Biography is a genre I had not really explored until a few years ago. I enjoy learning about the era in which the person lived as well as the person’s life. With Meyer’s biography of Maugham, you get a lot of history as well as an in depth analysis of Maugham’s every move. Maughm lived for almost 92 years and in those years, he wrote a great deal, read a great deal and lived a great deal. As the author of several of my favorite books, Of Human Bondage, The Razor’s Edge, and The Painted Veil, I wanted to know more about the man behind these extraordinary books. Notoriously secretive, Maugham lived a life caught between repressed homosexuality and artistic expression. Trained in medicine, he learns to empathize with the poor and brutalized women he met as he attended them in childbirth. These experiences deeply influenced his writing. He was also a spy for years in Switzerland, the South Seas, and Russia just before the revolution. Maugham earned a great living not just with his novels, but also with his plays. With his profits, he bought an estate in Cap Ferrat on the coast between Monte Carlo and Nice. Invitations were prized but Maugham also expected his guests to entertain him in return for a stay at a gorgeous and lush palace.
Reading this book was a thorough education in the life of W. Somerset Maugham. I only wish that Jeffrey Meyers had given the same attention to his writing as he gave to his research. Some of the chapters felt thrown together. And as much as I learned, reading this book was not always pleasant. One nice thing that Meyers does do however is cite the influence Maugham had on future writers. Overall, this is a fact filled book, but carelessly written I would say.

Here are two reviews I found online: one by Christopher Hitchens at the Atlantic and one from Merle Rubin at the Christian Science Monitor.