Maugham reworks this story into The Merry-Go-Round, published as a novel a year later, with more intricate plots and more characters. The emotions of Basil, Jenny, and Mrs. Murray are more developed in the novel, as the length allows. Then, the…
Note that this copy doesn't have square bracket enclosing "All rights reserved" and thus isn't the first issue that Stott talks about. He does mention that there are copies, like this one, with this variant, but can't be certain when they come into…
When Mrs. Craddock's manuscript was sent to Heinemann it was rejected for indecency. It was refused by many publishers until it went to Robertson Nicoll. He saw its potentials, but didn't think it was the type of book published by his firm, Hodder &…
800 copies as first editions were printed, among which 500 were signed. These represent the first state. The remaining 300 were printed later, with a stub for the colophon.
I bought the programme together with this copy, which features a page of Of…
Stott mentions 3 bindings, and this copy is differentiated by the top gilt edge and the spine with gold letters. It isn't clear whether this is binding (i) or (ii) as the colour, after over a hundred years, is hard to tell.
The true first is the UK edition published by Heinemann in 1907. For some reason the price is sky high for this lesser work.
The novel was based on the play in the same name, written in 1899 (Stott 50).
An interesting fact that I got from the seller…
This is the first book on the cover of which Maugham had his Moorish symbol against the evil eye printed. However, it was printed upside down. When Maugham pointed this out to Hutchinson, the symbol was corrected on some copies specially bound for…
Stott notes 3 binding variants.
It took Maugham 7 years before he found a publisher for this book, although by that time he was already dissatisfied of how Heinemann handled the promotion of his books.
Years later, Maugham commented on his puerile…
This must be the first book with which Maugham got himself into trouble. Aleister Crowley, the model of the infamous Oliver Haddo, was upset when he found himself portrayed so realistically in the novel. Though initially Maugham denied it, in a later…
