{"product_id":"w-somerset-maugham-sixtyfive-short-stories-complete-unabridged","title":"W. Somerset Maugham Sixty-Five Short Stories Complete \u0026 Unabridged","description":"\u003cp\u003eWilliam Somerset Maugham CH ( 25 January 1874  16 December 1965)  better known as W. Somerset Maugham  was a British playwright  novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s. After losing both his parents by the age of 10  Maugham was raised by a paternal uncle who was emotionally cold. Not wanting to become a lawyer like other men in his family  Maugham eventually trained and qualified as a physician. The initial run of his first novel  Liza of Lambeth (1897)  sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time. During the First World War  he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps  before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service  for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the October Revolution of 1917. During and after the war  he travelled in India and Southeast Asia; these experiences were reflected in later short stories and novels. Among his short stories  some of the most memorable are those dealing with the lives of Western  mostly British  colonists in the Far East. They typically express the emotional toll the colonists bear by their isolation. \"Rain\"  \"Footprints in the Jungle\"  and \"The Outstation\" are considered especially notable. \"Rain\"  in particular  which charts the moral disintegration of a missionary attempting to convert prostitute Sadie Thompson  has kept its reputation. It has been adapted as a play and as several films. His The Magician (1908) is based on British occultist Aleister Crowley.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44965044486197,"sku":"ByrdShop_0905712692","price":103.84,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780905712697.jpg?v=1770487247","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/w-somerset-maugham-sixtyfive-short-stories-complete-unabridged","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}