Collected Short Stories
W. Somerset Maugham · 1934
Maugham was the most commercially successful story writer of the early 20th century, and his stories of colonial life, moral compromise, and human weakness have aged better than his literary reputation suggests. "Rain" is a masterwork.
The case against
Maugham placed himself in the very front row of the second-raters, and the stories show why he knew. The machinery is visible: a club veranda, a narrator with a whisky, a colonial scandal, a twist arriving on schedule. The Malayan stories view Asian characters mostly as scenery or threat, and the cynicism about women curdles past insight into reflex.
Short Stories · the Pro canon
The case for it and the rest of the canon open with Pro.
if this one calls to you, so will these →
