William Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)

William Somerset Maugham is one of the best-known English writers of the present day. He was not only an outstanding novelist, but also one of the most successful dramatists and short-story writers.

His father was an official at the British Embassy in France and William spent his childhood in that country. In his later life he also lived for long periods there.

In his youth Maugham wanted to become a doctor, so he graduated from a medical college and worked at a hospital in Lambeth - one of the poorest districts of London. But in 1897, when he was only 23, Maugham wrote and published his first novel "Liza of Lambeth" and after that he went on producing books, one almost every year for more than sixty years.

In his literary works Maugham gave a realistic picture of the English bourgeois society it's egoism and false democracy, but he did not want to improve that society or human nature. He expected little or nothing of the people surrounding him.

During World War I Maugham was in the British Intelligence Service. His work there is described in a collection of short stories under the title of "Ashenden, or the British Agent", published in 1928. The action of one of the stories takes place in Petrograd where Maugham was sent as a secret agent just before the Great October Socialist Revolution. W. S. Maugham was always a very popular writer because he tried to satisfy his readers and all his books were sold well.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)

Oscar Fingal O'Flaherty Wills Wilds was born in Dublin on October 16,1854. Wilde studied in Dublin at Trinity College and in Oxford where his poetic abilities began to be noticed. He was recognized as a good scholar, noted particularly for his love of the Greek classics and poetry.

When he left Oxford he was considered an important component of the English "Aesthetic Movement", noted for its rebellion against classical artistic standards, and middle class Victorian "Philistine" morality and taste.

In his personal life he tried to live out his philosophical ideas; he was considered extravagant for the way he dressed and for his strange behaviour, his long hair, his "dandy" clothes and eccentric mannerisms.

In 1882 he travelled to America and Canada as a visiting lecturer. The Americans were shocked and astounded by this English Dandy, but the tour was a great critical and personal success.

On his return to Europe, he went to Paris where he met artists like Mallarme, Verlaine, Zola, Victor Hugo, Degas and Pissarro. In 1884 he married Constance Lloyd and they moved into a very elegant and beautiful house in Tite Street in London. They had two sons and he began to concentrate on writing.

His production was varied: tales, short stories, poems and drama. The Canterville Ghost was published in 1877; The Happy Prince and Other Tales in 1888. The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) was condemned by critics.

The years 1892-1895 can be en as the high point of his career. ge wrote and produced Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), which was first performed at the "St James Theatre", London, and which has remained a great theatrical favourite ever since.

This was followed by other successful theatrical works, A Woman of no Importance (1893), An Ideal Husband, and the now classic The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).

In 1895 Wild was accused of homosexuality and the corruption of morals, and after a long and highly publicized trial, was condemned to spend two years in prison in Reading Gaol. This experience inspired The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), and De Profundis, written in 1895. After his period in prison, Wilde was considered a social outcast and left his beloved London for exile in Paris.

He died in Paris of cerebral meningitis on 1st December, 1900, living under the pseudonym Sebastian Melmoth.