Browse Items (23 total)

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…

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…

Maugham mentions the novel in The Summing Up as one of his experiments: I tried various experiments. One of them at that time had a certain novelty. The experience of life I was forever eagerly seeking suggested to me that the novelist's method of…

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…

From the front flap of the dust jacket: "Mr Somerset Maugham has written a Preface to this new edition of his second novel, Mrs. Craddock, which has not been in print for many years. "He wrote it in 1900, he explains, and because it was thought…

This belongs to Heinemann's pocket edition, which, according to Stott, was scarce in his time. There are all together 16 volumes. They were published more or less at the same time of the Collected Edition, and are supposedly smaller and cheaper. The…

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 &…

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.

Stott also mentions a…

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…

"This Renaissance tale was Somerset Maugham's second novel. It was first published in 1898, when the author was twenty-three, and has been out of print and practically forgotten for years. Shortly after its publication, Maugham made every effort to…