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Cakes and Ale: Or the Skeleton in the Cupboard
by W. Somerset Maugham
- Used
- very good
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Very Good
- Seller
-
Frederick, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Doubleday, Doran & Co, 1930. Hardcover. Very Good. Collectible first US edition of W. Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale: Or the Skeleton in the Cupboard. Maugham drew his title from the remark of Sir Toby Belch to Malvolio in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Cakes and ale are also the emblems of the good life in the moral of the fable attributed to Aesop, "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse": "Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear." Per Doubleday's practice of designating First Editions, "First Edition" so stated on title page verso. Conforms to Stott A40. Includes new facsimile dust jacket in archival Brodart sleeve. Tight, unmarked copy with minimal shelf wear and age-tanning to text. Photographs of or additional information about this item are available on request. All inquiries answered promptly.
Extended Description and Notes
Collectible First US Edition of W. Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale: Or the Skeleton in the Cupboard. Per Doubleday's practice of designating First Editions, "First Edition" so stated on title page verso. Conforms to Stott A40. Includes new facsimile dust jacket in archival Brodart sleeve. Tight, unmarked copy with minimal shelf wear and tanning to text. Photographs of or additional information about this item are available on request. All inquiries answered promptly.
Synopsis
W. Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He afterwards walked the wards of St. Thomas's Hospital with a view to practice in medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), won him over to letters. Something of his hospital experience is reflected, however, in the first of his masterpieces, Of Human Bondage (1915), and with The Moon and Sixpence (1919) his reputation as a novelist was assured. His position as one of the most successful playwrights on the London stage was being consolidated simultaneously. His first play, A Man of Honour (1903), was followed by a procession of successes just before and after the First World War. (At one point only Bernard Shaw had more plays running at the same time in London.) His theatre career ended with Sheppey (1933). His fame as a short-story writer began with The Trembling of a Leaf , sub-titled Little Stories of the South Sea Islands , in 1921, after which he published more than ten collections. W. Somerset Maugham's general books are fewer in number. They include travel books, such as On a Chinese Screen (1922) and Don Fernando (1935), essays, criticism, and the self-revealing The Summing Up (1938) and A Writer's Notebook (1949). W. Somerset Maugham became a Companion of Honour in 1954. He died in 1965.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Midnight Books
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 374671
- Title
- Cakes and Ale: Or the Skeleton in the Cupboard
- Author
- W. Somerset Maugham
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Very Good
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Publisher
- Doubleday, Doran & Co
- Date Published
- 1930
- Weight
- 0.00 lbs
Terms of Sale
Midnight Books
Orders securely packaged and shipped within 2 business days with USPS tracking number and delivery confirmation. All items guaranteed as described. Returns accepted within 30 days. PayPal preferred (but not required) if paying by credit card. Checks and money orders also accepted.
About the Seller
Midnight Books
Biblio member since 2005
Frederick, Maryland
About Midnight Books
Midnight Books specializes in hard-to-find books in high demand by collectors. This includes (but is not limited to) vintage and antiquarian titles, signed first editions and scarce ephemera. All books offered come with an unconditional, lifetime guarantee of authenticity.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Facsimile
- An exact copy of an original work. In books, it refers to a copy or reproduction, as accurate as possible, of an original...
- Jacket
- Sometimes used as another term for dust jacket, a protective and often decorative wrapper, usually made of paper which wraps...
- New
- A new book is a book previously not circulated to a buyer. Although a new book is typically free of any faults or defects, "new"...
- Verso
- The page bound on the left side of a book, opposite to the recto page.
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Brodart
- Generally used to refer to a clear plastic cover that is sometimes added to the dustjacket or outside covering of a book. The...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.
- Shelf Wear
- Shelf wear (shelfwear) describes damage caused over time to a book by placing and removing a book from a shelf. This damage is...
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