William Somerset Maugham (pronounced 25 January 1874 – 16
December 1965) was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s.[1]
ولد عام 1874 وكان كاتب رواية وقصة قصير ومسرحية وهو انجليزي ولد على ارض السفارة البريطانية في فرنسا اثناء عمل والدع سفير هناك. كان من اشهر الكتاب في عصره.
[Childhood and education
Maugham's father Robert Ormond Maugham was an English lawyer who handled the legal affairs of the British embassy in Paris, France. Since French law declared that all children born on French soil could be conscripted for military service, his father arranged for Maugham to be born at the embassy, technically on British soil.His grandfather, another Robert, had also been a prominent lawyer and co-founder of the English Law Society, and it was taken for granted that Maugham would follow in their footsteps. Although Maugham did not become a lawyer, his elder brother Viscount Maugham enjoyed a distinguished legal career and served as Lord Chancellor from 1938 to 1939.

Maugham's mother Edith Mary (née Snell) was consumptive, a condition for which her doctor prescribed childbirth. As a result, Maugham's three older brothers were already enrolled in boarding school by the time he was three, and he was effectively raised as an only child. Childbirth proved no cure for tuberculosis: Edith's sixth and final son died on 25 January 1882, one day after his birth, on Maugham's eighth birthday. Edith died six days later on 31 January at the age of 41.

The death of his mother left Maugham traumatized for life; subsequently he kept his mother's photograph by his bedside for the rest of his life.
كان موت امه عليه مزلزلا حتى انه احتفظ بصورتها الى كانب سريره طوال حياته

Two years after Edith's death, Maugham's father died of cancer.
بعد موت الام بعامين مات الاب بالسرطان

Maugham was sent back to England to be cared for by his uncle, Henry MacDonald Maugham, the Vicar of Whitstable, in Kent.
اعيد الكاتب الى لندن ليقوم عمه على تربيته

The move was catastrophic as Henry proved cold and emotionally cruel.
كان الوضع كارثيا في بيت عمه الذي لم يبد اي عواطف تجاه ابن اخيه

The King's School, Canterbury, where Maugham was a boarder during school terms, proved merely another version of purgatory, where he was teased for his bad English (French had been his first language) and his short stature, which he inherited from his father.
كانت المدرسة الداخلية جهنم اخرى له حيث كان الاطفال يعيبون عليه لغة الانجليزية الركيكة كونه ولد في فرنسا

It was at this time that Maugham developed the stammer that would stay with him all his life, although it was sporadic and subject to mood and circumstance.]
احدثت مآسيه خلل في النطق لديه

Maugham was miserable both at the vicarage and at school. As a result, he developed a talent for making wounding remarks to those who displeased him. This ability is sometimes reflected in Maugham's literary characters. At sixteen, Maugham refused to continue at The King's School, and his uncle allowed him to travel to Germany, where he studied literature, philosophy and German at Heidelberg University. .

In maturity, he recalled the literary value of what he saw as a medical student: "I saw how men died. I saw how they bore pain. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief

قال في وقت لاحق بأنه استفاد كثيرا في مسيرة الادبية من دراسة للطب حيث شاهد الرجال وهي تموت وشاهد كيف كانوا يحتملون الالم وراى كيف كان بدى الامل والخوف والانفراج

Maugham's masterpiece is generally agreed to be Of Human Bondage, a semiautobiographical novel that deals with the life of the main character Philip Carey, who, like Maugham, was orphaned, and brought up by his pious uncle. Philip's clubfoot causes him endless self-consciousness and embarrassment, echoing Maugham's struggles with his stutter and, as his biographer Ted Morgan notes, his homosexuality

اما اعظم اعماله في رواية of human bodage وهي عبارة عن رواية شبه سيرة ذاتية وهي تعالج حياة بطل القصة واسمه فيليب كاري والذي تربى يتيما من قبل عمه وهو ما حدث للروائي نفسه