Revealing Mr. Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham's fame may have declined since his death in 1965, but Michael House's documentary reminds us of the quality of his writing, while also portraying the author as a troubled, ultimately rather tragic figure. Narrated in large part by biographer Selina Hastings, Revealing Mr. Maugham covers the writer's life from childhood to death in chronological fashion, with observations from academicians and dedicated readers who emphasize the enormous success Maugham achieved with his plays and novels during the first four decades of the 20th century (special attention is paid to Maugham's extraordinary skill in the short story form). But House balances this treatment of Maugham's remarkable literary career with a far darker portrait of his personal life, touching on Maugham's unhappy marriage to divorcée Syrie Wellcome, but more particularly concentrating on his homosexuality and long-term relationships with men—first Gerald Haxton, a gregarious American whose help in gathering material for stories proved invaluable but whose alcoholism led to his death, and then Alan Searle, who manipulated the author into disowning his family in order to inherit Maugham's estate for himself. A closing anecdote recounting how the elderly Maugham was shunned by fellow club members in London—after publishing an attack on Syrie in his memoir—provides a poignant conclusion to House's incisive portrait of a man whose final years cast a shadow on his earlier triumphs. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)