William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated
at King's School Canterbury and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas'
Hospital with the idea of practising medicine but the success of his first novel Liza of
Lambeth published in 1897 won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage the first of his
masterpieces came out in 1915 and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his
reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright
and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the
publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books essays
criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset
Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965
