Six Stories Written in the FIRST PERSON SINGULAR.
London: William Heinemann, (1931). Original blue cloth, with dust jacket.
First English Edition (published a month after the American one) of this collection of six tales.
They were set in England and on the Continent. Maugham meant to show that his countrymen could misbehave at home just as well as in the tropics. In "Virtue" a middle-aged woman leaves her husband for a younger man because she thinks it is the honest thing to do. Her husband then kills himself, and the lover deserts her. Maugham had made the point before that a virtue taken to an extreme leads to disaster. If she had had an affair with the younger man, things would have been all right [Morgan].
This volume is bright and fine (a small crease in the spine). The dust jacket, with P. Youngman Carter's illustration of a gentleman leaning against a giant letter "I" (on both the front cover and the spine), is near-fine -- spine slightly browned as usual, one short closed tear, the slightest of wear at the head of the spine (typical since the jacket is taller than the book), and one little ink-droplet on the front panel. Toole Stott A42b. Item #15202
Price: $475.00