Sunset on Somerset

Ever feel deep pangs of overwhelming guilt when confronted with a literary or historical figure you feel you oughta know, but you just don't have a clue?

Well, I get those pangs' fangs all too often, and they just struck again. Let's face it: who the hell is Somerset Maugham?

William Somerset Maugham, CH (January 25, 1874 – December 16, 1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and short story writer. He was one of the most popular authors of the 1930s and reportedly the highest paid.

Thanks, Wikipedia. But seriously, what on earth was this guy doing? And why is it that I could give you a word or two on Chesterton, a quip about Belloc, something on G.B. Shaw, and even a small diatribe on Duranty's failure to cover the Ukrainian famine of '32...but Maugham sounds only vaguely familiar (and I think that's because I'm mistaking him for someone from the Blandings Castle series by Wodehouse).

Well, if you were to judge the man by whom he influenced, then my guilt is alleviated somewhat:

In 1947 Maugham instituted the Somerset Maugham Award, awarded to the best British writer or writers under the age of thirty-five of a work of fiction published in the past year. Notable past winners include V.S. Naipaul, Kingsley Amis, Martin Amis and Thom Gunn. On his death, he donated his copyrights to the Royal Literary Fund.

One of very few later writers to praise his influence was Anthony Burgess, who included a complex fictional portrait of Maugham in the novel Earthly Powers. George Orwell also stated that his writing style was influenced by Maugham. The American writer Paul Theroux, in his short story collection The Consul's File, updated Maugham's colonial world in an outstation of expatriates in modern Malaysia.

The 1995 film Se7en has a character played by Morgan Freeman, named Lt. Somerset. The film makes explicit reference to Of Human Bondage.

Okay, let's break this down:

• He actually named an award after himself while he was still alive? Whoever he was, Maug had brass balls (or an ego the size of Mt. Etna).
• Kingsley Amis won this award? It can't be half bad then, because Lucky Jim was a hoot.
• Martin Amis also won this award...wait a second, this smells of nepotism.
• Thom Gunn was a recipient of the award...who the hell was he? Ancestor of both Thom Yorke and Ben Gunn (of Treasure Island fame)? Strike two-ish...
• Ooo, George Orwell claims he was affected by Maug's fog...the execution gets a stay
• Paul Theroux lists SM as an influence...game over. Maugham gets the boot.

To add to the list, Somerset didn't hang his hat on moral judgments:

Maugham's homosexual leanings also shaped his fiction, in two ways. Since, in life, he tended to see attractive women as sexual rivals, he often gave the women of his fiction sexual needs and appetites, in a way quite unusual for distinguished authors of his time. "Liza of Lambeth," "Cakes and Ale" and "The Razor's Edge" all featured women determined to service their strong sexual appetites, heedless of the result.

Also, the fact that Maugham's own sexual appetites were highly disapproved of, or even criminal, in nearly all of the countries in which he traveled, made Maugham unusually tolerant of the vices of others. Readers and critics often complained that Maugham did not clearly enough condemn what was bad in the villains of his fiction and plays. Maugham replied in 1938: "It must be a fault in me that I am not gravely shocked at the sins of others unless they personally affect me."

Sorry, Maugie, there's plenty of reason to be gravely shocked by the crumbums of life. Here we must part ways. Though you can take some solace in the recipients of your award:

Amis died in 1995 at the age of 73 with over 20 novels to his credit, plus dozens of volumes of poetry, stories, collections of essays, and criticism. His last unfinished novel was BLACK AND WHITE, about an attraction between a white homosexual man and a black heterosexual girl.

Final verdict: Somerset Maugham, curious dude. Necessary to know? By no means.