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…
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…
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…
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 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…
The play was first published in November 1928, by Doubleday, Doran & Company. The UK edition came out later in February 1929. So, strictly speaking, the US edition is the first edition. This is also the first play published after the merger…
Stott identifies two issues, this copy belongs to the second with a cancel leaf on p. 7 correcting line 12: "I don't not eat bread..." For first issue it should read "I do not eat bread..."A noted difference is that in the second paragraph in chapter…
