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This is the only series to provide in-depth critical introductions to major modern and contemporary short story writers worldwide.

Each volume offers:

-- A comprehensive overview of the artist's short fiction -- including detailed analyses of every significant story

-- Interviews, essays, memoirs and other biographical materials -- often previously unpublished

-- A representative selection of critical responses

-- A comprehensive primary bibliography, a selected bibliography of important criticism, a chronology of the artist's life and works and an index

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CHOICE Review

Although recent biographies have viewed Maugham's life and works negatively (e.g., Robert Calder's W. Somerset Maugham and the Quest for Freedom, 1973; Ted Morgan's Maugham, 1980), a resurgence of interest and reevaluation are underway that point to Maugham's being one of the truly great writers of the early 20th century. Archer's study on Maugham's short fiction makes an important contribution to the movement. In Part 1 Archer skillfully traces Maugham's development as a storyteller, noting the influences on Maupassant, Poe, and Schopenhauer and calling attention to patterns that became permanent--the Maugham persona, the anecdote, the well-chosen word and phrase. Archer observes that although Maugham does little to further the genre, he gives the form its finest expression. Archer's observations are reinforced in Part 2 with excerpts from Maugham's own writing on the genre, and they are clarified in Part 3 by recent criticism of his work. The best research of the past, Joseph Dobrinsky's La jeuness de Somerset Maugham (1976) and Forrest D. Burt's W. Somerset Maugham (Ch, Jan'86), supports Archer's conclusions. His is a significant work that will open the door to a more positive approach to Maugham's writing. Helpful chronology and selected bibliography. Undergraduate (all levels); graduate; general. R. L. Brooks; Baylor University