Ashenden - W. Somerset Maugham

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Résumé :
The classic spy story collection that inspired John Le Carr?, Graham Greene, Ian Fleming, Len Deighton and other 20th Century masters of the spy thriller, & caused a national security scandal in Churchill's Britain. It did not take them long to settle things and when Ashenden rose to go he had already made careful note of his instructions. He was to start for Geneva next day. The last words that R. said to him, with a casualness that made them impressive, were:There's just one thing I think you ought to know before you take on this job. And don't forget it. If you do well you'll get no thanks and if you get into trouble you'll get no help. Does that suit you?Perfectly.Then I'll wish you good afternoon. These sixteen interconnected stories chronicle the adventures of Ashenden-upstanding citizen, writer, and spy-as he moves across WWI-riddled Europe on behalf of His Majesty's Secret Service, featuring murder, intrigue, deceptions, & the soul-crushing, often-anonymous reality of modern spycraft....

Sommaire:
An English author best renowned for his plays, novels, and short stories was William Somerset Maugham. After completing his studies in England, Maugham enrolled in a university in Germany. He spent his first ten years of life in Paris, where he was born. He enrolled at a medical school in London, where he graduated with a medical degree in 1897. He stopped being a doctor and started working as a writer full-time. His first work, Liza of Lambeth (1897), a study of life in the slums, attracted attention, although he first achieved national notoriety as a playwright. He had four plays running simultaneously in London's West End by 1908. In 1933, he finished writing his 32nd and final play. Thereafter, he gave up writing plays and focused on writing novels and short tales. Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), The Painted Veil (1925), Cakes and Ale (1930), and The Razor's Edge are among Maugham's books that came following Liza of Lambeth (1944). His short stories have been published in collections like The Casuarina Tree (1926) and The Mixture as Before (1940). Highbrow critics had negative reactions to his enormous popularity and sales, and many of them tried to denigrate him by calling him....