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".

毛姆對十大小說傢的生平及其代錶作的研究，可說是文學批評的典範之作。此處所涉及的，既有此類體裁之所以偉大的一些標準，亦有削弱其力量的瑕疵與異端。由一位小說巨匠所著的《巨匠與傑作》，實在是一部獨一無二、不可估量的文學指南。

毛姆評十大名著小說。實際上評小說的文字不算多，毛老師的功夫花在瞭尋找作者八卦上瞭，窮、欠錢、花各樣女人等。看這本書，會讓自己狼狽平庸的生活顯得不那麼令自己不齒。十年前江蘇人民齣版社齣過另一個叫保羅·約翰遜的英國人寫的《知識分子》，寫瞭馬剋思、盧梭、羅素這些大知識分子，也是類似的八卦寫法，此書的齣版當在《巨匠與傑作》齣版半個世紀後。不過中文版刪掉瞭馬剋思一章。看來不僅英國媒體有八卦的嗜好，英國文人也有好為此道的傳統。

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.

二十世紀英國最重要、也是最知名的作傢之一。一八七四年齣生於法國巴黎，二十三歲即以第一本小說《蘭白斯德麗莎》一鳴驚人；一九一五年的《人生的枷鎖》與一九一九年的《月亮與六便士》，則更確立瞭他在文壇的地位。他也是一位成功的劇作傢，編寫的舞颱劇在當時倫敦的賣座程度與蕭伯納相比不遑多讓。

毛姆的一生多姿多彩，幾乎遊遍世界各地，一次世界大戰時曾擔任情報員，戰後遊蹤更廣，最後在法國南部定居，直至一九六五年去世為止。

毛姆著作甚豐，無論是小說、劇本、評論、隨筆、遊記和迴憶錄都廣受好評，一九六一年與福斯特（《印度之旅》作者）同獲英國皇傢“文學勛章”最高榮譽。毛姆的小說多以異國為背景，處理情節的技巧十分精煉，善於營造懸疑氣氛，而對於女性內心的描寫更見細膩，處處展露齣對人性的洞察。其他作品尚有《兼差密諜阿申登》《刀鋒》《餅與酒》《書與你》《作傢手記》《巨匠與傑作》等。