Maugham's Magnum Opus: 'The Summing Up' Book Review

Episode 30: Thanks to James Salter's memoir 'Burning the Days', I discovered W. Somerset Maugham's memoir 'The Summing Up' and have come to agree with Salter that it's Maugham's best book. Maugham has the rare ability to take on profound themes and do them justice with intellectual clarity and accessible prose. People often say that 'The Summing Up' is essential reading for aspiring writers. I think it's essential reading for mature writers.

Books mentioned:

The Summing Up, by W. Somerset Maugham, originally published in 1938
Burning the Days: Recollection, by James Salter, originally published in 1997
Earthly Paradise: Colette's Autobiography Drawn From her Lifetime Writings, edited by Robert Phelps, first published in 1966
The Razor’s Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham, originally published in 1944
Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham, originally published in 1915
The Moon and Sixpence, by W. Somerset Maugham, originally published in 1919
The Trembling of a Leaf: Little Stories of the South Sea Islands (which includes his most famous story, “Rain”), by W. Somerset Maugham, originally published in 1921
Don Fernando, by W. Somerset Maugham, originally published in 1935
My Half Orange: A Story of Love and Language in Seville, by John Julius Reel, to be published in April of 2023, by Tortoise Books

Four plays by Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, and King Lear

#somersetmaugham #thesummingup #autobiography