Cakes and ale: Classic Book Guide and Free Edition
Cakes and ale: author and translator credits, catalogue synopsis, subjects and links to the Gutenberg reading formats.
Cakes and ale is catalogued by Project Gutenberg with author credits for Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset) (1874–1965).
Catalogue synopsis
Project Gutenberg supplies this automated synopsis of the opening text:
Cakes and Ale, or, The Skeleton in the Cupboard (1930) is a novel by the British author W. Somerset Maugham. Maugham exposes the misguided social snobbery levelled at the character Rosie Driffield, whose frankness, honesty, and sexual freedom make her a target of conservative opprobrium. Her character is treated favourably by the book's narrator, Ashenden, who understands that she was a muse to the many artists who surrounded her, and who himself enjoyed her sexual favours. Maugham drew his title from the remark of Sir Toby Belch to Malvolio in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night: "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?" Cakes and ale are also the emblems of the good life in Joseph Jacobs' 1912 rendition of Aesop's fable of "The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse": "Better beans and bacon in peace than cakes and ale in fear." In his introduction to a Modern Library edition, published in 1950, Maugham wrote, "I am willing enough to agree with common opinion that Of Human Bondage is my best work ... But the book I like best is Cakes and Ale ... because in its pages lives for me again the woman with the lovely smile who was the model for Rosie Driffield." (This summary is from Wikipedia.)
Book and edition facts
- Title: Cakes and ale
- Author credits: Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset) (1874–1965)
- Catalogue language: English
Catalogue subjects
- Authors -- Fiction
- Authors' spouses -- Fiction
- Biographers -- Fiction
- Domestic fiction
- England -- Fiction
- Married people -- Fiction
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View the complete Gutenberg catalogue record. Project Gutenberg identifies this edition as public domain in the United States; that designation does not establish its copyright status in every country.
Source notes
Catalogue metadata is public domain and is supplied through Gutendex, which imports Gutenberg's machine-readable catalogue. The automated synopsis is source-supplied, not an independently verified review. Author dates above describe the credited people; no ebook release date is presented as the book's original publication date.
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