Up at the Villa is a 1941 novella by William Somerset Maugham about a young widow caught between three men: her suitor, her one-night stand, and her confidant. A fast-paced story, Up at the Villa incorporates elements of the crime and suspense novel.
The action takes place in the late 1930s. 30 year-old Mary Panton, whose extraordinary beauty has always been one of her greatest assets, has been a widow for one year. Her late husband Matthew, whom...
more
Up at the Villa is a 1941 novella by William Somerset Maugham about a young widow caught between three men: her suitor, her one-night stand, and her confidant. A fast-paced story, Up at the Villa incorporates elements of the crime and suspense novel.
The action takes place in the late 1930s. 30 year-old Mary Panton, whose extraordinary beauty has always been one of her greatest assets, has been a widow for one year. Her late husband Matthew, whom she married when she was 21 because she was really in love with him, turned out to be an alcoholic, a gambler, a womanizer, and a wife-beater. However, Mary Panton patiently endures all the hardship and pain inflicted on her by her husband (including him having sex with her while drunk). When he drinks and drives he has a car accident and eventually, a few hours later, dies in Mary's arms. This, she concludes, is a blessing for both of them.
The Leonards—a couple who never appear in the novella—offer her their 16th century villa on a hill...
less
