Back Cover Blurb
- The third volume of Somerset Maugham's Collected Short Stories, introduced by the author, contains the celebrated series about Ashenden, a secret service agent in World War I.
- Based on Maugham's own experiences with the British Intelligence service in Switzerland, the stories are vignettes in which he dramatises both the romance and absurdity of espionage as well as its ruthlessness and brutality.
- Accountable only to 'R', Ashenden travels all over the Continent on assignments which entangle him with such characters as the traitor Grantley Caypor, the passionate Guilia Lazzari, and the sinister 'hairless Mexican'.
Preface (Full Text)
- In this, the third volume of my collected stories, I have made a somewhat different arrangement from that which I have made in the others. In those I put the stories I wrote in which the scene was laid in Malaya. These are so long that I thought it would give the reader a rest if I interspersed them with short ones set in other parts of the world, so I divided them in each volume into groups.
- But I wrote a batch of stories dealing with the adventures of an agent in the Intelligence Department during the First World War. I gave him the name of Ashenden. Since they are connected by this character of my invention I have thought it well, notwithstanding their great length, to put them all together. They are founded on experiences of my own during that war, but I should like to impress upon the reader that they are not what the French call reportage, but works of fiction.
- Fact, as I said in the preface to the volume in which these stories appeared, is a poor story-teller. It starts a story at haphazard long before the beginning, rambles on inconsequently, and tails off, leaving loose ends hanging about, without a conclusion.
- The work of an agent in the Intelligence Department is on the whole monotonous. A lot of it is uncommonly useless. The material it offers for stories is scrappy and pointless; the author has himself to make it coherent, dramatic and probable. That is what I have tried to do in this particular series.
ContentsPreface – vii
- Miss King – 1
- The Hairless Mexican – 40
- Giulia Lazzari – 83
- The Traitor – 126
- His Excellency – 168
- Mr Harrington's washing1 – 206
- Sanatorium2 – 252
Introductory Note
- I’ve just finished reading and commenting on the first of these seven stories, but had previously read and commented on the last two when they appeared in "Somerset Maugham (W.) - Short Stories".
- As the bulk of these stories didn’t find their way into this “Greatest Hits” selection, some may not be worth close attention, though the book’s back cover blurb highlights some of the characters as of interest. However, while this book is basically “holiday reading”, I intend to annotate the stories in enough detail to provide the framework for any further thoughts.
- I will summarise the stories only to the degree strictly necessary to provide the context for whatever I have to say, so anyone other than me reading these accounts probably won’t fully understand what I’m on about unless they’ve read – and can recall – the stories. But take this as a “spoiler alert”.
- I will provide links to the various summaries of the stories on Wikipedia where these are available but will only read these after making my own summaries, so they may not always agree.
- In this regard, Wikipedia: Ashenden: Or the British Agent is an excellent introduction. It seems that the stories in the present volume are combinations of those in the original 1927 volume, but with a couple of the originals (1. ‘R’ and 13. ‘The Flip of a Coin’) omitted and ‘Sanatorium’ added.
- My intention will be merely to reflect on – and remind myself of – various “ethical3” or more generally philosophical issues that arise. I don’t claim to be a literary critic.
Commentary
- Miss King – 1
- This is apparently a combination of two of the first three stories in Ashenden, including ‘A domiciliary visit’. The introduction to ‘R’ is very brief, but is doubtless based on the introductory story of that title in the original volume.
- The provenance of the story explains why the title character takes to long to appear and why the story takes so long to get going. I was beginning to think I’d taken a dud book with me on holiday.
- The ‘domiciliary visit’ is doubtless the visit to Ashenden’s hotel room of two policemen, ostensibly to get his views on noise pollution in the hotel, but doubtless with more sinister motives. Ashenden makes twice-weekly trips between Geneva in Switzerland and Thonon4 in France in the course of his clandestine activities and is continuously at risk of two years in a Swiss jail. He has evidently been ‘shopped’ but probably not by a disgruntled subordinate named Bernard. The latter raises the issue of why the spies do the jobs they do; mostly for the money, it seems. The aforementioned subordinate had received his wages but threatened Ashenden with exposure if he didn’t receive 2,000 francs extra on the grounds that a similar agent had recently been shot. Ashenden is secretly sympathetic for him to receive a pay rise, but doesn’t submit to blackmail.
- Another agent – Baroness de (or von) Higgins – in the employ of the Central Powers – works to maintain her lavish lifestyle.
- It’s not clear why Ashenden (or Somerset Maugham) takes on the job, other than – as their cover suggests – to find material for future literary productions. Maugham would have been 40 at the outbreak of WWI, so at the upper limit (40) for conscription5 at the start of the war.
- The ‘Miss King’ of the story’s title is an ancient English governess of two fat Egyptian princesses, who spend their time dancing the nights away and are abusive towards her. Their father is Prince Ali, a ‘near relative’ of the Khedive who had recently been deposed6. Ashenden had tried to make the acquaintance of Miss King before the main action started, but had been cut dead.
- Ashenden is invited to make up a four at bridge7 with the Baroness, Prince Ali and his secretary Mustapha Pasha.
- The game is evidently a subterfuge for something deeper. Ashenden’s suspicions had been raised by the presence in Geneva of a German spymaster – Count von Holzminden8 – a close relative of the Hohenzollerns and a former Anglophile whom Ashenden had known pre-war from his London Club and with whom he had played cards in the past. They pretend not to know one another.
- There are a number of hints during the bridge that the others are trying to ‘turn’ Ashenden, but without success. At midnight the Prince and his secretary give up and retire to the casino.
- Ashenden goes to bed but is awakened in the middle of the night. Miss King is dying and has called for him.
- Ashenden is nonplussed and is unsure whether she has something momentous to tell him or simply wants to die in the company of a compatriot, though there are better candidates in the hotel for the latter office. She has had a series of strokes and cannot now speak, though her eyes are bright. The doctor returns to bed with the request to be recalled should there be any change. Ashenden lets the hotel attendants do likewise – presumably in the hope that she will recover her speech and reveal her secrets from her close contacts with the former ‘powers that be’ in Egypt – especially whatever they are now presumably plotting. In the end he asks her ‘Has it got anything to do with the war, Miss King’. However, she only has the power to say one word ‘England’ before dropping dead.
- While the ambiguity at the end is typical of Somerset Maugham, it leaves me unsure what to make of the story. The message is mostly in the telling. There are numerous vignettes that I’ve not recounted here. Maybe it demonstrates how the directions of events of international importance are subject to chance happenings to insignificant individuals.
- The Hairless Mexican – 40
- Giulia Lazzari – 83
- The Traitor – 126
- His Excellency – 168
- Mr Harrington's washing – 206
- Sanatorium – 252
In-Page Footnotes ("Somerset Maugham (W.) - Collected Short Stories: Volume 3")
Footnote 3:
- In the widest sense, including matters of life-choice and self-evaluation.
Footnote 4:
- See Wikipedia: Thonon-les-Bains.
- Its situation on the banks of Lake Geneva just about explains why Ashenden manages to make the trips without getting his passport stamped and raising suspicion.
Footnote 5: Footnote 6:
- See Wikipedia: Khedivate of Egypt.
- The British ruled Egypt at the time of WWI, but the Khedive had a ‘dotted line’ to Constantinople, as it then was. When the Ottomans sided with the Central Powers and were at war with Britain, the Khedive – Abbas II – was deposed and replaced with his Uncle as head of a Sultanate.
- The Khedive and his supporters had been – and therefore continued to be – very hostile to the British.
Footnote 7:
- It seems that Contract bridge had just taken over Auction bridge, and that Ashenden wasn’t very familiar with it. He acknowledges that – while he’s a good player of the second rank, he’s played often enough with the best players in the world to know that he’s ‘not in the same street as them’. I know the feeling.
Footnote 8:
Book Comment
Vintage Classics; New Edition (7 Feb. 2002)
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2026
- Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)