The Collected Short Stories of W. Somerset Maugham, Vol. 2

Yes, the stories are old school. They have a beginning, a middle and an end. They also have a point. They are not minimalist fiction and rarely self-indulgent. Maybe that is why nobody reads Maugham anymore.

I think Maugham placed himself perfectly: He is in the second rank as a writer, but the first row of the second rank. Some of the stories hold up well and some have fallen victim to the passing of time, but I reccommend: "The Vessel of Wrath", "Floatsam and Jetsam", "Alien Corn", "The Creative Impulse", "The Verger", "The Tiapan", "Jane".

Collected short stories, Vol. 2 is the second volume of the collected short stories of W. Somerset Maugham. It is hard to determine when each of the 24 stories in this collection was written, as this Vintage Classics edition does not give that information. A quick scan suggests that the stories are sampled randomly, and not in chronological order. This can also be felt while reading, as one would not expects Malayan stories to appear in a book together with Edwardian and later-style fiction.

Many of the stories were a tedious read. Several of the stories included in this volume exceed 30 or even 40 pages. They are not all that interesting. They might have been more interesting if they were embedded in collections of other stories with show more similar themes, written around the same time.

This collection is rather lackluster. These stories, or at least not this selection in this collection, do not seem to present the true genius of W. Somerset Maugham. show less

A collection of stories of the English middle and upper classes during the inter war years in London and British Malaysia. Usually the stories had to do with couples and their faulty relations. Only because Maugham could write so well were these at all interesting. Not nearly good as his first collection of stories.

This final classic collection reveals Somerset Maugham’s unique talent for exposing and exploring the bitter realities of human relationships in tales of love, infidelity, passion and prejudice. The stories range from “The Lotus Eater” where a man envisions a life of bliss in the Mediterranean, to the astringent tales of “The Outstation” and “The Back of Beyond” in Malaya and South East Asia.