Christmas Holiday

A coming-of-age novel that moves from genteel British society to the grim underworld of Paris before the warA coming-of-age novel that moves from genteel British society to the grim underworld of Paris before the war.At the age of twenty-three, Charlie Mason is endowed with good looks, good manners and a cheerful disposition. Following three years at Cambridge and one working in his father's business, he is looking forward to a jaunt in Paris with one of his oldest friends. Yet Paris is not what he expects - in just a few days his young eyes are opened to the tragedies and ugly dramas of its underworld.

“"The modern writer who has influenced me the most." -George Orwell”

Contrasts the complacency of prewar Britain with the nastiness of what was brewing on the Continent. It remains effortlessly readable The Times
Brilliant New York Times
One reads it with a feeling of increasing respect for his mastery of the trade. One has the same delight as in watching a first-class cabinet-maker cutting dovetails -- Evelyn Waugh

William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965

'Contrasts the complacency of prewar Britain with the nastiness of what was brewing on the Continent...effortlessly readable' The Times At the age of twenty-three, Charlie Mason is endowed with good looks, good manners and a cheerful disposition. Following three years at Cambridge and one working in his father's business, he is looking forward to a jaunt in Paris with one of his oldest friends. Yet Paris is not what he expects - in just a few days his young eyes are opened to the tragedies and ugly dramas of its underworld. See also: Liza of Lambeth

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