The Skeptical Romancer: Selected Travel Writing

“Maugham is a great artist. . . . A genius.” —Theodore Dreiser
 
“An expert craftsman. . . . His style is sharp, quick, subdued, casual.” —The New York Times
 
“Maugham has given infinite pleasure and left us a splendour of writing which will remain for as long as the written English word is permitted to exist.” —The Daily Telegraph
 
“The modern writer who has influenced me most is Somerset Maugham.” —George Orwell
 
“Maugham remains the consummate craftsman. . . . [His prose is] so compact, so economical, so closely motivated, so skillfully written, that it rivets attention from the first page to last.” —The Saturday Review of Literature
 
“It is very difficult for a writer of my generation, if he is honest, to pretend indifference to the work of Somerset Maugham. . . . He was always so entirely there.” —Gore Vidal