Liza of Lambeth

by W. Somerset Maugham

Book Overview

"...she rather enjoyed being asked to do a thing and refusing, and she would have liked another opportunity of doing so."

-W. Somerset Maugham, Liza of Lambeth (1897)

Liza of Lambeth (1897) by W. Somerset Maugham was written when the author was a medical student and is based on his observations of the poor. The book was so popular that Maugham left his career in medicine to focus on writing which he believed to be his true...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 164679625X
• ISBN13: 9781646796250
• Release Date: July 1897
• Publisher: Cosimo Classics
• Length: 202 Pages
• Weight: 0.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Preview Of What Was To Come

Maugham's very first published work has many of the elements that would be evident in his later works and that set him apart as one of the truly accomplished men of letters of his era. Lisa Of Lambeth is set in a poor working district of South London where Maugham practiced medicine as a younger man and demonstrates the remarkable powers of observation that were crucial to his later success. The tragic story of a bright young girl's affair with a married man has the pacing and feel not only of Maugham's later novels but has dramatic buildup and dialogue so predictive of his later success as a playwright. The novel certainly stands on it's own since the story and the characters are very engaging. The style captures the local accents and atmosphere of the close living quarters perfectly. A truly remarkable debut from one of the best.

Slice of life depiction of England's underclass

This was Somerset Maugham's first novel and reflects the naturalistic tendencies popular with many novels written at the time. Set among the working poor in the slums of Lambeth, Liza Kemp rejects the marriage proposal of the decent and worthy Tom and becomes the lover of a married blackguard Jim Blakeston. He treats her horribly and when she becomes pregnant with his child, his wife savagely beats her, causing a miscarriage and her eventual death. Maugham does not moralize but writes in an almost clinical manner (much of it is based on his experiences as a doctor among the poor in London). There is some humor in the dialect writing and in some of the scenes (the street dance where Liza is chased and finally "caught" by Blakeston, for example), but basically it's a pretty grim affair. The characterization of Liza is realistic and believable: she is not a total innocent and victim of evil, though she is forced to take an awful amount of abuse. Perhaps her rejection of Tom (twice!) stretches our credulity, but she is faithful to the no-good Jim right to the bitter end. It's a realistic slice-of-life portrait of life among the underclass.

Beautiful picture of lower-class subarban London

The story plot is nothing extraordinary, nor are the characaters unique, but what sets this short novel apart from the rest is the vivid picture that Maugham creates of the lower section of the London society. The story flows freely with a lucid style of writing, arresting the reader's attention from the first pages to the last, and touches a chord in the reader's heart somewhere deep, all along the way. Definitely a work of class, more so, it was Maugham's first novel. The old adage 'morning shows the day' aptly describes what the writer achieves in this work and the masterpieces that follow (Of Human Bondage, The Moon and the Sixpence, The Razor's Edge, etc.).

Realism in the form of London's lower clases

This was Maugham's first published work which appeared 102 years ago. Maugham had just graduated from medical school almost the day the book was published and the modest success and good reviews convinced him to dedicate his life to a career of letters. The story takes place in the Lambeth section of London and is baised of his internship and residence at St. Thomas Hospital where he was required to call on the lower classes in the most dangerous section of town. Later in his life he joked about being a Midwife in his youth and delivering over a hundered babies for the poor. Maugham was influenced by "Sister Carrie" and "Mean Streets." and other books in the realistic tradition of the day. It is a rather short book and is written in the Cockney dialect of conversation like Dickens "Hard Times." It is well worth reading and a must for any Maugham fan.