Search results
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.
- W. Somerset Maugham
- 1930
Cakes and Ale, comic novel by W. Somerset Maugham, published in 1930. The story is told by Willie Ashenden, a character who previously appeared in Maugham’s short-story collection Ashenden. A novelist, Ashenden is befriended by the ambitious, self-serving Alroy Kear, who has been commissioned to.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Historically, cakes and ale were associated with festivities and celebrations, highlighting the temporal nature of pleasure. This phrase captures the essence of indulgence and serves as a commentary on the human inclination to seek pleasure and revelry despite life’s challenges.
Apr 6, 2015 · Contemporary and Historical References in Cakes and Ale. When talking about Willie Ashenden's childhood in Blackstable or even his adulthood in London (still remote for modern readers), Maugham mentions many historical/"mysterious" facts, which I am able to decipher some but not all.
An opportunist named Alroy Kear—a minor novelist but one seasoned in Bloomsburyan deceptions—finds, in orchestrating the dead Driffield’s life, that he must deal with Blackstable and what he deems...
Mar 22, 2013 · This article examines the relationship between Of Human Bondage and Cakes and Ale, and based on the comparison reevaluates the merits of the latter. The critic identifies Willie Ashenden here as different from the usual narrator in other Maugham stories, for he is involved in the story instead of being a stander-by observing others' follies.
Cakes and Ale's first section traces Ashenden's refusal to join Kear in a project that will serve not the interests of truth, but rather Kear's desire to profit by falsifying it.
