A Maugham Twelve

Description

With the Christian undertones of this collection, one feels the hand of the author of its introduction almost as much as that of Somerset Maugham himself. A.N. Wilson (perhaps he wished it was his own collection of short stories being published) opens his introduction with the pithy line “Somerset Maugham wrote at one time or another more than one hundred short stories; none is less than highly competent.” Half the dozen stories here are set in Malaysia, and for this we must thank Mr. Wilson (who personally selected them), for Maugham was the master of the tale of the dispossessed expat slowly going mad in a far flung corner of the empire. This is the first edition, published in 1966, and is very good condition.