List of works by W. Somerset Maugham
was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. Born in the British Embassy in Paris, where his father worked, Maugham was an orphan by the age of ten. He was raised by an uncle, who tried to persuade the youngster to become an accountant or parson; Maugham instead trained as a doctor, although he never practised professionally, as his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, was published the same year he qualified.
A year after his first novel was published Maugham began contributing to magazines and periodicals; initially these were short stories, but he also wrote opinion pieces, non-fictional and autobiographical work, and letters. Much of his non-fictional writing was published in book form, and covered a range of topics, including travel, current affairs, autobiography and belles lettres. Maugham was also editor on a number of works, which often included adding a preface or introductory chapter to the work of other writers. In 1903 his first play was performed, A Man of Honour at the Imperial Theatre, London. It was the first of many of his works that were produced for the stage, and with the later development of cinema, his novels and stories were also adapted for the big screen.
By the time of his death in 1965 Maugham was one of the most commercially successful and gifted writers of the twentieth century, according to Bryan Connon, his biographer; The Times obituarist called Maugham "the most assured English writer of his time", and wrote that "no writer of his generation ... graced the world of English letters with more complete or more polished assurance".
Novels and story collections
| Title | Year of first publication | First edition publisher | Notes | |
| Liza of Lambeth | T. Fisher Unwin | Novel | ||
| T. Fisher Unwin | Novel | |||
| Orientations | T. Fisher Unwin | Short story collection | ||
| Hutchinson | Novel | |||
| Mrs Craddock | Heinemann | Novel | ||
| Heinemann | Novel | |||
| Chapman & Hall | Novel | |||
| Heinemann | Novel | |||
| Heinemann | Novel | |||
| Of Human Bondage | George H. Doran Company, New York | Novel | ||
| Heinemann | Novel | |||
| George H. Doran Company, New York | Short story collection | |||
| Heinemann | Novel | |||
| ' | Heinemann | Short story collection; comprises six stories | ||
| ' | Heinemann | Short story collection | ||
| Cakes and Ale: or, the Skeleton in the Cupboard | Heinemann | Novel | ||
| Six Stories Written in the First Person Singular | Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY | Short story collection | ||
| Ray Long & Richard R Smith Inc, New York | Short story collection; comprises 20 stories | |||
| Heinemann | Novel | |||
| Ah King | Heinemann | Short story collection | ||
| The Judgement Seat | Centaur Press | Short story collection | ||
| Cosmopolitans | Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY | Short story collection | ||
| Theatre | Heinemann | Novel | ||
| Christmas Holiday | Heinemann | Novel | ||
| Princess September and the Nightingale | Oxford University Press, Oxford | Short story collection | ||
| Heinemann | Short story collection | |||
| Up at the Villa | Heinemann | Novel | ||
| Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY | Novel | |||
| House of Books Ltd, New York | Short story collection | |||
| Heinemann | Novel | |||
| Then and Now | Heinemann | Novel | ||
| Creatures of Circumstance | Heinemann | Short story collection | ||
| Catalina | Heinemann | Novel | ||
| Quartet | Heinemann | Short story collection | ||
| Trio | Heinemann | Short story collection by Maugham, screen adaptation by Maugham, R.C. Sherriff and Noel Langley | ||
| Encore | Heinemann | Short story collection by Maugham, screen adaptation by Maugham, T.E.B Clarke, Arthur Macrae and Eric Ambler |
Publications in periodicals
| Title | Date of publication | Periodical |
| 7 February 1900 | Punch | |
| 9 May 1900 | Punch | |
| 6 December 1905 | ||
| 3 February 1906 | Daily Mail | |
| 7 March 1906 | Bystander | |
| 23 June 1908 | ||
| Windsor Magazine | ||
| Cassell's Magazine | ||
| Printer's Pie Annual | ||
| Story-Teller | ||
| Cosmopolitan | ||
| Asia | ||
| North American Review | ||
| Cosmopolitan | ||
| Everybody's Magazine | ||
| 31 January 1922 | Daily Mail | |
| Asia | ||
| Youth | ||
| 18 April 1922 | McClure's Magazine | |
| 8 July 1922 | Saturday Review | |
| Pearson's Magazine | ||
| 1 December 1922 | Pearson's Magazine and Good Housekeeping | |
| 2 December 1922 | Nash's Magazine | |
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| Cosmopolitan | ||
| Cosmopolitan | ||
| Cosmopolitan | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| Cosmopolitan | ||
| 1 March 1924 | Nash's Magazine | |
| 2 March 1924 | Good Housekeeping | |
| Cosmopolitan | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| Cosmopolitan | ||
| 1 June 1924 | International Magazine | |
| 2 June 1924 | Cosmopolitan | |
| Cosmopolitan | ||
| 1 September 1924 | Cosmopolitan | |
| 2 September 1924 | Good Housekeeping | |
| Cosmopolitan | ||
| 1 February 1925 | ||
| 2 February 1925 | Cosmopolitan | |
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| 1 January 1926 | International Magazine | |
| 2 January 1926 | Harper's Bazaar | |
| 3 January 1926 | International Magazine | |
| International Magazine | ||
| Harper's Bazaar | ||
| 1 September 1927 | Harper's Bazaar | |
| 2 September 1927 | International Magazine | |
| International Magazine | ||
| 2 March 1927 | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| and August 1929 | Britannia and Eve | |
| International Magazine | ||
| 1 December 1929 | ||
| 2 December 1929 | International Magazine | |
| to July 1930 | Harper's Bazaar | |
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| Life and Letters | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| – December 1932 | International Magazine | |
| 13 November 1932 – 18 December 1932 | Sunday Express | |
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine and Nash's Magazine | ||
| 28 July 1934 | Saturday Review | |
| Nash's Magazine | ||
| 1 November 1934 | Nash's Magazine | |
| 2 November 1934 | International Magazine | |
| Nash's Magazine | ||
| Nash's Magazine | ||
| Nash's Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| 29 January 1939 | Saturday Review | |
| International Magazine | ||
| 11 March 1939 | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| International Magazine | ||
| – November 1939 | Redbook | |
| 14 October 1939 | Publishers Weekly | |
| 6 January 1940 | ||
| – April 1940 | Redbook | |
| Redbook | ||
| Redbook | ||
| Redbook | ||
| 28 December 1940 | ||
| Redbook | ||
| Redbook | ||
| 22 March 1941 | ||
| 29 March 1941 | ||
| 5 April 1941 | ||
| 12 April 1941 | ||
| Redbook | ||
| 7 June 1941 | ||
| Redbook | ||
| Reader's Digest | ||
| 1 December 1941 | Life | |
| – April 1942 | Redbook | |
| 11 April 1942 | ||
| 13 June 1942 | Publishers Weekly | |
| Redbook | ||
| Redbook | ||
| Redbook | ||
| 10 April 1943 | Collier's | |
| International Magazine | ||
| 1 August 1943 | Redbook | |
| 2 August 1943 | Redbook | |
| Redbook | ||
| Good Housekeeping | ||
| – May 1944 | Redbook | |
| Good Housekeeping | ||
| 25 May 1945 | Scholastic | |
| Life Story | ||
| Good Housekeeping | ||
| Good Housekeeping | ||
| 25 May 1946 | Writer | |
| – June 1946 | International Magazine | |
| Wings | ||
| Strand | ||
| Good Housekeeping | ||
| Good Housekeeping | ||
| 3 March 1947 | Scholastic | |
| 21 June 1947 | Scholastic | |
| – December 1948 | ||
| 11 August 1948 | Continental Daily Mail | |
| Good Housekeeping | ||
| – August 1949 | International Magazine | |
| Winter 1949/50 | Cornhill Magazine | |
| Summer 1950 | Cornhill Magazine | |
| Winter 1950/51 | Cornhill Magazine | |
| 3 May 1951 | News Chronicle | |
| Letter to the editor | 8 October 1952 | John O'London's Weekly |
| 28 January 1954 | ||
| – October 1954 | ||
| Theatre Arts Magazine | ||
| Horizon | ||
| 21 March 1959 | ||
| 15 November 1960 | Vogue | |
| – August 1962 | Show |
Collected editions
| Title | Year of first publication | First edition publisher | Notes | |
| East and West | Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY | |||
| Altogether | Heinemann | |||
| Favourite Short Stories | Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY | |||
| Garden City Publishing, Garden City, NY | ||||
| Here and There | Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY | |||
| East of Suez | Avon Publishing, New York | |||
| Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY | ||||
| Heinemann | Three volumes | |||
| Heinemann | Three volumes | |||
| Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY | ||||
| Heinemann | Three volumes | |||
| Heinemann | ||||
| Heinemann | ||||
| Husbands and Wives | Pyramid Publications, New York | |||
| Pyramid Publications, New York | ||||
| Selected Prefaces and Introductions | Heinemann | |||
| Heinemann | ||||
| Seventeen Lost Stories | Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY | |||
| Maugham's Malaysian Stories | Heinemann, Singapore | edited and with an introduction by Anthony Burgess. | ||
| Anthony Blond | Uncollected writings, 1901–64 |
Editor
| Title | Year of first publication | Author | First edition publisher | Notes | |
| Baillie, London | Co-edited with Laurence Housman | ||||
| Simpkin Marshall, London | Co-edited with Laurence Housman | ||||
| Little, New York | |||||
| Traveller's Library | Doubleday, Doran New York | Reissued the same year as Fifty Modern English Writers | |||
| Wisdom of Life: An Anthology of Noble Thoughts | Watts, London | With Joseph Frederick Green | |||
| Oxford University Press, Oxford | With introduction | ||||
| Tellers of Tales: One Hundred Short Stories from the United States, England, France, Russia and Germany | Doubleday, Doran, New York | ||||
| Great Modern Reading: W. Somerset Maugham's Introduction to Modern English and American Literature | Doubleday, New York | ||||
| David Copperfield | Winston, New York | ||||
| Winston, New York | |||||
| Pride and Prejudice | Winston, New York | ||||
| Old Man Goriot | Winston, New York | ||||
| Wuthering Heights | Winston, New York | ||||
| Winston, New York | |||||
| Madame Bovary | Winston, New York | ||||
| Moby-Dick | Winston, New York | ||||
| Stendhal | Winston, New York | ||||
| War and Peace | Winston, New York | ||||
| Macmillan, New York |
Plays
| Title | Date of first performance | Location of first performance | Publisher | Date of publication | Notes | |
| A Man of Honour | 23 February 1903 | Imperial Theatre, London | Chapman & Hall, London | A play in four acts | ||
| Lady Frederick | 26 October 1907 | Royal Court Theatre | Heinemann, London | A comedy in three acts; written in 1903 | ||
| Jack Straw | 26 March 1908 | Vaudeville Theatre | Heinemann, London | A farce in three acts; written in 1907 | ||
| Mrs Dot | 26 April 1908 | Comedy Theatre | Heinemann, London | A farce in three acts; written in 1904 and originally titled Worthey's Estate | ||
| Penelope | 9 January 1909 | Comedy Theatre | Heinemann, London | A comedy in three acts; written in 1908 and originally titled Man and Wife | ||
| The Explorer | 13 June 1908 | Lyric Theatre | Heinemann, London | A melodrama in four acts; written in 1899 | ||
| The Tenth Man | 24 February 1910 | Globe Theatre | Heinemann, London | A tragi-comedy in three acts; written in 1909 | ||
| Landed Gentry | 15 October 1910 | Duke of York's Theatre | Heinemann, London | A comedy in four acts; written in 1910 | ||
| Smith | 30 September 1909 | Comedy Theatre | Heinemann, London | A comedy in four acts; written in 1909 | ||
| The Land of Promise | 25 December 1913 | Lyceum Theatre, New York | Bickers & Son, London | A comedy in four acts | ||
| The Unknown | 9 August 1920 | Aldwych Theatre | Heinemann, London | A play in three acts; written in 1920 | ||
| The Circle | 3 March 1921 | Haymarket Theatre | Heinemann, London | A comedy in three acts; written in 1919 | ||
| Caesar's Wife | 27 March 1919 | Royalty Theatre | Heinemann, London | A comedy in three acts; written in 1918 | ||
| East of Suez | 2 September 1922 | Her Majesty's Theatre | Heinemann, London | A play in seven scenes; written in 1922 | ||
| Our Betters | Hudson Theatre, New York | Heinemann, London | A comedy in three acts; written in 1915 | |||
| Home and Beauty | 30 August 1919 | Globe Theatre, Atlantic City | Heinemann, London | A farce in three acts; written in 1917 | ||
| The Unattainable | 8 February 1916 | New Theatre | Heinemann, London | A farce in three acts; written in 1915 | ||
| Loaves and Fishes | 24 February 1911 | Duke of York's Theatre | Heinemann, London | A comedy in four acts; written in 1902 | ||
| The Constant Wife | 1 November 1926 | Ohio Theatre | George H. Doran Company, New York | A comedy in three acts | ||
| The Letter | 24 February 1927 | Playhouse Theatre | Heinemann, London | A play in three acts | ||
| The Sacred Flame | New York | Doubleday, Doran & Co, New York | A play in three acts | |||
| The Bread-Winner | 30 September 1930 | Vaudeville Theatre | Heinemann, London | A comedy in one act; written in 1930 | ||
| For Services Rendered | 1 November 1932 | Globe Theatre | Heinemann, London | A play in three acts; written in 1932 | ||
| Sheppey | 14 September 1933 | Wyndham's Theatre | Heinemann, London | A play in three acts; written in 1932 | ||
| 20 March 1909 | Royalty Theatre | Evans Brothers, London | A comedy in three acts; written in 1908 |
| Title | Date of first performance | Location of first performance | Notes |
| Mademoiselle Zampa | Avenue Theatre | Ran for 20 performances only | |
| London | Adaptation of a play by Abel Tarride | ||
| Mrs. Beamish | Not performed | A comedy in three acts; written in 1917 | |
| Under the Circumstances | Not performed | A comedy in three acts | |
| Not performed | A comedy in three acts; written in 1917 | ||
| Love in a Cottage | 27 January 1918 | Globe Theatre | A comedy in three acts; written in 1917 |
| Not To-Night, Josephine! | Not performed | A farce; written in 1919 | |
| 29 October 1923 | Worcester Theatre, Worcester, MA | A play in three acts; written in 1924 | |
| Not performed | A play in three acts; written in 1924 | ||
| Not performed | A play in three acts; written in 1928 | ||
| Colonial Theatre | Adaptation of a play by Luigi Chiarelli |
Non-fiction
| Title | Year of first publication | First edition publisher | Topic | |
| Heinemann | Travel | |||
| On a Chinese Screen | Heinemann | Travel | ||
| Heinemann | Travel | |||
| Don Fernando | Heinemann | Travel | ||
| My South Sea Island | Heinemann | Travel | ||
| Heinemann | Autobiography | |||
| France at War | Heinemann | Current affairs | ||
| Books and You | Heinemann | Essays | ||
| Strictly Personal | Doubleday, Doran & Co., Garden City, NY | Autobiography | ||
| Of Human Bondage, With a Digression on the Art of Fiction | US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC | Address | ||
| Great Novelists and Their Novels | Winston, New York | Essays | ||
| Heinemann | Belles lettres | |||
| Cambridge University Press | Essays | |||
| Heinemann | Essays | |||
| Points of View | Heinemann | Essays |