W. Somerset Maugham, Rain

Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London)

Ed. by Chris Baldick, Goldsmiths College, University of London
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Newman University), Louise McDonald (Newman University)

Dates

First circulation or publication Apr 1921

Places

United States (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Story

Resources

“Rain” (1921) is the most famous of W. Somerset Maugham’s short stories, and one that earned him a fortune from later adaptations. Maugham himself, already successful as a dramatist and novelist when he wrote it, regarded it as the inaugural work of his new career in short fiction, which is why – although it was in fact not his first published tale – he placed it first in his three-volume Complete Short Stories (1951; widely reprinted in four volumes since 1963 as the Collected Short Stories). For its time, the story was an “advanced” study in sexual repression and hypocrisy: it presupposes on the part of its readers a Freudian understanding of repression and of dream-symbolism …

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1674 words

Citation: Baldick, Chris. "Rain". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 August 2020 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=39102, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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