Selected Works of Somerset Maugham (All Five Volumes)

"The Moon and Sixpence" A broker on the stock exchange has a stable job and a happy family, but he is obsessed with painting. He feels like he is "possessed by the devil". He suddenly abandons his home and goes to Paris to pursue his artistic ideals. After some bizarre encounters, he finally left the civilized world and escaped to the isolated island of Tahiti in the South Pacific, where he injected all the value of life into the gorgeous canvas. "The Veil" Kitty, a beautiful but vain British woman, accepts the proposal of Walter Fane, a withdrawn doctor, in order to avoid becoming an old girl. She left London's flashy and empty social circle and followed Walter to the mysterious Eastern colony - Hong Kong. Kitty, who is dissatisfied with her marriage, secretly has an affair with Charlie Tongson, the assistant chief secretary of Hong Kong who shakes her heart. After Walter discovered his wife's infidelity, he made a desperate move and began his strange and terrible revenge plan: taking Kitty to the distant mainland of China to quell a cholera epidemic that was going crazy... Popular writer Alroy Keel wanted to write a biography of the late famous writer Driffield, but he knew little about the young Driffield, so he asked Driffield's friend, another writer Ashenden, for help. Under Keel's insistence, Ashenden recalled his early relationship with Driffield and his ex-wife Rosie. The protagonist Philip in "The Shackles of Life" was born in the upper class, but his parents died when he was young, and he was born with a disability. He spent his childhood in a sojourn life where he was ignored. After entering the society, he experienced the hardships of the world. In the bumpy road of life and the tumultuous currents of life, he abandoned unrealistic dreams, worked hard to break free from the shackles of the spirit, and constantly pursued the true meaning of life. During the First World War in "Blade", American young man Larry's comrades sacrificed their lives to rescue him. This experience completely changed Larry's thinking. He began to ask his inner questions: Since there is good in the world, why does evil also coexist? After the war, he stubbornly pursued the answer. He first went to Paris to study philosophy, and then came to a monastery in Bonn. However, Christian doctrine failed to provide him with a satisfactory answer, so he went to Spain and tried to find the true meaning of life through art. After getting no results, he ran to India and stayed there for five years before finally finding his true faith in Indian religion.