Discussion Groups / British English / January 2008

I am a Chinese graduate student. The following is part of my master's
thesis. Who can help me polish my language. Thank you very much.

William Somerset Maugham (1874--1965), born in Paris, is one of the
most popular writers in British literature. He has created about 20
novels, more than 100 short stories, 32 plays as well as lots of
memoirs, travel essays, comments etc., all his life. Maugham has shown
his versatility in all the literary fields except poem. what's more, a
number of his novels have been adapted to movies. The income from
these successful movie adaptations and his writings allow Maugham to
live a very comfortable life. Maugham's creation period spans as long
as 65 years and his works are very popular around the world. However,
despite his popularity among ordinary readers all over the world, he
has not received the due recognition from the literary critics or his
peers for many of them hold that he is just a writer in"the very first
row of the second raters". (maugham The Summing Up, 1938)Maugham's
main works include Of Human Bondage, which is considered as his
representative work, The Moon and Sixpence, The Razor's Edege, Cakes
and Ale and so on. It can be said safely that Maugham's works have the
strongest exotic flavor among British writers. Due to his hobby,
Maugham all his life has visited lots of countries and regions such as
Russia, South America, the South Pacific islands and so on. Maugham is
also very interested in the Oriental culture especially Chinese
culture and he visited China in 1999 with his life-long companion
Gerald Haxton. Based on his travel around China, he has created the
travel essays collection On a Chinese Sreen, the novel The Painted
Veil , the short story The Letter which is latter adapted to the play
The Letter, and the play East of Suez. Other works related to China or
Chinese people include Of Human Bondage, short stories Ah King, The
Narrow Corner, A Casual Affair, The Door of Opportunity and so on. By
adopting Imagology of comparative literature, this thesis will
research the images of China in Maugham works. Meanwhile, Said's
Orientalism theory is also adopted as an auxiliary theory in this
thesis. Since the images of China are mainly depicted and reflected in
On a Chinese Sreen, this thesis will focus on this work.