65 Short Stories by W. Somerset Maugham
Though most of my family are readers there are few favorite authors that we have in common. Somerset Maugham is one writer I think of when I think of my grandfather. Whenever my grandfather and I take walks we usually get on the subject of what we've been reading and Maugham usually comes up. We both have favorites from his novels and from his short stories, my grandfather always seems to mention "Rain". Maugham writes like you just met him in the lounge of a classy hotel with a drink in hand and he has a juicy tale to tell you about a stranger that passes by. I would read through bits of this collection each night as we would go to sleep, bundled up in our warm clothes and sleeping bags. During our long hikes the next day, I would recount the stories I had read to Pat. Retelling the stories I felt like a terrible gossip. For me his stories don't compare to The Razors Edge of The Moon and Sixpence, but I do love the way he writes.
“We know that it will profit a man little if he gain the whole world and lose his soul.”
“There was a gaunt Scotch woman, with a face like a Peruvian mask that had been battered by the storms of ten centuries, and her English husband.”