W. Somerset Maugham & 'Cakes and Ale'
Whenever I re-read Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham, I want to go cycling with Rosie down English country lanes and share a fish supper with her and Ted. Will you fall under Rosie’s spell too?
There are not many novels that can be described as having charm, but this is one of them. I love Cakes and Ale! I so enjoy its devastating critique of the literary world, I warm to its heroine, I laugh over its comic passages and I enjoy picturing the Kentish countryside and the world of literary London as I read. Maugham is not as popular now as he once was, but his pen could be acidic, his wit penetrating, and he could capture a character in a few well-chosen words. Can’t you just feel provincial snobbery being skewered in this example: “Lady Hodmarsh and the duchess immediately assumed the cringing affability that persons of rank assume with their inferiors in order to show them that they are not in the least conscious of any difference in station between them.”?
It was Maugham’s own favourite amongst his works, the one by which he most wished to be remembered. Cakes and Ale is a delightful satire of London literary society between the wars and the story of a writer who gets all his inspiration from his first wife, to the horror of his second. It is also a portrait of novelist Hugh Walpole (as the character Alroy Kear), in what one critic called “one of the most memorable literary dissections since Dickens’ treatment of Leigh Hunt as Mr Skimpole in Bleak House”. Walpole’s reputation never quite recovered, but the critics all loved Cakes and Ale.
“Enjoy yourself while you have the chance, I say; we shall all be dead in a hundred years and what will anything matter then?”
― Cakes and Ale, W. Somerset Maugham
When Maugham wrote this novel, he was under contract to an American publisher to produce a short story a month and he wondered if the idea in his head about a famous writer in Whitstable might do for a story. But he came to see that there was too much of his idea, and he wanted to do full justice to the character of the famous author’s wife, who was to be based on his old love Sue Jones. There was far too much of voluptuous Sue to be limited to a few thousand words.
I encountered this novel, the first of Maugham’s I’d ever read, as a result of the 1974 TV version. I was so enchanted that I just had to read the book – I was not disappointed. I hope that you enjoy going cycling with Ted, Rosie and Willie down Kentish lanes, lunching in a London club with Willie and Alroy, and that you relish the satire and comedy of this gorgeous novel.
Links to my recommended reading list, videos, websites and more:
PURCHASE
Cakes And Ale by W. Somerset Maugham
Somerset Maugham by Anthony Curtis
The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings
Maugham: A Biography by Ted Morgan
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Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham. Free downloadable version in various formats including Kindle, epub, pdf and others. If you are unsure of how to add these files to your ereader, look here.
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Cakes and Ale by W. Somerset Maugham National Library of Australia free public access to books in libraries at Trove.
MOVIES & VIDEOS
In 1974 the BBC turned the novel into a TV mini-series. I remember watching and really loving this version when I was in my teens, and was unable to find it available now. Therefore, I was delighted when I learned from one of the readers of my newsletter that this dramatization was still available through an American film archive, whereby special permission could be watched by researchers and scholars. Sadly it is not available to the general public. Perhaps the BBC should consider a new version.
Commentary by Masterpiece Theatre host Alistair Cooke on Cakes and Ale
A playlist of W. Somerset Maugham video clips, sadly, does not include an adaptation of Cakes and Ale
What did you think of this book? How do you respond to Rosie – is she just a lying and unfaithful wife, or is she a generous and charming character? I always love to hear what you think. Leave a comment.
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Tell me what you think. Leave a comment.
Penny Finzel
Judy Cornwell is a relation…Auntie and Godmother to three of my children. We would love to watch Cakes and Ale from 1974 once again. My VHS copy is of poor quality.
Any chance?
Penny.
Susannah Fullerton
It was such a lovely series. I had to order it from some place in the USA and promise that I was watching it for research purposes. The quality wasn’t fabulous but I did so enjoy seeing it again.
How fabulous that Judy Cornwell is a relation – a wonderful ctor.
I’m afraid I can’t even remember the name of the place I got it from, so sorry I can’t be more help.
Susannah Fullerton
I am so glad you enjoy my newsletters. Feel free to share them around with book-loving friends.
Lindy Jefferson
Hi Susannah,
I managed to track down the 1974 TV version of ‘Cakes and Ale’ and have just finished watching it online.
Open Vault in WGBH located in Boston Massachusetts hold it. I contacted the following person, Peter Higgins who arranged for me to be able to view it.
If you contact him directly, he will email you with instructions. You then reply to confirm so that he can then send you the link and temporary password. You can view the three episodes over two weeks with the option to extend if necessary.
Here are his contact details and the webpage where I discovered that they had it:
Peter Higgins
Archivist
WGBH Media Library & Archives
One Guest Street
Boston, MA 02135
p| 617-300-4206
e| archive_requests@wgbh.org
http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_2208632F39F746A1BBAF7D00487847F5
Kind regards,
Lindy Jefferson
Susannah Fullerton
Lindy, you have made my day! How exciting that I might get to watch the series again. I hope it lives up to my good memories of it. I have contacted Peter and am so very grateful to you for passing on this information. Many many thanks!
Mabel Kass
Thank you so much. I too have been trying to find this video since it originally aired. I loved it, as I loved the book, which I have reread many times. Hopefully I will get to see it again finally, thanks to you.
Susannah Fullerton
I so clearly remembered loving the TV series when I was young, so it was a thrill to see it again. Isn’t the book gorgeous!