"There was in the soul of that boy some confused striving, whether of half-thought-out ideas or of dimly felt emotions, I could not tell." Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham's most brilliant characters - his fiancée Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham's novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable part as he wanders in and out of the story. To observe his characters struggling with their fates. "An immensely craftsman-like, amusing and imaginatively stimulating piece of fiction...a fascinating book."-Times Literary Supplement "Here at last is a great writer, on the threshold of old age, determined to tell the truth in a form which releases all the possibilities of his art." -Cyril Connolly
MAUGHAM WILLIAM SOMERSET
William Somerset Maugham París, 1874 - Niza, 1965 fue uno de los escritores británicos más populares, prolíficos y mejor pagados de la primera mitad del siglo XX. Su obra destaca por una narrativa lúcida, cínica y profundamente observadora de la naturaleza humana. Aunque se formó como médico, profesión que influyó en su mirada clínica sobre el comportamiento social, alcanzó el éxito mundial como dramaturgo, novelista y autor de relatos cortos. Durante la Primera Guerra Mundial, sirvió como agente secreto para el servicio de inteligencia británico MI6 , experiencia que fundó las bases del género de espionaje moderno.
