Liza of Lambeth

By W. Somerset Maugham and Sheba Blake

Liza of Lambeth was W. Somerset Maugham's first novel, which he wrote while working as a doctor at a hospital in Lambeth, then a working class district of London. It depicts the short life and death of Liza Kemp, an 18-year-old factory worker who lives together with her aging mother in the fictional Vere Street off Westminster Bridge Road (real) in Lambeth. All in all, it gives the reader an interesting insight into the everyday lives of working class Londoners at the end of the nineteenth century. The action covers a period of roughly four months.from August to November.around the time of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. Liza Kemp is an 18-year-old factory worker and the youngest of a large family, now living alone with her aging mother. Very popular with all the residents of Vere Street, Lambeth, she likes Tom, a boy her age, but not as much as he likes her, so she rejects him when he proposes. Nevertheless, she is persuaded to join a party of 32 who make a coach trip (in a horse-drawn coach, of course) to a nearby village on the August Bank Holiday Monday. Some of the other members of the party are Tom; Liza's friend Sally and her boyfriend Harry; and Jim Blakeston, a 40-year-old father of 5 who has recently moved to Vere Street with his large family, and his wife (while their eldest daughter, Polly, is taking care of her siblings). The outing is fun, and they all get drunk on beer. On their way back in the dark, Liza realises that Jim Blakeston is making a pass at her by holding her hand. Back home, Jim manages to speak to her alone and to steal a kiss from her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sheba Blake Publishing
• Release date: Apr 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9783961894055

W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was an English novelist, playwright, and short story writer. Born in Paris, he was orphaned as a boy and sent to live with an emotionally distant uncle. He struggled to fit in as a student at The King’s School in Canterbury and demanded his uncle send him to Heidelberg University, where he studied philosophy and literature. In Germany, he had his first affair with an older man and embarked on a career as a professional writer. After completing his degree, Maugham moved to London to begin medical school. There, he published Liza of Lambeth (1897), his debut novel. Emboldened by its popular and critical success, he dropped his pursuit of medicine to devote himself entirely to literature. Over his 65-year career, he experimented in form and genre with such works as Lady Frederick (1907), a play, The Magician (1908), an occult novel, and Of Human Bondage (1915). The latter, an autobiographical novel, earned Maugham a reputation as one of the twentieth century’s leading authors, and continues to be recognized as his masterpiece. Although married to Syrie Wellcome, Maugham considered himself both bisexual and homosexual at different points in his life. During and after the First World War, he worked for the British Secret Intelligence Service as a spy in Switzerland and Russia, writing of his experiences in Ashenden: Or the British Agent (1927), a novel that would inspire Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. At one point the highest-paid author in the world, Maugham led a remarkably eventful life without sacrificing his literary talent.

Book preview

���2^book_preview_excerpt.html�Zے7r�����3Z��^[� =�R�xI���!����]`WZjZ�'����� �O�%>'uiJ�P8�rP�$�r�db��z����n��o���7�_�e�|��'��O��ð��G������?\���o^�p��ys���^ݾ�|���p�a��}�n0G{���q?��'Qj�O��w;�� f%��+��x=��>�3���� ޝ�|�����ךS�n��5���l���ԭ���P��Tc�K��!���?�+#lͱ�5?�F�i�R�F~r�!.j��{�J�✱#�����#�۽�V�D�"F�ԝ��-�H{�Ug�{G��K"N�������$�6]�n��c>��l�0 k�YE�b�v!�*P��7T�x��4�u�5�;{p��Xu>�<�|}R=M��b��ĉ�]סDŽ��2����͗_�N����?�A"��d��/���EwC�vm�^���X�-JY�ە��X��>E�t��%�����o}Lټlh���/vmG�tq��ₕ2)ɤ�ym���v����\�G+�Gg��#�3�(����3�ϣo���lSԚp&�� � �I"���a ���Efp�`�E��EM?B#}��7pKYL-���%2�? V�È[t�v�O�k�ugY6��y�q���Cd2�F�Q�7����G�@�j��!��»4�E���\���;���i�"m��N~��PFZ�0�GL������[9�*y�(�D�=�3�1�M&�C#"@�Jr�|(V�aQ�e"���Y��c�FH��:�s7p[��wHkH��(X��4��Бt�"l��#i�>��$�=�0)e�B��!��ӺH�{�s�_S����U��B�>�Xgh�k�o���)#�L�'�V��!-�{$�0�"�O@&x������
�� c������\Y���t�Y����Mꢋ�A���Z�����
�Ї&�Gj�3�^�q��œ{`��b5Bu&�Vk��}_�����[��m�wcdJ)D�g~��d>��xU���hД$#p�G�rQJS�a��QiYJW�$��rD�-�x �,����PfG��Li�p�mɭ9w� �0' �z�����1)��ȡ�G :O�Ċ;/i���9!�F =��im�c="}�2�� �蕴:�|�4/ys��ø
���6���!z�If�rE��$Xλc<��T��������pI6o��6�0�������o=j�z��H'g0�>��������!y,ڲ��k��S ��;��HF��lnʜ��� (yv�ͼ���0E�UbmX��.z�szR�+�E�|�>^���[�,0� 0?D���{4�r�{��Im�w`��Ч�2C �.���h��}�1Bâ�m<(�'��$ӎ���/G޶��m&�iB�$bKB�@U�4�����"-�:��� �C.,*L`R��rqc*
�3���io�3��|��4��+�z�ݦ���U a���
w�sݍ�d@�h.�z��U^D�WG3���,�G�i��2F���O��5�7g���F7�1b�ÁT.iyQ�;:�ޓ�7�!�Z���"�r�m��*^��t�G�� [�X�'�"5�i�BsǻW����lҼ+\��R��ݎ��Oҁǎ0[9*Ӱ�B�n�p�y;��/��ҏJx���9�A�g�B����� u�O��t���>����1�y�KA̠f�TD$��"���'���Kh8�I%�����H,L?`�{�RaԐu:] u ;&�Uzk��sF+��ʉ�����"A��_b�_U��Y��+*ͅ�u�Z�gƣ�ҍ,ո�:5�v���|�\�F�
�L�OT��IՁTO� ��C��g9����4f��ء�l�3f�1 �]��\B�J�})|�\��!������Y��%�l�u�m��wEqYe��M�K䕶���6�"�(��v k��rU�Y��DZٻt�fR�qb�Z���7L�����'W��v��;RT�8��"x� V�>o�V �*{��V"[D�Pt��c�#/Rǖ�F����9��#�F�Vl�%�ɦj9��w���6a����Q�_. ��zu�Ib:/W��T
O���RKL^Թ)�4$>�<�Y�� !2� 1���N隫�WQ��+�njO��Y����'*�{�!�_�^�N)�����г��j�RE)��!���H�A��=��CJw�P���?0��9S���0��"���S��so@��i6\�}*y;c��+�"K���D��&S�ҩbO��hy�e翔fy���S�t�e��1���G�@ 8���m�: CF�i��FFl�hD-� ��w��i��Ժ�3����dϓ٫�*�cc��x��bB\��R+e�y �q���E1��>�報p�Y���L@N�Ke������%Q�F���o'P、V�w;�h�Ei:��8�޸~Bɷ�Ͽ�ِ�E���W���eP�0YZװ�ى�d��ޣ�͏�.����-�/ �(�fe��M+Ywb2{�lIK� ZF%*\����j�����$�0�:la�q��i��+K��c��MY<���;��"���c��_V�r9�6�o�ljWB�L $KߐE��������@��8�\�0f��q�PbÎC�c�M0��t�#ߦ��a�#k�� eW
'e��.VA�~��SD�o�.��$l�E���d;����R)��Gۯ���k�՜���,��|���ү$�*��ҾpA��Jo��ޕ
�]��ak-��)��T�2>0�7�P�J�� V-!.�p�V�2S�9�ڱ�g����_@��y�Eg^򇿄T����%�j��*_��KS�R�;��;i�l�N$ۗ׺$5�i:�hOR��E�ll;��
��+}�d4Y�%�I�,��)�Ɉx�z��ނ��3�ṗ���ֳ����&Y %8��Hf���� |xh�6�f1������-���5�lB�Djo�����t�G�(���AسߩllK2'�,RK?�5��@����7Z�J�ߠ�wτ�ޙ�;�L���p���%���(O���GvFP��a\ꕭ��G����_\qb��W.&w�L�;7i� �#dy/��Mʻ�pR��6���#�����[�E�B���"��I$�d��:�Դ��0LP$�Jv;W���+lӐg�!?DŽ��h%���6���={����H�=Q,*���˲�/} }��W��1_t)���)�wD��}��6��}`^��lnJ���>�w�PL��L�l�� �m{L�EM��P�SAȹ̒OHѽT�Pa%��H1>@��6eo�Q�wK�]:T}V�"���^��/��2k|sQ�Ic���j��
��y�ׅQK4}�8�)�g�Kb���9}o��R� �Z,^���.����qѬ<OO^C����D�K�Vr>�� R������|4NKcq�e��{�W2"TCC�6�/8�y���\�F
�Y`���v�؞���صҲ�>\���/�+5�-N^�����/�����?W�����
/�Uu*

Reviews for Liza of Lambeth

[benjamin.duffy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Liza of Lambeth was Maugham's first published novel, and it shows. Some of his future strengths are hinted at here: the dialogue is earthy and believable (though his insistence on spelling out the dialect phonetically becomes tedious, almost like listening to a "book on CD" narrated by Eliza Doolittle), and he already shows flashes of his greatest talent, that of conveying human emotion in a raw and irresistible manner.

However, where later Maugham books such as Moon and Sixpence and Cakes and Ale shine a cynical, but ultimately accepting (and even affectionate) eye on people from all walks of life, Liza of Lambeth looks down its nose at the lower-class people whose dialect it reproduces so faithfully. Maugham was inspired to write this book by the poor people he met while working in a hospital, and it's clearly the work of a young, bourgeois writer who thought himself a cut above the hard-drinking, wife-beating factory workers in his story. This same class of people would receive far more charitable treatments in the form of the Athelnys in Of Human Bondage and Rosie in Cakes and Ale.

Ultimately, it's hard for me to recommend this book to anyone unless they've already read at least four or five other Maugham books. One of Somerset Maugham's greatest strengths was his worldliness; he became a writer who presented his characters without prejudice, and allowed readers to judge them based on their actions. That worldly, nonjudgmental voice is completely absent here. Liza has a few glimpses of Maugham's future genius, but his voice and point of view were hard to swallow.

[zasmine_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Liza of Lambeth is absolutely not the book to taste Maugham's writing. I understand that this was his first book and that is probably the reason I picked it up and I usually like to disprove writer's 'best sellers'. Well, I was wrong. Liza is charming, some of her attributes are endearing, like her engaging with the children of the street,

[edwinbcn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Liza of Lambeth, Somerset Maugham debut novel is a bit of a pot boiler, however, it is interesting to readers of the author's work as, in essence, in already contains the theme of his opus magnum of human bondage.This short novel tells the story of Liza in a melodramatic way. Set in a poor part of London, Liza and her friends and relatives belong to the working class, living in poverty and raising large families. Although Liza has a quick flirt with Tom, she is much more attracted to Jim, who seduces her are involves her in an adulturous relationship. The growing jealousie of Jim's wife frightens Liza, but Jim's confidence gives her a false sense of security. However, Jim's wife confronts Liza, shaming her in public. Despite everything, Tom still loves Liza, but Liza feels she is doomed, as she is pregnant with Jim's child. Jim turns on his wife, beating her, which frightens Liza even more, although wife beatings are shown to be a common occurrance in the novel. In the end, Liza dies after a miscarriage.Liza of Lambeth is a melodramatic portrayal of life in poverty-stricken London at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. In the working class milieu of the novel, the men are mainly portrayed as brutes, while the women are passive and frail, and subjected to their passions. The novel is clearly related to the atmosphere in the plays of George Bernard Shaw and the naturalist novel on the continent, such as Zola.The novel is deterministic in the sense that it suggests that the women have no choice. Liza is driven to her doom following her passion for Jim, and shame seems to keep her from reaching out to Tom, whose helping hand is streched out no matter what happens. Jim's wife holds on to her husband despite his adulterous behaviour and beating her. The novel seems to suggest that her loyalty to her husband is more than matrimonial duty, and that despite all, she probably still loves him.Although the novel displays interesting aspects, particularly in relation to later work by the author, the reading of Liza of Lambeth is not immediately rewarding. The pervasive Cockney accent makes the novel a bit difficult to read.

[schmechi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In seinem Erstlingsroman beschreibt W. Somerset Maugham die verbotene Liebesbeziehung der 19-jährigen Liza Kemp zu einem verheirateten, viel älteren Mann.Der Autor versetzt den Leser dabei anhand von lebhaften Beschreibungen des Alttagslebens ins Lambeth des ausklingenden 19. Jahrhunderts, einem verslumten Londoner Arbeiterbezirk. Im Mittelpunkt des Romans steht aber nicht der Pauperismus der Arbeiterschaft, W.Somerset Maugham widmet sich anderen Themen, wie zum Beispiel häuslicher Gewalt und Alkoholismus.

[imyril · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Maugham's early novel is Victorian slum fiction, and a great hit in its day (although it's difficult to see why now). It was presumably considered sensational for not shying away from the brutal unpleasantness of working class life - car crash literature, if you will. Liza is a gay young woman of the working class, who lives on Vere Street with her self-absorbed drunk mother, an assortment of cheerful children, and various hard-drinking men and endlessly-pregnant or bruised wives who claim their husbands are gentle when they haven't been drinking. The novel charts Liza's downfall from the well-loved young woman out-dancing the street in her new purple dress to fallen woman and social outcast pushed into a public fistfight with her rival for the amusement of her neighbours. Liza is a difficult heroine to root for, being self-absorbed and hard-hearted; the only likeable character, Tom, is perceived as weak or wet and is rejected repeatedly. Although the narrator never overtly comments on Liza's choices, it's difficult not to read the novel as a cautionary tale. That said, it's even-handed in its disdain for slum life as the men - Tom excepted - are all drunks, braggarts and wife beaters.Apparently based on Maugham's experiences as a doctor at St Thomas's, many elements now feel like cliches and his attempt to try and render local dialect does the novel and the characters no favours. It's not terrible, but I have to label it interesting rather than enjoyable.

[hellbent_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

One of Maugham's earliest, but not best.

[firedog_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was Somerset Maugham's first novel. It gives a good picture of working class life in late 19th century England. The novel covers 4 months in the love life of Liza, an 18 year old girl living with her near invalid mother. It's certainly not very complimentary of men during this time. There is only one man, who is portrayed as a sympathetic character. It was an interesting read, but rather depressing as well.

[bibleblaster · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Classic tragic tale of a good girl gone bad and the sorrow that ensues. I read it now as we prepare for an upcoming trip to London (and it showed up in a "London in fiction" list), and because I've liked other Maugham books (and may check out the new biography). Worth reading.

[reinadecopiaypega · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really loved this book, I discovered while in England, and recall sitting in a lounge chair thoroughly engrossed and wondering what her end would be. Dickens seems to be the gold standard for slum life and its miseries, but this book, The Nether World and Child of the Jago, leave him in the dust. These 3 will break your heart in two.

[soylentgreen23 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

First novels are always a little bit tricky, especially when we've since come to know and love an author for his later work. Anyone who's read 'The Torrents of Spring,' Hemingway's first, will agree that what follows doesn't always bear a great relation to what started an author going.My favourite Maugham novels were all written about a dozen years or more after this one, but that isn't to say that 'Liza of Lambeth' isn't without its charms. Maugham writes his characters' dialogue in an accurately colloquial way, though this takes some getting used to as is it did with Shaw. The setting is magnificently presented, and the reader certainly gets the feel for the locale very quickly.The plot, such as it is in this, surely one of Maugham's shortest full pieces, is a curio I suppose, a look at the tragic consequences a woman meets with when she decides to pursue love and happiness over shelter and comfort, in a time when most women didn't have that luxury. I think this is one of those books I'm going to have to dwell on before I can say honestly just how well I liked it. I'm glad that Maugham doesn't begin to sentimentalise and cheapen poverty by dressing it up as more than it is; in fact, he does an excellent job of portraying the brutality of living hand to mouth at the turn of the last century. The final pages cut the deepest, as Liza is all but forgotten by those around her, and cunningly her author too - the ending is very well crafted.