Cake and Ale, by W. Somerset Maugham, is a satirical and perceptive novel that explores the nature of literary fame, social hypocrisy, and the complexity of personal...

The Painted Veil, by W. Somerset Maugham, is a poignant exploration of love, betrayal, and personal growth set against the backdrop of colonial China. The novel follows Kitty...

The Moon and Sixpence, by W. Somerset Maugham, is a novel inspired by the life of the painter Paul Gauguin and explores the conflict between conventional life and the pursuit of...

The Letter (1926) is a short story included in W. Somerset Maugham's collection The Trembling of a Leaf, which examines human motives, morality, and social conventions. The...

Of Human Bondage is a profound exploration of personal struggle, human desire, and the search for meaning within the constraints of society and individual weakness. William...

The sea was very calm. There was no ship in sight, and the sea-gulls were motionless upon its even greyness. The sky was dark with lowering clouds, but there was no wind. The line...

Xiormonez is the most inaccessible place in Spain. Only one train arrives there in the course of the day, and that arrives at two o'clock in the morning; only one train leaves it,...

All her life Miss Elizabeth Dwarris had been a sore trial to her relations. A woman of means, she ruled tyrannously over a large number of impecunious cousins, using her...

Strickland is a well-off, middle-class stockbroker in London sometime in late 19th or early 20th century. Early in the novel, he leaves his wife and children and goes to Paris. He...

The Pacific is inconstant and uncertain like the soul of man. Sometimes it is grey like the English Channel off Beachy Head, with a heavy swell, and sometimes it is rough, capped...