You searched for: William Somerset Maugham
On a Chinese Screen -
William Somerset Maugham
1922 - William Heinemann, London - First English Edition
First edition of Maugham’s collection of sketches on China.
Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling fifteen hundred miles up the Yangtze river, with what are clearly long stops in Shanghai and Hong Kong amongst other treaty ports. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down acute and finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper.
In the resulting collection we encounter Western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation. Maugham keenly observes, and gently ridicules, their dogged and oblivious persistence with the life they know. In total 58 sketches.
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Price HK$ 15,000
1922 - William Heinemann, London - First English Edition
First edition of Maugham’s collection of sketches on China.Maugham spent the winter months of 1919 travelling fifteen hundred miles up the Yangtze river, with what are clearly long stops in Shanghai and Hong Kong amongst other treaty ports. Always more interested in people than places, he noted down acute and finely crafted sketches of those he met on countless scraps of paper.
In the resulting collection we encounter Western missionaries, army officers and company managers who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation. Maugham keenly observes, and gently ridicules, their dogged and oblivious persistence with the life they know. In total 58 sketches.
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Price HK$ 15,000
The Casuarina Tree - Six Stories -
William Somerset Maugham
1926 - William Heinemann Ltd., London - First Edition
First edition in the scarce dust jacket designed by Ralph Keene
Maugham’s collection of short stories by set in the Federated Malay States during the 1920s, including one of his most aclaimed ‘The Outsider’.
by W. Somerset Maugham. The stories are loosely based on Maugham's experiences traveling in the region for about a year
With a short introduction entitled ‘The Casuarina Tree’ followed by the stories – ‘Before the Party’, ‘P. & O.’, ‘The Outstation’, ‘The Force of Circumstance’, ‘The Yellow Streak’, and ‘The Letter’.
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Price HK$ 40,000
1926 - William Heinemann Ltd., London - First Edition
First edition in the scarce dust jacket designed by Ralph KeeneMaugham’s collection of short stories by set in the Federated Malay States during the 1920s, including one of his most aclaimed ‘The Outsider’.
by W. Somerset Maugham. The stories are loosely based on Maugham's experiences traveling in the region for about a year
With a short introduction entitled ‘The Casuarina Tree’ followed by the stories – ‘Before the Party’, ‘P. & O.’, ‘The Outstation’, ‘The Force of Circumstance’, ‘The Yellow Streak’, and ‘The Letter’.
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Price HK$ 40,000
The Razor s Edge - A Novel -
William Somerset Maugham
1944 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First English Edition
A fine first edition of one of Maugham's most popular works, twice adapted for the big screen, the first of which was Oscar-winning starring Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney and John Payne.
‘The Razor’s Edge’ follows the life of Larry Darrell, a pilot in World War I who longs to discover some transcendent meaning for human life, and for his life in particular.
Maugham himself appears in the novel, and there is some debate as to whether Darrell is a thinly disguised portrait of Christopher Isherwood.
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Price HK$ 8,000
1944 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First English Edition
A fine first edition of one of Maugham's most popular works, twice adapted for the big screen, the first of which was Oscar-winning starring Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney and John Payne.‘The Razor’s Edge’ follows the life of Larry Darrell, a pilot in World War I who longs to discover some transcendent meaning for human life, and for his life in particular.
Maugham himself appears in the novel, and there is some debate as to whether Darrell is a thinly disguised portrait of Christopher Isherwood.
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Price HK$ 8,000
The Gentleman in the Parlour: A Record of a Journey from Rangoon to Haiphong -
William Somerset Maugham
1930 - William Heinemann Ltd., London - First Edition
First edition of ‘Maugham's finest travel book’.
‘As the urbane novelist wends his way through tropic climes, he reads Proust under the mosquito netting, listens to stories of passion and madness from British colonials gone to seed, and bears up under the merciless sun, sipping at a gin and bitters and laying out a hand of solitaire’ - Washington Post
An account of the author's trip through what was then Burma and Siam, ending in Haiphong, Vietnam. Whether by river to Mandalay, on horse through the mountains and forests of the Shan States to Bangkok, or onwards by sea, Maugham's vivid descriptions bring a lost world to life. [Random House]
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Price HK$ 6,000
1930 - William Heinemann Ltd., London - First Edition
First edition of ‘Maugham's finest travel book’. ‘As the urbane novelist wends his way through tropic climes, he reads Proust under the mosquito netting, listens to stories of passion and madness from British colonials gone to seed, and bears up under the merciless sun, sipping at a gin and bitters and laying out a hand of solitaire’ - Washington Post
An account of the author's trip through what was then Burma and Siam, ending in Haiphong, Vietnam. Whether by river to Mandalay, on horse through the mountains and forests of the Shan States to Bangkok, or onwards by sea, Maugham's vivid descriptions bring a lost world to life. [Random House]
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Price HK$ 6,000
Christmas Holiday -
William Somerset Maugham
1939 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
An exceptional example of the first edition, one of Maugham’s darker tales, Paris, the Russian Revolution, a lost generation and self-destruction.
The basis for the 1944 film noir, a highlight for director Robert Siodmak, starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly.
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Price HK$ 7,000
1939 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
An exceptional example of the first edition, one of Maugham’s darker tales, Paris, the Russian Revolution, a lost generation and self-destruction. The basis for the 1944 film noir, a highlight for director Robert Siodmak, starring Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly.
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Price HK$ 7,000
Then and Now - Inscribed -
William Somerset Maugham
1946 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
A signed and inscribed first edition of Maugham’s Italian Renaissance novel about the life of Machiavelli.
Signed by Somerset Maugham and inscribed ‘a propaganda novel, for Norman’. Norman being Norman Unger, renowned Los Angeles book collector and a major benefactor of many writers.
Maugham’s previous novel, ‘The Razor’s Edge’ had been called ‘powerful propaganda for the new faith’ by Cyril Connolly. By 1945 Maugham was in Hollywood writing the screenplay for ‘The Razor’s Edge’ and was also friends with the L.A. based Norman Unger. Stretching, but perhaps Maugham is referring to Connolly’s statement in his inscription.
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Price HK$ 8,000
1946 - William Heinemann Ltd, London - First Edition
A signed and inscribed first edition of Maugham’s Italian Renaissance novel about the life of Machiavelli.Signed by Somerset Maugham and inscribed ‘a propaganda novel, for Norman’. Norman being Norman Unger, renowned Los Angeles book collector and a major benefactor of many writers.
Maugham’s previous novel, ‘The Razor’s Edge’ had been called ‘powerful propaganda for the new faith’ by Cyril Connolly. By 1945 Maugham was in Hollywood writing the screenplay for ‘The Razor’s Edge’ and was also friends with the L.A. based Norman Unger. Stretching, but perhaps Maugham is referring to Connolly’s statement in his inscription.
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Price HK$ 8,000