham were his travel writing and I found that he captured an essence of SE Asia that remained many decades after his visits. A writer that skilled deserves an audience and, hopefully, Hastings' book will provide some of that.

A solid, conventional biography of an unconventional man. The author tracks Somerset Maugham's long life and extensive literary career, spending more of her attention on the social/sexual side of Mr. Maugham's time roaming this earth than to his professional writing efforts--although certainly the stories, plays and novels are covered.

I found the material on his earlier life, such as his time in Russia after the overthrow of the Czar, much more interesting than the coverage of his sadly unimportant yet difficult final years. (His personal reputation might have been better off had he died in 1945 rather than 1965.)

In sum, if you are a fan of Somerset Maugham this is a signal book to read; others might choose to select another title out of the overwhelming stack of books waiting readers.

After reading so many laudatory comments about this biography, I just had to read it myself. What a treat! Selina Hastings presents her readers with an extremely detailed account of Maugham's life, personal and public, and, as the title indicates, offers many fascinating glimpses into both those areas. From time to time, she recounts the plots/story-lines of his plays and novels in what I consider unnecessary detail, even allowing for the fact that the characters portrayed in them have close connections with his own life and circle of acquaintances. The depth of the research required for this biography is impressive, and underlines how far the authoress immersed herself in the entire creative process.
Whatever your level of interest in the life and writings of Somerset Maugham as one of the outstanding writers of the 20th century, you will never forget this biography.

W. Somerset Maugham (known as Willie to famiy and friends) was a world-famous English writer, who lost his mother at seven, his dad two years later. Sent to live with a cold, uncaring uncle, who didn't like children, he developed a stammer. Lost and lonely in boarding school, and not knowing what to do when he graduated, he entered medical school and became a doctor. But before he could start practicing he sold a few stories he'd written and his future career was launched. Maugham wrote plays and tremendously successful novels such as "The Razor's Edge" and became one of the highest paid writers in the world. He married and fathered a child, but the marriage was a disaster, mainly because Willie was a secret homosexual. In those days in England, homosexuality was a crime so he had to keep his liaisons private. But he had many affairs with a series of young men, and one man in particular, Gerald Haxton, a handsome if unscrupulous rake, became his life-long love. Haxton was an alcoholic and couldn't be trusted, but Maugham forgave him time and again as they traveled the world together.

Maugham served admirably in British intelligence in both World Wars, and was on intimate terms with many of the prominent people of his day: Winston Churchill, Charlie Chaplin, and H. G. Wells to name a few. He could be kind and generous, although also unbelievably cruel at times, and on the surface seemed to have it all. But his inner conflicts and uncertainties often tore him apart and kept him from achieving true happiness. A sad but fascinating story.

I've been heartily pleased with the last several biographies on Somerset Maugham (and I believe I have just about all of them from the past four decades), an author I've greatly admired since my early teens. Just when I think there can't be any more details disclosed about his remarkable and fascinating life, this compelling, highly readable biography appears -- the perfect "take to bed every evening" book. I've been happily absorbed in this bio all week and nearly finished with it.

I leave it to other biographers to discuss at length the plots and provide analyses of his novels and stories, the many stage and film versions of his works compared with one another, etc. Past authors have done that to my satisfaction. To strictly dwell on this man's life alone in this new biography is enough, and I applaud the author's dedication to her research. Her writing style is beautiful, I might add. There truly is not a dull page in this entire book, and her gift for descriptive language draws the reader right into Maugham's large, exotic and extraordinary world.

Selina Hastings has written a compelling life of one of the world's most popular and yet, oddly, least aclaimed authors. Maugham was a master of language and human nature who found a gigantic public following, but rarely critical praise from his peers. As a fan of Maugham's fiction, I knew next to nothing of his life and it's quite a life! My only gripe is Ms. Hastings annoying habit of including long quotes in French. (with English translations at the bottom of the page.) What's the point if you are writing for an English language audience? Still, this is more of a quirk rather than a flaw in an otherwise great job or research and writing.

It has been years since I actually read Maugham but this book caught my eye and I actually found it to be very well written and interesting. Maugham wrote some big novels and many interesting stories that I think still hold up. Since reading the biography I have read several (and watched a few of the movies based on them). Maugham was a solid writer who knew a good story and how to tell it. His stories keep you interested and he almost always throws in a twist that works well without being farfetched. Hastings has done her homework and shows the development of the young man into a professional novelist, playwright and short story writer. Young writers should be interested in how she shows the way his own career took odd twists and turns. I wish she had done more on his craftsmanship. His life was also fascinating with the great variety of people he ran into. His sexual ethics make you wince and in the end one still believes that he was right that his reputation would be as first rate at the second tier. But the book is very well done.

I have just completed my second reading of The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this book is a masterpiece. It is beautifully written, sharp, compassionate and often very funny, with a final chapter which will have you on the edge of your seat.

Biographies of writers inevitably spend some time discussing the works, and this can be a problem. Not so here. My only reading until now of Somerset Maugham has been a few of the short stories, but Selina Hastings takes us on a tour of his [considerable] output with such a light touch that I was not bored for a moment.

But the real meat of the book is in the personal stuff. Ms Hastings is clear-eyed, often humorous and, above all, non-judgmental [which is evidently a problem for some of her reviewers].

This, along with her equally stunning account of the life of Evelyn Waugh, is a book I will keep and re-read for the rest of my life.