W. Somerset Maugham was one of the most prolific and popular authors in world literature. During a career that spanned sixty-five years, he attained great renown, first as a dramatist, then as the author of entertaining and carefully crafted short stories and novels. Maugham's productivity has sometimes hindered his critical reception, leading commentators to assess him as a merely competent professional writer. A number of his works, however, most notably the novels Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, Cakes and Ale; or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard, and The Razor's Edge, and the short stories "The Letter" and "Rain," are acclaimed as masterpieces of twentieth-century literature.

According to Archie K. Loss in an article for the Dictionary of Literary Biography, "The most important events in the life of William Somerset Maugham were those over which he had no control. Like one of the characters in his fiction...