I confess that when first I made acquaintance with Charles Strickland I never for a moment discerned that there was in him anything out of the ordinary. Yet now few will be found to deny his greatness. I do not speak of that greatness which is achieved by the fortunate politician or the successful soldier; that is a quality which belongs to the place he occupies rather than to the man; and a change of circum-stances reduces it to very discreet proportions. The Prime Minister out of office is seen, too often, to have been but a pompous rhetorician, and the General without an army is but the tame hero of a market town. The greatness of Charles Strickland was authentic. It may be that you do not like his art, but at all events you can hardly refuse it the tribute of your interest. He disturbs and arrests. The time has passed when he was an object of ridicule, and it is no longer a mark of eccentricity to defend or of perversity to extol him. His faults are accepted as the necessary complement to his merits. It is still possible to discuss his place in art, and the adulation of his admirers is perhaps no less capricious than the disparagement of his detractors; but one thing can never be doubtful, and that is that he had genius. To my mind the most interesting thing in art is the personality of the artist; and if that is singular, I am willing to excuse a thousand faults. I suppose Velasquez was a better painter than El Greco, but custom stales one's admiration for him:

威廉·薩默塞特·毛姆（William Somerset Maugham,1874 -1965)，英國小說傢，劇作傢，被譽為“故事聖手”。

生於巴黎，十歲前父母雙亡，由叔叔接迴英國撫養，因身材矮小，說話結巴，總被同齡人欺淩，性格孤僻敏感。

18歲在倫敦學醫，後棄醫從文。23歲時發錶首部小說《蘭貝斯的麗莎》，從此走上文學創作的道路。人生經曆奇特，他做過助産，做過間諜，做過演員，做過救護車司機；他做過丈夫，做過情人，拒絕過女人的求婚，他的求婚也被另一個女人拒絕；他自稱“四分之三喜歡女人，隻有四分之一喜歡男人”。

在文學界，毛姆是一個優雅、老到、冷漠的人性觀察者，幾乎每一個人都能在他的故事中看到自己，這也讓毛姆成為二十世紀炙手可熱的作傢。

他的後半生住在一座仙境般的彆墅裏，晚年幾乎獲得瞭整個歐洲文學界的一切殊榮。91歲時，逝於法國。

經典代錶作：《月亮與六便士》《人性的枷鎖》。