Samuel J. Rogal

In its 450+ pages, this extraordinary encyclopedia lists each and every character that appeared in Maugham's fiction and plays, along with a description and the work in which s/he appeared. Being alphabetically organized, it ranges from "ABAS (The Outstation: Native servant whom Warburton procures for Cooper)" through "MALAY GIRL (Yellow Streak: Lives with Hutchinson; she bore him two children; she is young, fine, dark eyes)" to "ZERBINETTA (Perfect Gentleman: Member of the troupe of Italian dancers hired to perform in the intermezzo)".

All the individuals and personalities readers have come to know through Maugham's fiction are here: Cronshaw ('Of Human Bondage'), Leslie Crosby ('The Letter,' with separate listings for the story and the play), Sadie Thompson ('Rain'), Charles Strickland ('The Moon and Sixpence'), the evil Oliver Haddo ('The Magician'), and the unforgettable Elliott Templeton ('The Razor's Edge'). Major characters get up to a half - page of description, while others may get no more than a sentence or phrase. Countless entries are given over to minor characters, including those without names or identities. Thus, we have 2 pages of listings for "Maid" and "Maiden", 3 pages of "Lady", 4 of "Narrator" and 9 pages of "Man". I thought I had found one odd omission -- I couldn't locate the famous "Liza" (of 'Liza of Lambeth') -- until I realized that she was listed under her last name ("Kemp, Liza").

While all of the novels and short stories are included, the travel books and other non-fiction are not. At the back of the book is a listing of editions and secondary sources consulted. This is followed by a list of titles of the novels and short stories with references to the pages on which their various characters are listed. Thus, "Ashenden" refers the reader to > 100 pages, and "Mrs Craddock" to > 140 pages -- numbers that may seem surprising unless one recalls that each character warrants a separate listing, even those without names. For the reader to have to refer to that many pages makes it difficult to locate all the characters in a given novel; an alternative would have been to give each character listed a number (1, 2, etc.) to make them easier to locate via the index.

An enormous amount of work went into this encyclopedia, but it is hard to imagine it being of much use to any but the most earnest of Maugham-a-philes and scholars. I gained a few minutes of enjoyment revisiting some of my favorites, but expect this book will sit on my "Maugham" shelves as a seldom- consulted reference. It represents a companion volume to Samuel Rogal's A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia, arguably a more useful work.… (més)