The Skeptical Romancer: Selected Travel Writing (Everyman's Library)

About this book

W. Somerset Maugham was one of the seminal writers of the twentieth century and his travel writing has long been considered among his finest work. Now acclaimed travel writer Pico Iyer maps out a masterful tour of these vivid evocative pieces that are collected here for the first time. Maugham worked as a secret agent in Russia published novels in London staged plays in New York and traveled throughout Europe Asia India and the United States chronicling his travels wherever he went with exceptional insight. Beginning with In the Land of the Blessed Virgin and culminating in A Partial View Iyer selects vignettes of Maughams razor-sharp prose that track his transformation from a boyish traveler in Spain to a worldly man of letters. This is Maugham at his most keenly observant direct and powerful.