In this classic guide, Maugham introduces and discusses what he considers to be the ten greatest novels and their authors. Here are some of the formulae of greatness in the genre, as well as the flaws and heresies that enfeeble it. Maugham's choice list: Fielding's "Tom Jones"; Dickens's "David Copperfield"; Flaubert's "Madame Bovary"; Balzac's "Old Man Goriot"; "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte, "The Brothers Karamazov" by Dostoevsky; "The Red and the Black" by Stendhal, "Pride and Prejudice" by Austen; Melville's "Moby Dick"; Tolstoy's "War and Peace".

毛姆对十大小说家的生平及其代表作的研究，可说是文学批评的典范之作。此处所涉及的，既有此类体裁之所以伟大的一些标准，亦有削弱其力量的瑕疵与异端。由一位小说巨匠所著的《巨匠与杰作》，实在是一部独一无二、不可估量的文学指南。

毛姆评十大名著小说。实际上评小说的文字不算多，毛老师的功夫花在了寻找作者八卦上了，穷、欠钱、花各样女人等。看这本书，会让自己狼狈平庸的生活显得不那么令自己不齿。十年前江苏人民出版社出过另一个叫保罗·约翰逊的英国人写的《知识分子》，写了马克思、卢梭、罗素这些大知识分子，也是类似的八卦写法，此书的出版当在《巨匠与杰作》出版半个世纪后。不过中文版删掉了马克思一章。看来不仅英国媒体有八卦的嗜好，英国文人也有好为此道的传统。

William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He spent some time at St. Thomas's Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to letters. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915 and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. His fame as a short story writer began with The Trembling of a Leaf, subtitled Little Stories of the South Sea Islands, in 1921, after which he published more than ten collections. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965.

二十世纪英国最重要、也是最知名的作家之一。一八七四年出生于法国巴黎，二十三岁即以第一本小说《兰白斯德丽莎》一鸣惊人；一九一五年的《人生的枷锁》与一九一九年的《月亮与六便士》，则更确立了他在文坛的地位。他也是一位成功的剧作家，编写的舞台剧在当时伦敦的卖座程度与萧伯纳相比不遑多让。

毛姆的一生多姿多彩，几乎游遍世界各地，一次世界大战时曾担任情报员，战后游踪更广，最后在法国南部定居，直至一九六五年去世为止。

毛姆著作甚丰，无论是小说、剧本、评论、随笔、游记和回忆录都广受好评，一九六一年与福斯特（《印度之旅》作者）同获英国皇家“文学勋章”最高荣誉。毛姆的小说多以异国为背景，处理情节的技巧十分精炼，善于营造悬疑气氛，而对于女性内心的描写更见细腻，处处展露出对人性的洞察。其他作品尚有《兼差密谍阿申登》《刀锋》《饼与酒》《书与你》《作家手记》《巨匠与杰作》等。