Up At The Villa - Softcover

W. Somerset Maugham

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0749304316 ISBN 13: 9780749304317

Publisher: Mandarin, 1991

Synopsis

Written in the last weeks of peace in 1941, and first published in an American magazine, this profound novel centres round a beautiful villa, high in the hills above Florence. In this haven of tranquillity the fierce emotions of the past are momentarily eclipsed, and Mary Panton can view with equanimity the prospect of a second marriage to Sir Edgar Swift, based not on love, but on admiration and respect. A single act of compassion, the desire to give beauty to a young and desolate refugee, begins a nightmare of violence which destroy's Mary's tenuous serenity. Yet she relies intuitively on the help and understanding of Rowley Flint, a reputed degenerate. Through him she comes to realise that to deny love, with all its manifold risks, is to deny life itself. Written with a taut and vivid economy, UP AT THE VILLA is yet another illustration of Somerset Maugham's superb artistry and craftsmanship.

About this title

Review:

A classic novel from a twentieth-century master whose "excessively rare gift of story-telling...is almost the equal of imagination itself."--"The Sunday Times" (London)"

Book Description:

'The modern writer who has influenced me the most' George Orwell

About this edition

• Publisher: Mandarin
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0749304316
• ISBN 13: 9780749304317
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 119