Listings for Author:
W Somerset Maugham
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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.
