Books: Journeyman

THE GENTLEMAN IN THE PARLOUR—W. Somerset Maugham — Doubleday, Doran ($3).

Author Maugham writes with few illusions about himself, about his writing. Says he: “This book is the record of a journey through Burma, the Shan States, Siam, and Indo-China. I am writing it for my own diversion . . . I am a professional writer, and I hope to get from it a certain amount of money and perhaps a little praise.” Exotic parts have a kind of fascination for Traveler Maugham, but little glamour. His book is consequently better reading than most such records.

In Mandalay, Author Maugham met the old lady who had been the real cause, in her youth, of the British annexation of Upper Burma (Road to Mandalay, TIME, Feb. 3). Camped in the Burmese jungle at night, Maugham preferred patience (he knows 17 kinds) to the works of Shakespeare. In the Shan States he admired the women’s dress: short coat, kilt, leggings, with a gap between coat and kilt. Says he: “I could not fail to notice how much character it gives a woman’s face to display her navel.” From time to time in his travels Maugham met an outlandish character, was often made confidant of an outlandish story. In the teak forests of Siam he met a Frenchman, a gross fellow, who boasted of his recent prowess in venery, then seeing a copy of Verlaine’s poems Maugham was carrying, seized it and read a favorite. “And as he read his voice broke and tears came into his eyes and ran down his face. ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘ça me fait pleurer comme un veau.’ (‘Ah, that makes me cry like a calf.’)”

The Author. William Somerset Maugham, 56, married (to Syrie, daugher of the late Dr. Barnardo, famed founder of homes for waifs), studied to be a doctor, instead traveled, took notes, observed, wrote. Medium-sized, mustached, with fat stomach, square jaw, Author Maugham lives at Cap Ferrat, France, but travels whenever, wherever, he wishes. During the War he served in the intelligence service, British Army; was stationed in Russia, where bad, meagre food made him ill. Critic Hannen Swaffer once wrote Author Maugham asking him how to pronounce his name. Replied Maugham: “My name rhymes with waugham, as in ‘a waugham day.’ ”

Author Maugham has written 18 novels, books of short stories, 24 plays. Some of them: Ashenden, or the British Agent, The Casuarina Tree, The Moon and Sixpence, Mrs, Craddock, Of Human Bondage, On a Chinese Screen, The Trembling of a Leaf; (plays) The Circle, East of Suez, The Letter, The Sacred Flame, Rain.