Cakes and Ale

When CAKES AND ALE was first published in 1930, it roused a storm of controversy, since many people imagined they saw in its pages recognisable portraits of literary figures now no more. The tumult and the shouting soon died down, leaving the story to take its place as one of the finest of Maugham's novels. It was also the one for which he most wanted to be remembered. It has about it a sense of perfection that is rare in a novel and a lyrical warmth that one would look in vain for elsewhere in Maugham's writing.