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Zusatztext “Maugham is a great artist. . . . A genius.” —Theodore Dreiser “An expert craftsman. . . . His style is sharp! quick! subdued! casual.” — The New York Times “Maugham has given infinite pleasure and left us a splendour of writing which will remain for as long as the written English word is permitted to exist.” — The Daily Telegraph “The modern writer who has influenced me most is Somerset Maugham.” —George Orwell “Maugham remains the consummate craftsman. . . . [His prose is] so compact! so economical! so closely motivated! so skillfully written! that it rivets attention from the first page to last.” — The Saturday Review of Literature “It is very difficult for a writer of my generation! if he is honest! to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham. . . . He was always so entirely there.” —Gore Vidal Informationen zum Autor W. Somerset Maugham was one of the twentieth century’s most popular novelists as well as a celebrated playwright, critic, and short story writer. He was born in Paris but grew up in England and served as a secret agent for the British during World War I. He wrote many novels, including the classics Of Human Bondage, The Razor’s Edge, Cakes and Ale, The Painted Veil, The Moon and Sixpence , and Up at the Villa . Pico Iyer is the author of many books about travel, including Video Night in Kathmandu . His most recent book is The Open Road . Klappentext One of the seminal writers of the twentieth century, W. Somerset Maugham was also a fearless and constant traveler who chronicled his adventures with a rare mix of wit and excitement. In The Skeptical Romancer , acclaimed travel writer Pico Iyer selects vignettes of Maugham's wise and vivid prose that track his transformation from a boyish traveler in Spain to a worldly man of letters, looking back on India, China, Russia, and America. Beginning with an early book on Spain and culminating in excerpts from old age, this collection introduces us to Maugham at his most surprising, charming, and prophetic. In piece after piece, one can see the spirit that continues to cast an unrivaled influence over successors from Graham Greene to Paul Theroux, from Jan Morris to V. S. Naipaul. I N T R O D U C T I O N —— When one travelled in the East, it was astonishing how often one came acrossmen who had modelled themselves on the creatures of his imagination. —W. Somerset Maugham, of Rudyard Kipling What makes a great traveler? Those of us who spend much of our lives on the road—or on the page—often beguile an idle hour or two with the question. The ideal companion should be open to every person or encounter that comes his way, perhaps—but not too ready to be taken in by them. She should be worldly, shrewd, her feet firmly on the ground; and yet she should be ready to surrender, if only for a moment, to the magic and excitement of what she could never see or do at home. He should be curious, observant, fun, wry and kind; he should be able to spin a spell-binding tale before the Royal Geographic Society in London and then throw it all over for a crazy romance in the South Seas. The heart of the conundrum, really, is that the people we like to spend time with on the road are often sensible, and yet aware of the limits of sense, and the virtue of being senseless every now and again. They’re rooted enough to be up for every possibility. They shouldn’t have an agenda or overwhelming prejudices, and they should be as able to see to the heart of the natives of any country as to their fellow travelers. Maybe what they really offer is a happy blend of steadiness and surprise. I draw up such lists myself, often, and then I look across the room and realize that there’s one person I know who fits the bill ideally. Somerset Maugham was celebrated in the England of his day as one of it...
