サマセット・モーム

『アシェンデン』は、英国の作家ウィリアム・サマセット・モームが、1928年に発表した連作短編小説で、ロシア革命時の実体験に基づく、スパイ小説の古典とされる。 主人公アシェンデンによる、作家兼情報部員としての体験手記の形で物語が進む。モームの代表作の一つで、多く重版され、日本語訳も「月と六ペンス」と並び多くの版元で刊行された。 実際にモームは1910年代、第一次世界大戦半ばに、従軍軍医から英国諜報機関へ転属勤務となり、ソビエト連邦成立直前のロシア・ペトログラードへ向かい工作活動を行った。 …

Cakes and Ale is a delicious satire of London literary society between the Wars. Social climber Alroy Kear is flattered when he is selected by Edward Driffield's wife to pen the official biography of her lionized novelist husband, and determined to write a bestseller. But then Kear discovers the great novelist's …

Catalina is a novel written by W. Somerset Maugham and first published by Heinemann in 1948. Set in Spain during the Inquisition the novel is a satire on the power of the church. It was Maugham’s last published novel.

These 30 short stories, comprising Somerset Maugham's first collection, are set in locations ranging from England, France and Spain to the silver sands of the South Pacific. They include "Rain," "The Three Fat Women of Antibes," "The Voice of the Turtle," and "Before the Party."For more than seventy years, Penguin has …