Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

LIZA OF LAMBETH (1897) by W. Somerset Maugham shows the tragedy and abuses of the working class in the misguided love affair of young factory worker Liza Kemp and an older married man.

A mood of subdued acceptance of one's life conditions prevails in this powerful first novel by the author of such masterworks as OF HUMAN BONDAGE and THE MOON AND SIXPENCE.

I confess that when first I made acquaintance with Charles Strickland I never for a moment discerned that there was in him anything out of the ordinary. Yet now few will be found to deny his greatness. I do not speak of that greatness which is achieved by the fortunate politician or the successful soldier; that is a quality which belongs to the place he occupies rather than to the man; and a change of circum-stances reduces it to very discreet proportions. The Prime Minister out of office is seen, too often, to have been but a pompous rhetorician, and the General without an army is but the tame hero of a market town. The greatness of Charles Strickland was authentic. It may be that you do not like his art, but at all events you can hardly refuse it the tribute of your interest. He disturbs and arrests. The time has passed when he was an object of ridicule, and it is no longer a mark of eccentricity to defend or of perversity to extol him. His faults are accepted as the necessary complement to his merits. It is still possible to discuss his place in art, and the adulation of his admirers is perhaps no less capricious than the disparagement of his detractors; but one thing can never be doubtful, and that is that he had genius. To my mind the most interesting thing in art is the personality of the artist; and if that is singular, I am willing to excuse a thousand faults. I suppose Velasquez was a better painter than El Greco, but custom stales one's admiration for him:

THE MAGICIAN (1908) by W. Somerset Maugham is an unusual work of early 20th century fantastic literature inspired by the real historical personage and occultist Aleister Crowley who was a contemporary and acquaintance of the author.

Reminiscent of FRANKENSTEIN, the magician, Oliver Haddo, is an imposing, terrifying and yet strangely compelling man of mystery who engages in dangerous clandestine experimentation and dark practices, embroiling the other characters in a wicked game of life and death.

Includes an introduction by the author titled "A Fragment of Autobiography."

The Moon and Sixpence (1919) by William Somerset Maugham is the complex story of Charles Strickland, a man who abandons his family and his secure life as an English businessman to pursue an uncertain but meaningful existence as an artist, from Paris slums to the lush fertility of Tahiti, and into the glory of the creative wilderness.

Inspired by the life of the artist Paul Gauguin, this is a psychological study of the creative urge as it stands in conflict with the bonds of ordinary life and personal relationships.

Of Human Bondage (1915) by W. Somerset Maugham is a semi-autobiographical novel, a striking psychological masterwork of one young man's life journey, obsession, love, alienation and personal vulnerability.

Philip Carey, subtle, intellectual and artistic, is born with a club foot, a condition which causes him lifelong psychological torment. Philip spends his youth as an art student in Paris, then as a medical student in London. He forms friendships, relationships, observes beauty and engages in a variety of social interaction. He experiences a loss of faith, poverty, extravagance, and becomes sensually obsessed with an ultimately vulgar and worthless woman who reappears at different stages of his life and causes him to reassess his own maturity and self-worth.

A classic exploration of human bonds, needs, passion, and self-delusion.

"Though Aleister Crowley served as the model for Oliver Haddo, it is by no means a portrait of him. I made my character more striking in appearance, more sinister and more ruthless than Crowley ever was. I gave him magical powers that Crowley, though he claimed them, certainly never possessed. Crowley, however, recognized himself in the creature of my invention, for such it was, and wrote a full-page review of the novel in "Vanity Fair," which he signed 'Oliver Haddo.' I did not read it, and wish now that I had. I daresay it was a pretty piece of vituperation, but probably, like his poems, intolerably verbose." -- W. Somerset Maugham

Of Human Bondage is one of the greatest novels ever written. Philip Carey is an orphan with a clubfoot, he grows up to love books and struggles trying to understand why life has been so cruel to him. Then he falls in love, and his life changes forever.