Check out these Maugham books on Amazon! The Razor's Edge: geni.us/MLzX The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: geni.us/uEr8O Collected Short Stories: geni.us/Usx3V Join us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/ManufacturingIntellect Donate Crypto! commerce.coinbase.com/checkout/868d67d2-1628-44a8-b8dc-8f9616d62259 Get Two Books FREE with a Free Audible Trial: amzn.to/313yfLe Checking out the affiliate links above helps me bring even more high quality videos to you by earning me a small commission on your purchase. If you have any suggestions for future content, make sure to subscribe on the Patreon page. Thank you for your support!
sorry to be offtopic but does anyone know a trick to get back into an instagram account..? I was stupid lost my password. I appreciate any assistance you can give me!
@Zachariah Forrest I really appreciate your reply. I found the site on google and Im trying it out atm. Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
I learned to read when I was four. By the time I was ten, twelve, I was reading everything by Maugham, and Daphne Demaurier, (I may have misspelled.) Their literature lifted me above my dismal circumstances. They blotted out my loneliness. Literature can be life changing.
@miapdx503. Well said. When I was a child, I hurried home from school, got out of my school uniform and walked quickly to the library. I checked out as many books as possible and hurried back home so I could read them. Now in my old age, my books are my best friends. And, now we have audio books which I appreciate because my eyes are failing.
One of my early loves. A great writer, so much happy to see him talk about himself. Love you Maugham. World should have honoured you much more. The Nobel prize committee was scared of your 'popularity' only to disqualify you. What a shame!
I'm so glad Mr.Maugham is what I imagined he'd look like. Even better he speaks with a soft melodious accent, almost lyrical. His words flowing like his stories and novels, reaching your ears without interruption. His interviewer on the other hand has clipped tight speech, almost germanic in tone and distracting from his questions. Sommerset Maugham looks and sounds exactly as I pictured. Perfect in thought and appearance❤
I agree with you! Pryce-Jones sounds like the Prince Charles character in the docudrama "The Crown." In fact, he sounds almost like a caricature of the so-called Queen's English!
The 2 greatest novels that impacted my life: Of Human Bondage and The Razor’s Edge. Unbelievable insight into the human condition and probably the most incredible insight into what love and life is really really all about.
Dad and I would wait for the bookmobile to pull up in front of our house in Jefferson Parish back in the early fifties. He saw how interested I was in all those uniformly sized blue bound biographies and subsequently took great pleasure in giving me 30 Great Short Stories of W. S. Maugham and The Razor's Edge. I still sense his hand guiding me back to Maugham as I discover unread stories upon my shelves. And the recollected letters and paint scheme on the bookmobile become more distinct over time as well.
He answers questions as a man who has already thought deeply about all the questions and has already considered each from half a dozen different angles, amazing.
I watched this years ago. His books were the first I read after children’s and young people’s books. My dad had some and I loved his books. So I had library books later and read all Maughams books. They were wonderful. When I stayed at Raffels in Singapore years ago before ruining its character they had a Maugham Suite. That dear writer brought me so much pleasure in my teen years.. Heis such a lovely man it makes me sad I can never meet him. A great video Thank you.
I don’t think Maughan was patrician , middle class maybe but not aristocracy which patrician more fittingly describes. Peter Cook was a middle class ex public school and Oxford type he spoke like that naturally, I think it was Dudley Moore who affected the accent
This was absolutely brilliant! Thank you for posting it. Willie still does not receive the credit he deserves. Then and now, I believe that is because his work has, without exception, a beginning, a middle and an end. His plays should be performed far, far more than they are.
I first read Maugham when first working in the tropics. Now 45 years on I have returned to his short stories. His short stories frequently address the expatriate experience. I have always felt a stranger in a strange land despite living in Hawaii for 35 years.
I was only 2 years old at that time. I've studied English and American Literature and history and civilization at SORBONNE UNIVERSITY in Paris in the 80s. I regret that the Academy didn't include S.M works . I loved the documentary. THANKS FOR SHARING.
I can't stop reading his book, I read Liza of Lambeth Of Human Bondage The Moon and Sixpence Cakes and Ale last month, and I read Books and You last week, today I was reading The Summing Up, and now I am watching his interview on RUclips😂
Good for Willie, not letting his stammer deter him from agreeing to this interview. I understand that he was very self-conscious about it when he was young, e.g., when he did not himself telephone D. H. Lawrence in Mexico.
Such a wonderful interview with one of my favourite authors. I started reading him when I was 16, many, many years ago. I enjoyed everything I read. I was very thrilled when 30 years ago I was staying at Raffles Hotel in Singapore. There was a small alcove off the main lobby with a desk and chair, it had a sign up that it was where Somerset Maugham wrote many of his books.the hotel had been recently completely renovated so whether they were original items I didn’t enquire. I liked to think they were. He was such a lovely man I am sure he would have been a lovely doctor. He had such a brilliant mind as well as a pleasant manner.
First time I've heard Maugham described as a "lovely man"! Never, in any biography I've read, has anyone who knew him described him thus. Quite the opposite, in fact!
@@michelez715 Oh dear, I was thinking back over 60 years to when I enjoyed his books so much. I mainly read biographies now but not his. In fact since my husband died last year I can’t concentrate enough to read. Can you tell me in a few words why not? I suppose I assumed back then that such a great writer for me was lovely as he entertained me so much.
@@michelez715 hello again. I decided to rewatch this after your critical comment. I still see him as a lovely person. Honest and to me very likeable. Biographers have their own opinions. Just as I have mine and you have yours. Orphaned young must have had a profound affect on his life as he still stutters badly. My opinion hasn’t changed. I think he had a brilliant mind and was a lovely person. I wonder how people will see you after you have gone. There is a Scottish saying which in my old age I can’t remember verbatim. Oh that we could see ourselves as others see us. Have a wee think.
@@carolking6355 O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us; To see oursels as ithers see us! (Oh, would some Power give us the gift; To see ourselves as others see us!) The great Scots poet Robbie Burns wrote these words in the final stanza of To A Louse : On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church.
Wow. This was an entire lifetime of wisdom and learning compressed into 30 minutes of extraordinarily perspicacious question. Our dear author reveals the absolute key for writing success, but it is the indigestible truth which entire industries have been built to avoid.
The noted and brillian French short-story writer Guy de Maupassant claimed that Sommerset Maugham was the best short story writer that existed. Quite a compliment.
You’ve got things mixed up. Maugham was the one who thought so highly of Guy de Maupassant, not the other way around. First book by Maugham (Liza of Lambeth) was published in 1897, and Guy de Maupassant died in 1893, 4 years earlier.
When 11 or 12 I read all the stories of Guy de Maupassant. Always my favorite. But Maugham very enjoyable. Thanks for these recordings. I was scraping paint off a window and this recording was a much appreciated companion.
Tremendous. I first book one of his books, almost by accident when I was 18. I'm now 55 and still enjoy re-reading them all. I've also just read an interview with photographer David Bailey, who once met Maugham, and said he was one of the nicest men he ever met. Which is something, as he (Bailey) seemed to dislike most people!
The accent distinction between the classes was very pronounced back then. There are certainly traces of this today, but it's become less obvious over the years. I believe the practice of non-reginal dialect among the media has been a large part of this change. Anyway, great chat. I've always liked Maugham. "The ability to quote is a serviceable subtition for wit" ~ W. Somerset Maugham.
Completely agree, more especially the Times journalist - Maugham himself doesn't sound so self-consciously 'upper class'; but also, the society started to change dramatically right after the mid-sixties. It's not fashionable anymore to sound 'aristocratic', and studies of the Queen's accent show that she has come down to earth by each passing decade. With rock stars, footballers and film actors (e.g., Michael Caine) rising to the top, it's a trend to sound you're from a more 'ordinary' background - even if you have to fake it!
@Stephen Douglas whereas now rather than pronouncing the words they’re using, or using the language to its full potential, most people just slosh their way through conversations, unaware of most words beyond monosyllables, often speaking more like Jamaican gangsters than Englishmen.
@@sirhumphreyappleby8399 That's true as well. Note the increasing acceptance of the horrible 'glottal stop', i.e., the letter 't' is disappearing into a lazier abrupt gap - 'wa'er' (water) - even among some BBC speakers.
Alan Pryce-Jones' super-patrician pronunciation of English is almost as if he was doing a parody. No one speaks like that anymore. A timeless window of one of the English accents of the past.
Those were the days, when people knew how to sit quiet after asking a question. When questions were less lengthy than answers, when the interviewer did not think he was a bugger superstar than the guest.
My father had a book of short stories signed by Somerset Maugham when he came to visit a well known bookshop in Colombo next to his medical dispensary.
No biographer or memoir-writer I've read has described him as a lovely man. His nephew, to whom he was quite close, describes a man brimming with unhappiness and self-hatred who was also avaricious and cynical
Well said and well put. The interviewer does a wonderfully effective job. I could listen to the two of them all day long. Thoughtful questions and fascinating replies !
The stuttering and stammering that Maugham changed into clubfoot in Of human bondage. He is one of my most admired writers. In Chennai,India, it was a common see in 1960s people carrying a Maugham novel.
What a snapshot in time! So interesting. Not that it matters, but Somerset Maugham's grandson married the sister-in-law of Queen Camilla, and the interviewer's son David Pryce-Jones is the first cousin, once removed, of Helena Bonham Carter.
Maugham did not know that his great talent would be much more recognised in the USSR than in his own world ! Even now every household has at least one volume of Maugham’s book on a book shelf. His plays are performed all over Russia.
This a great interview, because of Maugham's charm and humility. Calling himself a "great writer of the second rank" indeed! He is consistently interesting as an interviewee in this piece. You can find much of the same charm in his novels, although some deal with topics that are not delightful. To say that he does not speak of Ideas, as one commenter here did, overlooks his works. The Razor's Edge, for example, tackles theodicy and aspects of Hinduism in ways that make them accessible -- not turgid the way some attempt at philosophy in fiction end up being . As someone said (not me) "Maugham is the baugham!"
A Lovely surprise..I've read most his books and seen many of his filmed versions..The moon and the sixpence,Quartet and Trio being among my favourites available on y-t.. what a great guy..thanks to all concerned in making this interview available..
I love this interview, helping me to know this great writer . I think he is like Strickland in the novel of "The Moon and Sixpence", who paniting for his strong desire, he wrote for his pleasure! Great man !
Found this interview completely by accident, but I want to take this unexpected opportunity to give a shout-out to another British author, Philip Kerr. His Bernie Gunther thriller "The Other Side Of Silence: is set in this location, and a fictionalized figure of Maugham plays a central role in the book.
I found this interview because I am reading The Other Side Of Silence. Its very sad that Kerr is no longer with us and for me this is the last of Bernie Gunther. Still i now have the works of W.S.M to look foward to!
I think the Bill Murray version sans 1984 touched me the most. That was the year of my divorce from a woman who was a lot like Isabel and I was longing for a Sophie to come into my life. Bill Murray was a mediocre actor, great comedian but Razor's Edge was his best film.
This is a gem, but if one reads the credits carefully, the copyright date is ‘MCMLX’ (1960) and indeed Maugham and Pryce-Jones look younger than they did if one views photographs of them taken in 1965.
Check out these Maugham books on Amazon!
The Razor's Edge: geni.us/MLzX
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: geni.us/uEr8O
Collected Short Stories: geni.us/Usx3V
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sorry to be offtopic but does anyone know a trick to get back into an instagram account..?
I was stupid lost my password. I appreciate any assistance you can give me!
@Kasen Ronin Instablaster =)
@Zachariah Forrest I really appreciate your reply. I found the site on google and Im trying it out atm.
Looks like it's gonna take quite some time so I will reply here later with my results.
@Zachariah Forrest it did the trick and I now got access to my account again. I am so happy:D
Thank you so much, you saved my account !
@Kasen Ronin happy to help =)
I learned to read when I was four. By the time I was ten, twelve, I was reading everything by Maugham, and Daphne Demaurier, (I may have misspelled.) Their literature lifted me above my dismal circumstances. They blotted out my loneliness. Literature can be life changing.
I agree. As a very lonely child books were my dearest companions and have continued to bring comfort. 0:04
Well said. Thankyou . John (Australia)
We traveled the same path. I still love them, perhaps more, as they bring back the remembrance of my youthful anticipation.
I can understand!!
@miapdx503. Well said. When I was a child, I hurried home from school, got out of my school uniform and walked quickly to the library. I checked out as many books as possible and hurried back home so I could read them. Now in my old age, my books are my best friends. And, now we have audio books which I appreciate because my eyes are failing.
What a treasure to have on RUclips. Thank you for posting. Back when things like this made you feel good
Maugham is a writer I can read and reread. A brilliant observer of humanity
I heartily concur ! I just finished a paperback collection of his short stories and enjoyed them so very much.
His stories never grow old.
Of Human Bondage is one of those books I have thought about throughout the years. Wicked brilliant.
thanks Mr.Maugham for all the great enyojable times you make me spent
One of my early loves. A great writer, so much happy to see him talk about himself. Love you Maugham. World should have honoured you much more. The Nobel prize committee was scared of your 'popularity' only to disqualify you. What a shame!
When I was 45, I thought that I knew everything. In the next 10 years, I learned more than in the previous 45 years all together.
We all do.
I have had a bookshop for 20 years, i have read 100s of books,
the sanitorium in my opinion is his masterpiece. The best book i have ever read.
I'm so glad Mr.Maugham is what I imagined he'd look like. Even better he speaks with a soft melodious accent, almost lyrical. His words flowing like his stories and novels, reaching your ears without interruption.
His interviewer on the other hand has clipped tight speech, almost germanic in tone and distracting from his questions.
Sommerset Maugham looks and sounds exactly as I pictured. Perfect in thought and appearance❤
I agree with you! Pryce-Jones sounds like the Prince Charles character in the docudrama "The Crown." In fact, he sounds almost like a caricature of the so-called Queen's English!
How I love Maugham. I have read, and taught him all my life. What a wonderful artist, so full of human nature's highs and lows. Thank you.
av
I certainly have a notion to second THAT emotion ! I've read a lot of his short stories and the novel "The Razor's Edge". Enjoyed them greatly !
Wonderful, just wonderful for this opportunity to see and hear Somerset Maugham in such a convivial conversation!
He pauses, forgets and then again gathers himself to express with such eloquence and clarity of speech. Amazing.
The 2 greatest novels that impacted my life:
Of Human Bondage and The Razor’s Edge. Unbelievable insight into the human condition and probably the most incredible insight into what love and life is really really all about.
You speak the truth, Kemo Sabe !
You are right! 😎
Maugham hints at the end that he hasn't long to live and he died later that year.
So glad they got to him in time. Great interview.
This interview was 1955 - I thought Maugham died in 1965. ?
It was a wonderful interview to watch and listen to, I accidentally stumbled cross it.
He died in 1965
He died 10 years later. Sadly, I have read that he went senile.
Dad and I would wait for the bookmobile to pull up in front of our house in Jefferson Parish back in the early fifties. He saw how interested I was in all those uniformly sized blue bound biographies and subsequently took great pleasure in giving me 30 Great Short Stories of W. S. Maugham and The Razor's Edge. I still sense his hand guiding me back to Maugham as I discover unread stories upon my shelves. And the recollected letters and paint scheme on the bookmobile become more distinct over time as well.
Just beautiful!
Thank you and попутного вам ветра.
How beautiful. Thx
Smart dad!😮
Thank you. Maugham was, in my opinion, the greatest short story writer of all time.
I SO AGREE!
He answers questions as a man who has already thought deeply about all the questions and has already considered each from half a dozen different angles, amazing.
Yes, that's probably why he is a writer.
Indubitably ! Wonderfully intelligent, thoughtful, articulate & perceptive gentleman.
he was so humble despite his big talent. What a human lesson
Thankyou for this video. I enjoyed it absolutely. An amazing rare glimpse of an interesting man with so much to offer John (Australia).
My favourite author ever.
I watched this years ago. His books were the first I read after children’s and young people’s books. My dad had some and I loved his books. So I had library books later and read all Maughams books. They were wonderful. When I stayed at Raffels in Singapore years ago before ruining its character they had a Maugham Suite. That dear writer brought me so much pleasure in my teen years.. Heis such a lovely man it makes me sad I can never meet him. A great video Thank you.
The clarity of speech in the British patrician classes is something to be admired.
It is indeed.
The only comedians capable of imitating it convincingly have been Kenneth Williams, Peter Cook and more recently, Harry Enfield.
I don’t think Maughan was patrician , middle class maybe but not aristocracy which patrician more fittingly describes.
Peter Cook was a middle class ex public school and Oxford type he spoke like that naturally, I think it was Dudley Moore who affected the accent
I love the vocabulary, but the accent is grotesque.
@@franklandsman3436But who's counting ? 😊
This is Magic. Thanks for sharing.
Brilliant. Simply brilliant.
One of the greatest writers in my opinion. I can re read any of his books anytime.
Facts of Life!
This was absolutely brilliant! Thank you for posting it. Willie still does not receive the credit he deserves. Then and now, I believe that is because his work has, without exception, a beginning, a middle and an end. His plays should be performed far, far more than they are.
Agree...
"I didn't mind him saying our writers are crap, but it's a bit much saying our cocktails are warm after he drunk all mine" - too funny.
I first read Maugham when first working in the tropics. Now 45 years on I have returned to his short stories. His short stories frequently address the expatriate experience. I have always felt a stranger in a strange land despite living in Hawaii for 35 years.
Where are you originally from?
You have a German sounding name
His novels and short stories made me love reading.
You clearly have excellent taste in literature.
I childhood I adored all his books especialy of human bondage)) saw myself in Philip
Thank you so much for posting this. Wm Somerset Maugham is one of my favorite authors.
I could not agree more.
He and Hemingway!
I was only 2 years old at that time. I've studied English and American Literature and history and civilization at SORBONNE UNIVERSITY in Paris in the 80s. I regret that the Academy didn't include S.M works . I loved the documentary. THANKS FOR SHARING.
I can't stop reading his book, I read Liza of Lambeth Of Human Bondage The Moon and Sixpence Cakes and Ale last month, and I read Books and You last week, today I was reading The Summing Up, and now I am watching his interview on RUclips😂
Have you gotten to The Razor’s Edge yet? That’s my personal favorite 🖤
Good for Willie, not letting his stammer deter him from agreeing to this interview. I understand that he was very self-conscious about it when he was young, e.g., when he did not himself telephone D. H. Lawrence in Mexico.
Grateful that this video gets published as I’m reading “Of Human Bondage.”
I just finished The Razor's Edge.
Such a wonderful interview with one of my favourite authors. I started reading him when I was 16, many, many years ago. I enjoyed everything I read. I was very thrilled when 30 years ago I was staying at Raffles Hotel in Singapore. There was a small alcove off the main lobby with a desk and chair, it had a sign up that it was where Somerset Maugham wrote many of his books.the hotel had been recently completely renovated so whether they were original items I didn’t enquire. I liked to think they were. He was such a lovely man I am sure he would have been a lovely doctor. He had such a brilliant mind as well as a pleasant manner.
First time I've heard Maugham described as a "lovely man"! Never, in any biography I've read, has anyone who knew him described him thus. Quite the opposite, in fact!
@@michelez715 Oh dear, I was thinking back over 60 years to when I enjoyed his books so much. I mainly read biographies now but not his. In fact since my husband died last year I can’t concentrate enough to read. Can you tell me in a few words why not? I suppose I assumed back then that such a great writer for me was lovely as he entertained me so much.
@@michelez715 hello again. I decided to rewatch this after your critical comment. I still see him as a lovely person. Honest and to me very likeable. Biographers have their own opinions. Just as I have mine and you have yours. Orphaned young must have had a profound affect on his life as he still stutters badly. My opinion hasn’t changed. I think he had a brilliant mind and was a lovely person. I wonder how people will see you after you have gone. There is a Scottish saying which in my old age I can’t remember verbatim. Oh that we could see ourselves as others see us. Have a wee think.
@@carolking6355 O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us; To see oursels as ithers see us! (Oh, would some Power give us the gift; To see ourselves as others see us!) The great Scots poet Robbie Burns wrote these words in the final stanza of To A Louse : On Seeing One On A Lady's Bonnet, At Church.
Tact and honesty don't go together.
Wow. This was an entire lifetime of wisdom and learning compressed into 30 minutes of extraordinarily perspicacious question. Our dear author reveals the absolute key for writing success, but it is the indigestible truth which entire industries have been built to avoid.
The noted and brillian French short-story writer Guy de Maupassant claimed that Sommerset Maugham was the best short story writer that existed. Quite a compliment.
You’ve got things mixed up. Maugham was the one who thought so highly of Guy de Maupassant, not the other way around. First book by Maugham (Liza of Lambeth) was published in 1897, and Guy de Maupassant died in 1893, 4 years earlier.
When 11 or 12 I read all the stories of Guy de Maupassant. Always my favorite. But Maugham very enjoyable. Thanks for these recordings. I was scraping paint off a window and this recording was a much appreciated companion.
@@ioanvlad4008I think Maugham was very much influenced by Guy de Maupassant’s writings.
😂😂 looks like Maupassant came back from the dead to praise Maugham!
@@zareenumair Remarkable feat for the sake of love for literature.
What a delicious interview!
“I was withdrawn and unhappy, and rejected most overtures of sympathy over my stuttering and shyness."
Great interview, a young writer could gain much from watching this and of course reading his work
I agree 100 per cent.
What a delight to listen to. I am fascinated by the gentleman Alan Pryce-Jones, I adore his accent🤗🙂. Interesting interview.
Tremendous. I first book one of his books, almost by accident when I was 18. I'm now 55 and still enjoy re-reading them all. I've also just read an interview with photographer David Bailey, who once met Maugham, and said he was one of the nicest men he ever met. Which is something, as he (Bailey) seemed to dislike most people!
I’ve only got into older music and books a few years ago and the razors edge (book & movie) is how I discovered Maugham. I enjoy him
That was so intimate. I loved to ease drop. Such a great man.
The accent distinction between the classes was very pronounced back then. There are certainly traces of this today, but it's become less obvious over the years. I believe the practice of non-reginal dialect among the media has been a large part of this change.
Anyway, great chat. I've always liked Maugham.
"The ability to quote is a serviceable subtition for wit"
~ W. Somerset Maugham.
Haha, love that quote
Great to see the back of that awful accent.
Completely agree, more especially the Times journalist - Maugham himself doesn't sound so self-consciously 'upper class'; but also, the society started to change dramatically right after the mid-sixties. It's not fashionable anymore to sound 'aristocratic', and studies of the Queen's accent show that she has come down to earth by each passing decade. With rock stars, footballers and film actors (e.g., Michael Caine) rising to the top, it's a trend to sound you're from a more 'ordinary' background - even if you have to fake it!
@Stephen Douglas whereas now rather than pronouncing the words they’re using, or using the language to its full potential, most people just slosh their way through conversations, unaware of most words beyond monosyllables, often speaking more like Jamaican gangsters than Englishmen.
@@sirhumphreyappleby8399 That's true as well. Note the increasing acceptance of the horrible 'glottal stop', i.e., the letter 't' is disappearing into a lazier abrupt gap - 'wa'er' (water) - even among some BBC speakers.
Everyone should read Of Human Bondage....at least twice
Agreed!
Known as the world's greatest story-teller
Alan Pryce-Jones' super-patrician pronunciation of English is almost as if he was doing a parody. No one speaks like that anymore. A timeless window of one of the English accents of the past.
Kind of Jacob Rees-Mogg 😂 whose accent was defined "ultra posh" by nonetheless than Lord Soames
As an American (from Chicago) I do wish you Brits still spoke that way lbs
It’s very nice to hear people speaking good English.
Those were the days, when people knew how to sit quiet after asking a question. When questions were less lengthy than answers, when the interviewer did not think he was a bugger superstar than the guest.
Interesting. Mr Maugham once wrote about himself "I'm the first among the writers of the second line".He is so classy in his humbleness.
The Razor’s Edge …Masterpiece
I ADORE READING
my favorite author life is fine while im reading maugham
"I look upon myself as a slave of accidents"
In my opinion "Mr. Know All" is the best of all. It is the best Short Story under the Sun.
Currently reading Of Human Bondage, a fantastic man and author. Thank you for sharing this wonderful and inspiring interview.
A great book.
People were so beautifully spoken and had so much class, back then!!
Amazing watching and listening to these two fascinating people!
How lovely, many thanks.
My father had a book of short stories signed by Somerset Maugham when he came to visit a well known bookshop in Colombo next to his medical dispensary.
Supremely interesting - the best long Maugham interview on the net.
So nice to watch my most favourite writer, thank you so much for uploading this rare video (Noel Bastola).
Love the interview
So he was 91 here? And he died the year of filming? Wow. Sharp as a tack.
@Keith Jones I'm sorry to hear that, lad. Enjoy the time you have.
He is a legend. Lives forever in memory and through his books!
This interview is from 1958. Pryce-Jones was born in 1908 and he says he's 50 in the interview.
No, he's 83 here.
It's 1958, and he died in 1965 at 91.
Great,Patrick Leigh Fermor had a
Wonderfull story about his visit there.
This is amazing. THANK YOU.
A good interview. The questioner was smart short and sweet.
And the author seems to be a quite lovely man.
No biographer or memoir-writer I've read has described him as a lovely man. His nephew, to whom he was quite close, describes a man brimming with unhappiness and self-hatred who was also avaricious and cynical
@@LakeConstan thank you for info, I had no idea, and stand corrected
Plain or ordinary folks never leave a mark
Well said and well put. The interviewer does a wonderfully effective job. I could listen to the two of them all day long. Thoughtful questions and fascinating replies !
@@LakeConstan shows you how much I know then
The stuttering and stammering that Maugham changed into clubfoot in Of human bondage. He is one of my most admired writers. In Chennai,India, it was a common see in 1960s people carrying a Maugham novel.
Is that when he blocks on words?
A fascinating writer. I like his Of Human Bondage and the Razor's Edge a lot.
Good choices! 😎
What a snapshot in time! So interesting. Not that it matters, but Somerset Maugham's grandson married the sister-in-law of Queen Camilla, and the interviewer's son David Pryce-Jones is the first cousin, once removed, of Helena Bonham Carter.
Thank you for posting this interview. The Razor's Edge. Just brilliant and inspiring.
Life changing.😎
excellent interview, good questions to!
Great stories, great author
He was a qualified medical doctor.
I learned English reading and enjoying his plays.
In his garden. How refined! Today he would have to wear gym shorts, a tank top, flip flops, and a baseball cap on backwards.
Thank you so much!!!
Maugham did not know that his great talent would be much more recognised in the USSR than in his own world ! Even now every household has at least one volume of Maugham’s book on a book shelf. His plays are performed all over Russia.
That makes sense, his topics are cosmopolitan and universal. And his characters not unlike characters in R. novels.
Thank you.
"Of Human Bondage" is one of my favourite books...
Mine too!
Beautiful ! Thank you !
Jolly good interview indeed.
This a great interview, because of Maugham's charm and humility. Calling himself a "great writer of the second rank" indeed! He is consistently interesting as an interviewee in this piece. You can find much of the same charm in his novels, although some deal with topics that are not delightful.
To say that he does not speak of Ideas, as one commenter here did, overlooks his works. The Razor's Edge, for example, tackles theodicy and aspects of Hinduism in ways that make them accessible -- not turgid the way some attempt at philosophy in fiction end up being . As someone said (not me) "Maugham is the baugham!"
Thank you for a refreshingly insightful comment !
Remarkable. Thank you.
OF HUMAN BONDAGE: the best novel I have ever read
A Lovely surprise..I've read most his books and seen many of his filmed versions..The moon and the sixpence,Quartet and Trio being among my favourites available on y-t.. what a great guy..thanks to all concerned in making this interview available..
Wonderful author.
Thank you for sharing this video. Amazing writer.
I love this interview, helping me to know this great writer . I think he is like Strickland in the novel of "The Moon and Sixpence", who paniting for his strong desire, he wrote for his pleasure! Great man !
Yes, very enjoyable novel, Strickland being the stand in for Gaughan.
Loved this interview! Thanks so very much!
Found this interview completely by accident, but I want to take this unexpected opportunity to give a shout-out to another British author, Philip Kerr.
His Bernie Gunther thriller "The Other Side Of Silence: is set in this location, and a fictionalized figure of Maugham plays a central role in the book.
I found this interview because I am reading The Other Side Of Silence.
Its very sad that Kerr is no longer with us and for me this is the last of Bernie Gunther.
Still i now have the works of W.S.M to look foward to!
Love a bit of Kerr."Genre" fiction with more to say than most Booker winners.I should give SM a try also
The Man! The Legend!
I just finished reading _The Razor's Edge._ That makes about the 18th time that I've read it.
The "Razor's Edge" is currently posted in a very good copy on RUclips. Gene Tierney. Tyrone Power. Herbert Marshall. Clifton Webb.
I think the Bill Murray version sans 1984 touched me the most. That was the year of my divorce from a woman who was a lot like Isabel and I was longing for a Sophie to come into my life. Bill Murray was a mediocre actor, great comedian but Razor's Edge was his best film.
I don’t think any cast of actors can beat that team! Remarkable movie
Thank you very much for sharing ❤❤❤
This is a gem, but if one reads the credits carefully, the copyright date is ‘MCMLX’ (1960) and indeed Maugham and Pryce-Jones look younger than they did if one views photographs of them taken in 1965.
Also, he refers to Hemingway in the present tense, suggesting that he was still alive as of this recording.
@@joestanford1080 precisely.
Makes sense. In 65 he was likely not in great shape.
This interview is from 1958. Pryce-Jones was born in 1908 and he says he's 50 in the interview.
Thanks for posting
The 1946 Movie ‘The Razors Edge’ Adapted From Maugham’s Book.
W/ Tyrone Power !
Maugham visited Sri Ramana Maharshi - the south Indian Saint - prior to writing The Razor's Edge.
Great movie, great book.
Great sharing, hats off
Unless I missed it, curiously no mention of P.G. Wodehouse amongst the lists of top writers?