Secret Lives Somerset Maugham(ISBN=9781400061419) 网盘下载 pdf 免费 2025 在线 epub 电子版

　　He was a brilliant teller of tales, one of the most widely

read authors of the twentieth century, and at one time the most

famous writer in the world, yet W. Somerset Maugham’s own true

story has never been fully told. At last, the fascinating truth is

revealed in a landmark biography by the award-winning writer Selina

Hastings. Granted unprecedented access to Maugham’s personal

correspondence and to newly uncovered interviews with his only

child, Hastings portrays the secret loves, betrayals, integrity,

and passion that inspired Maugham to create such classics as The

Razor’s Edge and Of Human Bondage.

Hastings vividly presents Maugham’s lonely childhood spent

with unloving relatives after the death of his parents, a trauma

that resulted in shyness, a stammer, and for the rest of his life

an urgent need for physical tenderness. Here, too, are his adult

triumphs on the stage and page, works that allowed him a glittering

social life in which he befriended and sometimes fell out with such

luminaries as Dorothy Parker, Charlie Chaplin, D. H. Lawrence, and

Winston Churchill.

The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham portrays in full for the

first time Maugham’s disastrous marriage to Syrie Wellcome, a

manipulative society woman of dubious morality who trapped Maugham

with a pregnancy and an attempted suicide. Hastings also explores

Maugham’s many affairs with men, including his great love, Gerald

Haxton, an alcoholic charmer and a cad. Maugham’s courageous work

in secret intelligence during two world wars is described in

fascinating detail—experiences that provided the inspiration for

the groundbreaking Ashenden stories. From the West End to Broadway,

from China to the South Pacific, Maugham’s restless and remarkably

productive life is thrillingly recounted as Hastings uncovers the

real stories behind such classics as “Rain,” The Painted Veil,

Cakes & Ale, and other well-known tales.

An epic biography of a hugely talented and hugely conflicted

man, The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham is the definitive account

of Maugham’s extraordinary life.

CHAPTER 1　A BLACKSTABLE BOYHOOD

CHAPTER 2　AT ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL

CHAPTER 3　A WRITER BY INSTINCT

CHAPTER 4　LE CHAT BLANC

CHAPTER 5　ENGLAND'S DRAMATIST

CHAPTER 6　SYRIE

CHAPTER 7　CODE NAME "SOMERVILLE"

CHAPTER 8　BEHIND THE PAINTED VEIL

CHAPTER 9　A WORLD OF VERANDA AND PRAHU

CHAPTER 10　SEPARATION

CHAPTER 11　THE VILLA MAURESQUE

CHAPTER 12　MASTER HACKY

CHAPTER 13　THE TELLER OF TALES

CHAPTER 14　AN EXERCISE IN PROPAGANDA

CHAPTER 15　THE BRONZINO BOY

CHAPTER 16　BETRAYAL

ACKNOWLEDBMENTS

SOURCE NOTES

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

ILLUSTRATION CREDITS

　　Selina Hastings worked at the Daily Telegraph before becoming

the literary editor for Harpers & Queen. She is the author of

Nancy Mitford: A Biography, Rosamond Lehmann, and Evelyn Waugh: A

Biography, which won the Marsh Biography Award. A Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature, she has been a judge of the Booker,

Whitbread, British Academy, Ondaatje, and Duff Cooper prizes, and

of the UK Biographers’ Award.

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罗伯特被毛姆形容为一个有“浪漫精神”的人，他从来没有忘记年轻时去过摩洛哥、希腊和小亚细亚，他把他的小房子想象成博斯普鲁斯海峡的一幢别墅。为了加强异域情调，他将摩尔人辟邪的标志雕刻在窗户上，这个标志也成为毛姆成为作家后的个人徽章。这个标记将他和父亲永远地连在了一起。

母亲的死让他难以释怀。三十年后，他在自传体小说《人生的枷锁》中回忆起当时的情形，孩子走进死去的母亲的房间：

菲利普打开大衣柜，里面挂满了衣服，他一脚跨进柜子，张开手臂尽可能多地抱了一抱衣服，将脸埋在衣堆里。衣服上温馨犹存，那是母亲生前所用香水散发的香味。然后，他拉开抽屉，里面放满了母亲的衣饰用品。他细加端详：内衣里夹着几只薰衣草袋，散发着沁人心脾的阵阵清香。屋子里那种陌生气氛顿时消失了，他恍惚觉得母亲只是刚刚外出散步，待会儿就要回来的，而且还要到楼上幼儿室同他一起用茶点。他的嘴唇甚至依稀感觉到了母亲给他的亲吻。

这是个勇敢的决定，可是和他同时代、同阶层的大部分性口味传统的男人一样，他也十分珍视给人一种恪守常规的表象。他压根儿不希望压制自己的同性恋倾向，但同时觉得女人也对他有吸引力，于是导致他错误地以为自己“四分之三正常，只有四分之一同性恋”婚姻可以进一步让天平向他期望的方向倾斜，至少可以允许他作为异性恋者进入上流社会。正如约翰·哈利维尔在《一个体面的男人》中所说的那样，“一个人只有非常坚强、非常自信，才能违背通常的观点，如果你不具备这些特点，还是不要冒这个险了，就像凡夫俗子那样随大流吧，走老路至少是安全的。不刺激、不勇敢，相当无聊，但安全极了。“

同性恋者有一个突出之处：内心深处不把某些普通人看得很重的东西当回事，从轻率无礼的行到嬉笑怒骂的识刺。普通人党得无关紧要的事，同性恋者却认为意义重大；被公认为于全人类的精神福祉至关重要的东西，同性恋者对它却是一副愤世嫉俗的态度…他缺少开创大业的能力，却有装点修饰的天赋……他冷笑着站在岸上，冷漠地看着生命之河流过。

《月亮和六便士》的灵感来源是保罗·高更的生平，写于1918年5月至8月。高更与书中描绘的艺术家查尔斯·思特里克兰德有着明显的相似之处：与高更一样，思特里克兰德是一位有妻儿的体面股票经纪人，却抛弃家庭，为了艺术的自由而过着贫困的生活，两位画家都在塔希提岛定居，余生留在了南太平洋，高更患有梅毒，染上毒瘾，最终死于心脏病发作，思特里克兰德则染上了麻风病。小说为第一人称叙事；毛姆上一次采用该手法是在二十年前的《一个圣徒发迹的奥秘》，但他之后会越来越多地运用第一人称，特别是在短篇小说中。不具名的“我”在情节中的作用很小，主要功能就是评论和观察。“我”是一位年轻小说家，很贴近毛姆本人，同样年少自负，冷幽默，还有一点讨人喜欢的心怀不轨。思特里克兰德太太是一位财力有限的普通妇人，却有办文学沙龙的志向，邀请“我”参加位于阿什利花园家中的寒酸沙龙。“我”就是在这里见到了她的股票经纪人丈夫，此人乏味无趣，平凡无奇，喜欢读《笨拙》和《体育时报》，壁炉架上面摆着一幅莉莉·兰特里的画像。当思特里克兰德出乎所有人意料，突然抛家舍业，跑到巴黎当起了穷画家时，思特里克兰德太太求助的人正是叙述者。

来到巴黎后，叙述者发现思特里克兰德与两人在伦教见面时大相径庭。现在的他冷酷而暴躁，坚定不移地走自己的路，对抛在身后的生活毫无兴趣。

叙述者在巴黎有一位画家朋友，名叫戴尔克·施特略夫，此人虽然愚蠢，画技拙劣，却也慷慨心善。身无分文的高更曾得到友人埃米尔·舒芬尼克尔的接济，却以勾引埃米尔的妻子作为报答；思特里克兰德以类似的方式背叛了施特略夫。勃朗什·施特略夫与思特里克兰德私奔后被遗弃，于是自杀了。后来，仍然住在的巴黎的叙述者又碰上了思特里克兰德，他对勃朗什的事情漠不关心，但他最后还是被说服，向叙述者展示了自己的作品，不情愿地允许他进入自己的画室；书中的描写不禁让人联想到性格乖戾的罗德里克·奥康纳...

“工作很辛苦，也很乏味，但不需要负责任，这很不错。不需要我做什么决定，让我干什么，我就干什么。干完活，时间就全是我自己的了，即便浪费时间，我也觉得心安理得。这之前我一直认为时间太宝贵了，不能虚度一分钟……责任感如影随形。对什么负责？嗯，我想是对我自己，对我的天赋，我希望充分利用我的天赋和我自己。现在我自由了，我享受着自由。自由的愉悦中有一种性感得近乎撩人的特质。“

媒体评论

　　[Hastings] provides a searing emotional history…so powerfully

written, in places so shocking, as to give a series of physical

jolts to the reader. Hasting's book cannot be bettered. –Sunday

Telegraph

　　"Brilliant…Every so often, a biography appears of such authority

and such power that it is more than a chronicle of a human life, it

is a work of art…Such is Selina Hastings' skill that this horrible

story is richly enjoyable."—A. N. Wilson, Reader's Digest

　　"A sensitive and sympathetic biography."—Sunday Times

　　"Pitch-perfect: supple, confident and written with something of

the same beady detachment (and enjoyable signature streak of

malice) as the great tale-teller himself." –Nicholas Shakespeare,

Daily Telegraph

　　"The places and people she describes are portrayed with such

graphic clarity and assurance. She sets a scene or establishes a

personality with great economy and intensity."—Observer

　　"An impressively perceptive and often moving account of an

extraordinarily interesting man."—Literary Review

　　"Excellent…wholly convincing and always interesting…an

outstanding biography."—Scotsman

　　"Engrossing…a brilliant evocation." –Financial Times

　　"The more we know about Somerset Maugham, the more admirable he

becomes—the more, in short, he seems the witty, cynical, eminently

sensible fellow that comes across in his writing. And here, at

last, Maugham has gotten the magnificent biography he deserves.

Marshaling all the known evidence, Selena Hastings shows us the man

in the round: she is generous but shrewd in her assessment of

Maugham's work, and resolutely unshocked by the 'scandalous'

details of his private life. Indeed, much of Hastings' book reads

like an almost incredible success story, were it not for the rather

crucial fact that Maugham attached himself, haplessly, to worthless

characters who didn't love him. The ramifications are everywhere

(but subtly) present in these pages, and lead inexorably to the

final tragedy. Count no man happy until he dies." —Blake Bailey,

author of Cheever: A Life　

　　"A fascinating narrative … full of public incident and

accomplishment, shadowed by privately known and whispered

secrets…The sordid details, fully disclosed for the first time,

reveal the tragic ending to a life that had produced great wealth,

exotic travel, and public acclaim…Hastings is a stylish and

sensitive writer who addresses her subject's double life with

insight and compassion."—Publishers Weekly, starred review　

　　"Monumentally engaging… All of the drama, intrigue, heartbreak

and joy that marked Maugham’s life is reconstructed by the author

in enthralling, novelistic prose. A powerful, revealing and

authoritative depiction of one the 20th century’s most notorious

literary figures." —Kirkus

书籍介绍

He was a brilliant teller of tales, one of the most widely read authors of the twentieth century, and at one time the most famous writer in the world, yet W. Somerset Maugham’s own true story has never been fully told. At last, the fascinating truth is revealed in a landmark biography by the award-winning writer Selina Hastings. Granted unprecedented access to Maugham’s personal correspondence and to newly uncovered interviews with his only child, Hastings portrays the secret loves, betrayals, integrity, and passion that inspired Maugham to create such classics as The Razor’s Edge and Of Human Bondage.

Hastings vividly presents Maugham’s lonely childhood spent with unloving relatives after the death of his parents, a trauma that resulted in shyness, a stammer, and for the rest of his life an urgent need for physical tenderness. Here, too, are his adult triumphs on the stage and page, works that allowed him a glittering social life in which he befriended and sometimes fell out with such luminaries as Dorothy Parker, Charlie Chaplin, D. H. Lawrence, and Winston Churchill.

The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham portrays in full for the first time Maugham’s disastrous marriage to Syrie Wellcome, a manipulative society woman of dubious morality who trapped Maugham with a pregnancy and an attempted suicide. Hastings also explores Maugham’s many affairs with men, including his great love, Gerald Haxton, an alcoholic charmer and a cad. Maugham’s courageous work in secret intelligence during two world wars is described in fascinating detail—experiences that provided the inspiration for the groundbreaking Ashenden stories. From the West End to Broadway, from China to the South Pacific, Maugham’s restless and remarkably productive life is thrillingly recounted as Hastings uncovers the real stories behind such classics as “Rain,” The Painted Veil, Cakes & Ale, and other well-known tales.

An epic biography of a hugely talented and hugely conflicted man, The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham is the definitive account of Maugham’s extraordinary life.