1°17′41.60″N 103°51′16.13″E / 1.2948889°N 103.8544806°E / 1.2948889; 103.8544806
129-544: Raffles Singapore is a historic luxury hotel at 1 Beach Road, in Singapore . It was established by Armenian hoteliers, the Sarkies Brothers , in 1887. The hotel was named after British statesman Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles , the founder of modern Singapore. It is the flagship property of Raffles Hotels & Resorts , and is managed by AccorHotels after Accor acquired FRHI Hotels & Resorts . The hotel
258-557: A Beethoven symphony. Bryan Connon comments in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , "After this it seemed that Maugham could not fail, and the public eagerly bought his novels [and] volumes of his carefully crafted short stories". In 1915 Syrie Wellcome became pregnant, and in September, while Maugham was on leave to be with her, she gave birth to their only child, Mary Elizabeth , known as Liza. The baby
387-761: A barrister , and had a distinguished legal career in Britain – The Times described him as "a great legal figure" – serving as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary (1935–1938) and Lord Chancellor (1938–1939). The two younger sons became writers: Henry (1868–1904) wrote poetry, essays and travel books. Shortly before the birth of the Maughams' fourth son the government of France proposed a new law under which all boys born on French soil to foreign parents would automatically be French citizens and liable to conscription for military service. The British ambassador, Lord Lyons , had
516-478: A business degree , and/or certification programs formally prepare hotel managers for industry practice. Most hotel establishments consist of a general manager who serves as the head executive (often referred to as the "hotel manager"), department heads who oversee various departments within a hotel, middle managers , administrative staff, and line-level supervisors. The organizational chart and volume of job positions and hierarchy varies by hotel size, function, and
645-449: A general manager who serves as the head executive (often referred to as the " hotel manager "), department heads who oversee various departments within a hotel (e.g., food service), middle managers , administrative staff, and line-level supervisors. The organizational chart and volume of job positions and hierarchy varies by hotel size, function and class, and is often determined by hotel ownership and managing companies. The word hotel
774-430: A block of hours typically between 8 am and 5 pm, before the typical night shift. These are similar to transit hotels in that they appeal to travelers, however, unlike transit hotels, they do not eliminate the need to go through Customs. Garden hotels , famous for their gardens before they became hotels, include Gravetye Manor, the home of garden designer William Robinson , and Cliveden , designed by Charles Barry with
903-624: A book with a large autobiographical element – as a masterpiece, and his short stories are widely held in high critical regard. Maugham's plain prose style became known for its lucidity, but his reliance on clichés attracted adverse critical comment. During the First World War Maugham worked for the British Secret Service , later drawing on his experiences for stories published in the 1920s. Although primarily homosexual, he attempted to conform to some extent with
1032-515: A career in the church or the law even if either had attracted him. His uncle ruled out the civil service, believing that it was no longer a career for gentlemen after reforms requiring applicants to pass an entrance examination. A family friend found Maugham a position in an accountant's office in London, which he endured for a month before resigning. The local physician in Whitstable suggested
1161-474: A ceremony in New Jersey . He entered the marriage from a sense of duty rather than from personal inclination, and the two quickly began to grow apart. She returned to England and he continued with his work as a secret agent. He was selected by Sir William Wiseman of British Intelligence to go to Russia, where the overthrow of the monarchy threatened to lead to a Russian withdrawal from the war. Maugham's job
1290-471: A certainty when in November 1944, after a six-month illness initially diagnosed as pleurisy , Haxton died of tuberculosis. Maugham was distraught; he told his nephew, Robin, "You'll never know how great a grief this has been to me. The best years of my life – those we spent wandering about the world – are inextricably connected with him. And in one way or another – however indirectly – all I've written during
1419-458: A duck takes to water." Before the publication of his next novel, The Making of a Saint (1898), Maugham travelled to Spain. He found Mediterranean lands much to his liking, for what his biographer Frederic Raphael calls their " douceur de vivre missing under grim English skies". He based himself in Seville , where he grew a moustache, smoked cigars, took lessons in the guitar, and developed
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#17327653302901548-677: A few days after his eighth birthday. He later said that for him her loss was "a wound that never entirely healed" and even in old age he kept her photograph at his bedside. Two and a half years after his mother's death his father died, and Maugham was sent to England to live with his paternal uncle Henry MacDonald Maugham, the vicar of Whitstable in Kent. After spending the first ten years of his life in Paris, Maugham found an unwelcome contrast in life at Whitstable, which according to his biographer Ted Morgan "represented social obligation and conformity,
1677-486: A form of property ownership also referred to as a vacation ownership involving the purchase and ownership of an individual unit of accommodation for seasonal usage during a specified period of time. Timeshare resorts often offer amenities similar that of a full-service hotel with on-site restaurants, swimming pools, recreation grounds, and other leisure-oriented amenities. Destination clubs on the other hand may offer more exclusive private accommodations such as private houses in
1806-596: A friend of Syrie, portrayed as the spymaster "R" in the Ashenden stories Maugham wrote after the war. Syrie and Liza were with him for part of the year, providing a convincing domestic cover, and his profession as a writer enabled him to travel about and stay in hotels without attracting attention. His covert job, which was in violation of Switzerland's neutrality laws, was to coordinate the work of British agents in enemy territory and dispatch their information to London. In his overt capacity as an author he wrote Caroline ,
1935-652: A guest with lifestyle or personal image in specific locations. They are typically full-service and classified as luxury. A key characteristic of lifestyle resorts is focus on providing a unique guest experience as opposed to simply providing lodging. Lifestyle luxury resorts are classified with a Five Star hotel rating depending on the country and local classification standards. Example brands include: Waldorf Astoria , St. Regis , Wynn Resorts , MGM , Shangri-La , Oberoi , Belmond , Jumeirah , Aman , Taj Hotels , Hoshino , Raffles , Fairmont , Banyan Tree , Regent and Park Hyatt . Upscale full-service hotels often provide
2064-781: A hospital since the Middle Ages . The French spelling, with the circumflex , was also used in English, but is now rare. The circumflex replaces the 's' found in the earlier hostel spelling, which over time took on a new, but closely related meaning. Grammatically, hotels usually take the definite article – hence "The Astoria Hotel" or simply "The Astoria". Facilities offering hospitality to travellers featured in early civilizations. In Greco-Roman culture and in ancient Persia , hospitals for recuperation and rest were built at thermal baths . Guinness World Records officially recognised Japan's Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan , founded in 705, as
2193-459: A limited amount of on-site amenities. Economy hotels are small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer basic accommodations with little to no services. Extended stay hotels are small to medium-sized hotels that offer longer-term full-service accommodations compared to a traditional hotel. Timeshare and destination clubs are a form of property ownership involving ownership of an individual unit of accommodation for seasonal usage. A motel
2322-457: A limited number of on-site amenities that only cater and market to a specific demographic of travelers, such as the single business traveler. Most focused or select service hotels may still offer full-service accommodations but may lack leisure amenities such as an on-site restaurant or a swimming pool. Examples include Hyatt Place , Holiday Inn , Courtyard by Marriott and Hilton Garden Inn . Small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer
2451-591: A maternity ward set up within his embassy – which was legally recognised as UK territory – enabling British couples in France to circumvent the new law, and it was there that William Somerset Maugham was born on 25 January 1874. Maugham never greatly liked his middle name – which commemorated a great-uncle named after General Sir Henry Somerset – and was known by family and friends throughout his life as "Willie". Maugham's mother died of tuberculosis in January 1882,
2580-543: A memoir, published in 1962, Looking Back , in which "he denigrated his late former wife, was dismissive of Haxton, and made a clumsy attempt to deny his homosexuality by claiming he was a red-blooded heterosexual". He attempted to disinherit his daughter and to make Searle his adopted son, but the courts prevented it. Maugham died in the Anglo-American Hospital in Nice on the night of 15–16 December 1965 at
2709-412: A neighborhood-style setting. Examples of timeshare brands include Hilton Grand Vacations , Marriott Vacation Club International , Westgate Resorts , Disney Vacation Club , and Holiday Inn Club Vacations . A motel , an abbreviation for "motor hotel", is a small-sized low-rise lodging establishment similar to a limited service, lower-cost hotel, but typically with direct access to individual rooms from
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#17327653302902838-407: A painter. It was well received: reviewers called it "extraordinarily powerful and interesting", and "a triumph [that] has given me such pleasure and entertainment as rarely comes my way"; one described it as "an exhibition of the beast in man, done with such perfect art that it is beyond praise". After the war Maugham had to choose between living in Britain or being with Haxton, because the latter
2967-408: A passion for "a young thing with green eyes and a gay smile" (gender carefully unspecified, as Hastings comments). The Making of a Saint , a historical novel, attracted less attention than Liza of Lambeth and its sales were unremarkable. Maugham continued to write assiduously and within five years he published two more novels and a collection of short stories, and had his first play produced; but
3096-695: A public company called Raffles Hotel Ltd. was established, taking over from the Sarkies. Upon the start of the Japanese occupation of Singapore on 15 February 1942, it is said that the Japanese soldiers encountered the guests in Raffles Hotel dancing one final waltz . Meanwhile, staff buried the hotel silver—including the silver beef trolley—in the Palm Court. During World War II , Raffles Hotel
3225-425: A rent boy, with whom he became infatuated". Raphael comments that there is no firm evidence for this, and Meyers suggests that she is based on Harry Phillips, a young man whom Maugham had taken to Paris as, nominally, his secretary for a prolonged stay in 1905. Maugham proofread Of Human Bondage at Malo-les-Bains , near Dunkirk , during a lull in his ambulance duties. When the book was published in 1915 some of
3354-410: A room and board arrangement. In Japan , capsule hotels provide a tiny room suitable only for sleeping and shared bathroom facilities. The precursor to the modern hotel was the inn of medieval Europe . For a period of about 200 years from the mid-17th century, coaching inns served as a place for lodging for coach travelers. Inns began to cater to wealthier clients in the mid-18th century. One of
3483-536: A rose garden by Geoffrey Jellicoe . The Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi , Sweden , was the first ice hotel in the world; first built in 1990, it is built each winter and melts every spring. The Hotel de Glace in Duschenay, Canada , opened in 2001 and it is North America's only ice hotel. It is redesigned and rebuilt in its entirety every year. Ice hotels can also be included within larger ice complexes; for example,
3612-581: A sanatorium in Scotland. While there he wrote a farce , Home and Beauty , which was presented at the Playhouse Theatre in August 1919 starring Gladys Cooper and Charles Hawtrey . In the same year Maugham published one of his best-known novels, The Moon and Sixpence , about a respectable stockbroker who rebels against conformity, abandons his wife and children, flees to Tahiti and becomes
3741-497: A sought-after interior designer. Her concentration on her work briefly lessened the domestic tensions at the couple's house when Maugham was in residence. By 1925, Maugham, learning that his wife was spreading scandal about his private life and had taken lovers of her own, was reconsidering his future. After another long trip to the Far East, he agreed with Syrie that they would live separately, she in London and he at Cap Ferrat in
3870-628: A stay at a spa ( Vichy , Abano , Vevey ), an intensely social summer on the Riviera, followed by the autumn in London in his regular suite at the Dorchester Hotel . In 1959 the foreign travel included a final trip to the far East. He kept himself fit, and further attempted to fend off the encroachments of age with supposedly rejuvenating injections at the clinic of Paul Niehans . Nonetheless, his final years, according to Connon, were marred by increasing senility, misguided legal disputes and
3999-909: A stay or re-admission through security checkpoints. Some hotels are built with living trees as structural elements, for example the Treehotel near Piteå , Sweden, the Costa Rica Tree House near the Jairo Mora Sandoval Gandoca-Manzanillo Mixed Wildlife Refuge , Costa Rica ; the Treetops Hotel in Aberdare National Park , Kenya ; the Ariau Towers near Manaus , Brazil, on the Rio Negro in
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4128-456: A story of slum life since Rudyard Kipling 's The Record of Badalia Herodsfoot (1890), and praised the author's "vividness and knowledge ... extraordinary gift of directness and concentration ... His characters have an astounding amount of vitality". The Westminster Gazette praised the writing but deplored the subject matter, and The Times also conceded the author's skill – "Mr Maugham seems to aspire, and not unsuccessfully, to be
4257-471: A success to match that of his first book eluded him. Between 1903 and 1906 he wrote two more plays, a travel book and two novels, but his next big commercial and critical success did not come until October 1907, when his comedy Lady Frederick opened at the Court Theatre in London. He had written it four years earlier, but numerous managements turned it down until Otho Stuart accepted it and cast
4386-445: A swimming pool, a business center with computers, printers, and other office equipment, childcare, conference and event facilities, tennis or basketball courts, gymnasium , restaurants, day spa, and social function services. Hotel rooms are usually numbered (or named in some smaller hotels and B&Bs ) to allow guests to identify their room. Some boutique, high-end hotels have custom decorated rooms. Some hotels offer meals as part of
4515-458: A tailor, he dropped his aitches like one of the characters in Liza of Lambeth . He had already been taken up by older homosexuals, including Lytton Strachey , who called him "my Bronzino boy". Maugham's biographers have differed considerably about Searle's character and his influence for better or worse on his employer. Connon writes, "He was seen by some as a near saint and by others, particularly
4644-562: A tale of working-class adultery and its consequences. It drew its details from his obstetric duties in South London slums. He wrote near the opening of the novel: "... it is impossible always to give the exact unexpurgated words of Liza and the other personages of the story; the reader is therefore entreated with his thoughts to piece out the necessary imperfections of the dialogue". The book received mixed reviews. The Evening Standard commented that there had not been so powerful
4773-600: A three-act comedy, which opened in February 1916 at the New Theatre , London, with Irene Vanbrugh in the title role. In November 1916 Maugham was asked by the intelligence service to go to the South Seas . Samoa was regarded as crucial to Britain's strategic interests, and Maugham's task was to gather information about the island's powerful radio transmitter and the threat from German military and naval forces in
4902-572: A traditional hotel. Extended stay hotels may offer non-traditional pricing methods such as a weekly rate that caters towards travelers in need of short-term accommodations for an extended period of time. Similar to limited and select service hotels, on-site amenities are normally limited and most extended stay hotels lack an on-site restaurant. Examples include Staybridge Suites , Candlewood Suites , Homewood Suites by Hilton , Home2 Suites by Hilton , Residence Inn by Marriott , Element , and Extended Stay America . Timeshare and destination clubs are
5031-502: A type of booking for less than 24 hours where the customer chooses the check in time and the length of the stay. This allows the hotel increased revenue by reselling the same room several times a day. They first gained popularity in Europe but are now common in major global tourist centers. Hotel management is a globally accepted professional career field and academic field of study. Degree programs such as hospitality management studies ,
5160-560: A type of economical hotel first introduced in Japan, where people sleep in stacks of rectangular containers. In the sleeping capsules, beside the bed, the customer can watch TV, put their valuables in the mini safes, and the customers also can use the wireless internet. Some hotels fill daytime occupancy with day rooms , for example, Rodeway Inn and Suites near Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale, Florida . Day rooms are booked in
5289-539: A veranda, a ballroom, a bar and billiards room, as well as other buildings and rooms. In 1902, a tiger that had escaped from a nearby circus was shot in a storage place under the Bar & Billiards room, which was originally constructed at an elevation. The Great Depression spelled trouble for Raffles Hotel and, in 1931, the Sarkies Brothers declared bankruptcy. In 1933, the financial troubles were resolved, and
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5418-613: A very limited number of on-site amenities and often only offer basic accommodations with little to no services, catering to the budget-minded traveler seeking a "no frills" accommodation. Limited service hotels often lack an on-site restaurant but in return may offer a limited complimentary food and beverage amenity such as on-site continental breakfast service. Examples include Ibis Budget , Hampton Inn , Aloft , Holiday Inn Express , Fairfield Inn , and Four Points by Sheraton . Extended stay hotels are small to medium-sized hotels that offer longer-term full-service accommodations compared to
5547-881: A wide array of guest services and on-site facilities. Commonly found amenities may include: on-site food and beverage (room service and restaurants), meeting and conference services and facilities, fitness center, and business center. Upscale full-service hotels range in quality from upscale to luxury. This classification is based upon the quality of facilities and amenities offered by the hotel. Examples include: W Hotels , Sheraton , Langham , Kempinski , Pullman , Kimpton Hotels , Hilton , Swissôtel , Lotte , Renaissance , Marriott and Hyatt Regency brands. Boutique hotels are smaller independent non-branded hotels that often contain mid-scale to upscale facilities of varying size in unique or intimate settings with full-service accommodations. These hotels are generally 100 rooms or fewer. Small to medium-sized hotel establishments that offer
5676-498: A writer and introduced him to the works of Schopenhauer and Spinoza . Maugham wrote his first book while in Heidelberg, a biography of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer , but it was not accepted for publication and the author destroyed the manuscript. After Maugham's return to Britain in 1892, he and his uncle had to decide on his future. He did not wish to follow his brothers to Cambridge University , and his stammer precluded
5805-491: Is a hotel chain that offers branding to independently operated hotels; the chain itself is founded by or owned by the member hotels as a group. Many former referral chains have been converted to franchises; the largest surviving member-owned chain is Best Western . The first recorded purpose-built railway hotel was the Great Western Hotel , which opened adjacent to Reading railway station in 1844, shortly after
5934-481: Is a satire on the literary world and a humorously cynical observation of human mating. There was hostile comment in the press that the central figure seemed to be a tasteless parody of Thomas Hardy , who had died in 1928. Maugham further damaged his own reputation by denying that another character, Alroy Kear – a superficial novelist of more pushy ambition than literary talent – was a caricature of Hugh Walpole . Few believed Maugham's denial and he eventually admitted it
6063-428: Is a small-sized low-rise lodging with direct access to individual rooms from the car parking area. Boutique hotels are typically hotels with a unique environment or intimate setting. A number of hotels and motels have entered the public consciousness through popular culture. Some hotels are built specifically as destinations in themselves, for example casinos and holiday resorts . Most hotel establishments are run by
6192-648: Is a type of short-stay hotel found around the world, operated primarily for the purpose of allowing guests privacy for sexual activities , typically for one to three hours, but with overnight as an option. Styles of premises vary from extremely low-end to extravagantly appointed. In Japan, love hotels have a history of over 400 years. In 2021 a New York-based company introduced new modular and movable hotel rooms which allow landowners and hospitality groups to create and easily scale hotel accommodations. The portable units can be built in three to five months and can be stacked to create multi-floor units. A referral hotel
6321-417: Is all your own; the rest of us have to content ourselves with at the best an approximation of what we see in the mind's eye. After one has got over the glamour of the stage and the excitement, I do not myself think the theatre has much to offer the writer compared with the other mediums in which he has complete independence and need consider no one. Maugham's thirty-second and last play was Sheppey (1933). It
6450-506: Is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a refrigerator , and other kitchen facilities, upholstered chairs, a television, and en-suite bathrooms . Small, lower-priced hotels may offer only the most basic guest services and facilities. Larger, higher-priced hotels may provide additional guest facilities such as
6579-880: Is built into the remains of an opal mine. Located on the coast but high above sea level, these hotels offer unobstructed panoramic views and a great sense of privacy without the feeling of total isolation. Some examples from around the globe are the Riosol Hotel in Gran Canaria, Caruso Belvedere Hotel in Amalfi Coast (Italy), Aman Resorts Amankila in Bali, Birkenhead House in Hermanus (South Africa), The Caves in Jamaica and Caesar Augustus in Capri. Capsule hotels are
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#17327653302906708-552: Is derived from the French hôtel (coming from the same origin as hospital ), which referred to a French version of a building seeing frequent visitors, and providing care, rather than a place offering accommodation. In contemporary French usage, hôtel now has the same meaning as the English term, and hôtel particulier is used for the old meaning, as well as "hôtel" in some place names such as Hôtel-Dieu (in Paris), which has been
6837-729: Is often determined by hotel ownership and managing companies. Boutique hotels are typically hotels with a unique environment or intimate setting. Some hotels have gained their renown through tradition, by hosting significant events or persons, such as Schloss Cecilienhof in Potsdam , Germany, which derives its fame from the Potsdam Conference of the World War II allies Winston Churchill , Harry Truman and Joseph Stalin in 1945. The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower in Mumbai
6966-890: Is one of India's most famous and historic hotels because of its association with the Indian independence movement . Some establishments have given name to a particular meal or beverage, as is the case with the Waldorf Astoria in New York City , United States where the Waldorf Salad was first created or the Hotel Sacher in Vienna , Austria, home of the Sachertorte . Others have achieved fame by association with dishes or cocktails created on their premises, such as
7095-517: Is owned by Qatar-based, government-owned Katara Hospitality . Raffles Hotel Singapore started as a privately owned beach house built in the early 1830s. It first became Emerson's Hotel when Dr. Charles Emerson leased the building in 1878. Upon his death in 1883, the hotel closed, and the Raffles Institution stepped in to use the building as a boarding house until Dr. Emerson's lease expired in September 1887. Almost immediately after
7224-812: The Amazon ; and Bayram's Tree Houses in Olympos , Turkey. Some hotels have accommodation underwater, such as Utter Inn in Lake Mälaren , Sweden. Hydropolis , project in Dubai , would have had suites on the bottom of the Persian Gulf , and Jules' Undersea Lodge in Key Largo , Florida , requires scuba diving to access its rooms. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham CH ( / m ɔː m / MAWM ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965)
7353-544: The French Riviera , where Maugham entertained lavishly. After Haxton's death in 1944, Alan Searle became Maugham's secretary-companion for the rest of the author's life. Maugham gave up writing novels shortly after the Second World War , and his last years were marred by senility. He died at the age of 91. William Somerset Maugham came from a family of lawyers. His grandfather, Robert Maugham (1788–1862),
7482-651: The George and the Tabard . A typical layout of an inn featured an inner court with bedrooms on the two sides, with the kitchen and parlour at the front and the stables at the back. For a period of about 200 years from the mid-17th century, coaching inns served as a place for lodging for coach travellers (in other words, a roadhouse ). Coaching inns stabled teams of horses for stagecoaches and mail coaches and replaced tired teams with fresh teams. Traditionally they were seven miles apart, but this depended very much on
7611-592: The Great Western Railway opened its line from London. The building still exists, and although it has been used for other purposes over the years, it is now again a hotel and a member of the Malmaison hotel chain . Frequently, expanding railway companies built grand hotels at their termini, such as the Midland Hotel, Manchester next to the former Manchester Central Station , and in London
7740-853: The Hotel de Paris where the crêpe Suzette was invented or the Raffles Hotel in Singapore , where the Singapore Sling cocktail was devised. A number of hotels have entered the public consciousness through popular culture, such as the Ritz Hotel in London , through its association with Irving Berlin's song, " Puttin' on the Ritz ". The Algonquin Hotel in New York City is famed as
7869-630: The Malay Peninsula , where they remained for six months. Maugham, as always, observed closely and collected material for his stories wherever they went. His fellow author Cyril Connolly wrote, "there will remain a story-teller's world from Singapore to the Marquesas that is exclusively and forever Maugham". In 1922–23 Maugham's next extended trip was in south and east Asia, with stops at Colombo, Rangoon, Mandalay , Bangkok and Hanoi. In Maugham's absence his wife found an occupation, becoming
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#17327653302907998-404: The Zola of the New Cut " – but thought him "capable of better things [than] this singularly unpleasant novel". The first print run sold out within three weeks and a reprint was quickly arranged. Maugham qualified as a physician the month after the publication of Liza of Lambeth but he immediately abandoned medicine and embarked on his 65-year career as a writer. He later said, "I took to it as
8127-522: The 19th century. Luxury hotels, including the 1829 Tremont House in Boston , the 1836 Astor House in New York City , the 1889 Savoy Hotel in London, and the Ritz chain of hotels in London and Paris in the late 1890s, catered to an ever more-wealthy clientele. Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is part of a United States law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, or national origin in places of public accommodation. Hotels are included as types of public accommodation in
8256-435: The 2000s as hotel chains have been building economy-priced, limited-service franchised properties at freeway exits which compete for largely the same clientele, largely saturating the market by the 1990s. Motels are still useful in less populated areas for driving travelers, but the more populated an area becomes, the more hotels move in to meet the demand for accommodation. While many motels are unbranded and independent, many of
8385-479: The Act. Hotels cater to travelers from many countries and languages, since no one country dominates the travel industry. Hotel operations vary in size, function, and cost. Most hotels and major hospitality companies that operate hotels have set widely accepted industry standards to classify hotel types. General categories include the following: International luxury hotels offer high-quality amenities, full-service accommodations, on-site full-service restaurants, and
8514-402: The Fairmont/Raffles brands were purchased by the French multinational hotel group AccorHotels . A major renovation of the hotel was undertaken starting January 2017, and the hotel closed in December 2017 to allow renovation work to proceed. The rooms were refurbished and soundproofed, and the number of suites increased from 103 to 115. New technologies were incorporated and a new marble floor
8643-402: The Far East together in 1919–20, keeping Maugham away from home for six months. In late 1920 Maugham and Haxton set out on a trip that lasted more than a year. In the US they spent time in Hollywood , which Maugham despised from the first, but found highly remunerative. They then visited San Francisco and sailed to Honolulu and Australia before the final leg of their voyage, to Singapore and
8772-473: The God in whom he had been taught to believe failed to answer his prayers for relief from his troubles. In his teens he became a lifelong non-believer. From 1885 to 1890 Maugham attended The King's School, Canterbury , where he was regarded as an outsider and teased for his poor English (French had been his first language), his short stature, his stammer, and his lack of interest in sport. He left as soon as he could, although he later developed an affection for
8901-504: The Hindu sage Ramana Maharishi at his ashram , and later used him as the model for the spiritual guru of his 1944 novel The Razor's Edge . Throughout the decade Maugham, with Haxton in attendance, lived and entertained lavishly at his house on Cap Ferrat, the Villa La Mauresque . His domestic staff there comprised thirteen servants. When the Second World War began in 1939 he stayed in his home as long as he could, but in June 1940 France surrendered; knowing himself to be proscribed by
9030-611: The Mammut Snow Hotel in Finland is located within the walls of the Kemi snow castle; and the Lainio Snow Hotel is part of a snow village near Ylläs , Finland. There is an arctic snowhotel in Rovaniemi in Lapland , Finland, along with glass igloos. The first glass igloos were built in 1999 in Finland , they became the Kakslauttanen Arctic Resort with 65 buildings, 53 small ones for two people and 12 large ones for four people. Glass igloos, with their roof made of thermal glass, allow guests to admire auroras comfortably from their beds. A love hotel (also 'love motel', especially in Taiwan)
9159-419: The Maugham family, as a villain"; Hastings labels him "a podgy Iago ... constantly briefing against [Syrie and Liza]", and quotes Alan Pryce-Jones 's summary: "an intriguer, a schemer with a keen eye to his own advantage, a troublemaker". Raphael calls him "a man of more reliable stamp" than Haxton; Meyers describes him as "sober, efficient, honest and gentle". Before returning to the south of France after
9288-578: The Nazis ( Joseph Goebbels denounced him personally) Maugham made his way to England in uncomfortable conditions on a coal freighter from Nice . Haxton, as a citizen of neutral America, was not in immediate peril from the Germans and remained at the villa, securing it and its contents as far as possible, before making his way via Lisbon to New York. Maugham spent most of the war years in the US, based for much of
9417-625: The Raffles Hotel, the Qatar Investment Authority would inject $ 467 million into Fairmont Raffles Hotels International in exchange for a 40% stake in the luxury hotel chain. At one time, Raffles Hotel maintained a hotel museum. It displayed memorabilia such as photographs, silver and china items, postcards and menus, as well as old and rare editions of the works of the famous writers who had stayed there. The museum also displayed photographs of its famous guests and visitors. The Raffles Hotel Museum closed in 2012. In December 2015,
9546-887: The Strip, with a total of over 67,000 rooms. The Null Stern Hotel in Teufen , Appenzellerland , Switzerland, and the Concrete Mushrooms in Albania are former nuclear bunkers transformed into hotels. The Cuevas Pedro Antonio de Alarcón (named after the author ) in Guadix , Spain, as well as several hotels in Cappadocia , Turkey, are notable for being built into natural cave formations, some with rooms underground. The Desert Cave Hotel in Coober Pedy , South Australia,
9675-565: The age of 91, of complications following a fall. He was cremated in Marseille on 20 December. Two days later his ashes were interred in the grounds of The King's School, Canterbury, beside the wall of the Maugham Library, which he had endowed in 1961. Morgan observes: Maugham, the disbeliever in ecclesiastical ritual, was buried without ritual but on hallowed ground. Canterbury was the shrine of Thomas à Becket , murdered in 1170 in
9804-404: The car park. Motels were built to serve road travellers, including travellers on road trip vacations and workers who drive for their job (travelling salespeople, truck drivers, etc.). Common during the 1950s and 1960s, motels were often located adjacent to a major highway, where they were built on inexpensive land at the edge of towns or along stretches of freeway. New motel construction is rare in
9933-548: The decade, and of his whole career, was Our Betters . It was written in 1915 and staged in New York in 1917, for a satisfactory but not unusual 112 performances, but when produced in the West End in 1923 it was played 548 times. In 1930 Maugham published the novel Cakes and Ale , regarded by Connon as the most likely of the author's works to survive. This book, described by Raphael as "an elegant piece of literary malice",
10062-576: The defining characteristic of a resort hotel is that it exists purely to serve another attraction, the two having the same owners. On the Las Vegas Strip there is a tradition of one-upmanship with luxurious and extravagant hotels in a concentrated area. This trend now has extended to other resorts worldwide, but the concentration in Las Vegas is still the world's highest: nineteen of the world's twenty-five largest hotels by room count are on
10191-492: The end to most dramatists, and they are wise to accept the warning. It is high time for them then to retire. I did so with relief." Raphael suggests that Maugham now wished to write to please himself rather than others. Maugham's days of lengthy trips to distant places were mostly behind him, but at Kipling's suggestion he sailed to the West Indies in 1936. The British colonies there failed to provide him with anything like
10320-673: The first hotels in a modern sense was opened in Exeter in 1768. Hotels proliferated throughout Western Europe and North America in the early 19th century, and luxury hotels began to spring up in the later part of the 19th century, particularly in the United States. Hotel operations vary in size, function, complexity, and cost. Most hotels and major hospitality companies have set industry standards to classify hotel types. An upscale full-service hotel facility offers luxury amenities, full-service accommodations, an on-site restaurant , and
10449-452: The first lease expired, the Sarkies Brothers leased the property from Syed Mohamed Alsagoff, its owner, with the intention of turning it into a high-end hotel. A few months later, on 1 December 1887, the ten-room Raffles Hotel opened. Its proximity to the beach and its reputation for high standards in services and accommodations made the hotel popular with wealthy clientele. Within the hotel's first decade, three new buildings were added on to
10578-414: The greatest mistake in his life. He told his nephew Robin , "I tried to persuade myself that I was three-quarters normal and that only a quarter of me was queer – whereas really it was the other way round". In 1913 he proposed to the actress Sue Jones, daughter of the playwright Henry Arthur Jones ; she declined his offer. In 1914 he began an affair with Syrie Wellcome , whom he had known since 1910. She
10707-565: The highest level of personalized and professional service in major or capital cities . International luxury hotels are classified with at least a Five Diamond rating or Five Star hotel rating depending on the country and local classification standards. Example brands include: Grand Hyatt , Conrad , InterContinental , Sofitel , Mandarin Oriental , Four Seasons , The Peninsula , Rosewood , JW Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton . Lifestyle luxury resorts are branded hotels that appeal to
10836-443: The highest level of personalized service, such as a concierge , room service , and clothes-ironing staff. Full-service hotels often contain upscale full-service facilities with many full-service accommodations, an on-site full-service restaurant , and a variety of on-site amenities . Boutique hotels are smaller independent, non-branded hotels that often contain upscale facilities. Small to medium-sized hotel establishments offer
10965-813: The historical novel Catalina . He took part in the adaptation for the cinema of some of his short stories, Quartet (1948), Trio (1950) and Encore (1951), in all of which he appeared, contributing on-screen introductions. He did the same on American television, introducing the Somerset Maugham Theater series, which a reviewer said enjoyed "tremendous popularity ... and has won for him an audience of millions of enthusiastic fans". Maugham made many subsequent visits to London, including one for his daughter's second marriage in July 1948, where, in Hastings's words, "with professional ease he acted
11094-411: The hotel was restored to the grand style of its 1915 heyday, significant changes were made. All guest rooms were converted to suites. In addition, Long Bar, which was a favorite spot of celebrities such as Somerset Maugham , was relocated from the lobby to a new adjoining shopping arcade. The Long Bar is notable for patrons' unusual practice of throwing peanut casings onto the floor. Long Bar is also where
11223-425: The initial reviews were favourable but many, both in Britain and in the US, were unenthusiastic. The New York World described the romantic obsession of the protagonist as "the sentimental servitude of a poor fool". The tide of opinion was turned by the influential American novelist and critic Theodore Dreiser , who called Maugham a great artist and the book a work of genius, of the utmost importance, comparable to
11352-524: The insulation values of the walls it needs no conventional heating or air conditioning system, although the Maya Guesthouse is built at an altitude of 1,300 metres (4,300 ft) in the Alps. Transit hotels are short stay hotels typically used at international airports where passengers can stay while waiting to change airplanes. The hotels are typically on the airside and do not require a visa for
11481-416: The last twenty years has something to do with him". Even before Haxton's mortal illness, Maugham had already chosen a replacement as secretary-companion, in anticipation that Haxton would not return to live at La Mauresque. This was Alan Searle , whom Maugham had known since 1928, when Searle was twenty-three. He came from Bermondsey , a poor district of London. Morgan describes him: ... the son of
11610-420: The long lost original drawings of Raffles Hotel, hidden in a Singaporean archive. That year these drawings were published for the first time in the book The Raffles Treasury . Raffles Hotel was declared a National Monument by the Singapore government in 1987. In 1989, the hotel closed to undergo an extensive renovation that lasted two years and cost $ 160 million. The hotel reopened on 16 September 1991. While
11739-675: The material he had gathered in the Asian outposts in the 1920s, but the French penal settlement on Devil's Island furnished him with some stories. During a visit to India in 1938 he found his interest prompted less by the British expatriates than by Indian philosophers and ascetics: "As soon as the Maharajas realized that I didn't want to go on tiger hunts but that I was interested in seeing poets and philosophers they were very helpful." He visited
11868-486: The medical profession, and Maugham's uncle agreed. Maugham, who had been writing steadily since he was 15, intended to make his career as an author, but he dared not tell his guardian. From 1892 until he qualified in 1897, he studied medicine at St Thomas's Hospital Medical School in Lambeth . In his work as a medical student Maugham met the poorest working-class people: "I was in contact with what I most wanted, life in
11997-536: The meeting place of the literary group, the Algonquin Round Table , and Hotel Chelsea , also in New York City, has been the subject of a number of songs and the scene of the stabbing of Nancy Spungen (allegedly by her boyfriend Sid Vicious ). Some hotels are built specifically as a destination in itself to create a captive trade, example at casinos , amusement parks and holiday resorts . Though hotels have always been built in popular destinations,
12126-629: The mid-18th century, and consequently grew in grandeur and in the level of service provided. Sudhir Andrews traces "the birth of an organised hotel industry" to Europe's chalets and small hotels which catered primarily to aristocrats. One of the first hotels in a modern sense, the Royal Clarence , opened in Exeter in 1768, although the idea only really caught on in the early-19th century. In 1812 Mivart's Hotel opened its doors in London , later changing its name to Claridge's . Hotels proliferated throughout Western Europe and North America in
12255-607: The more prestigious and exclusive British honour, the Order of Merit , saying to friends that the CH "means 'Well done, but ...'". There is some suggestion that his known homosexuality may have militated against his receiving the higher honour. In the post-war era, Maugham settled into a pattern of life that changed little from year to year: Winter and spring at the Mauresque, a few weeks of foreign travel (Austria, Italy, Spain) with
12384-626: The narrow-minded provincialism of nineteenth-century small-town English life". He found his uncle and aunt well-meaning but remote by contrast with the loving warmth of his home in Paris; he became shy and developed a stammer that stayed with him all his life. In a 2004 biography of Maugham, Jeffrey Meyers comments, "His stammer, a psychological and physical handicap, and his gradual awareness of his homosexuality made him furtive and secretive". Maugham's biographer Selina Hastings describes as "the first step in Maugham's loss of faith" his disillusion when
12513-412: The national cocktail, the Singapore Sling , was invented by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon. On 18 July 2005, it was announced that Colony Capital LLC would purchase Raffles Holdings the entire chain of Raffles Hotels, which included the Raffles Hotel, for $ 1.45 billion. In April 2010, it was reported that a Qatari sovereign wealth fund bought Raffles Hotel for $ 275 million. In addition to taking over
12642-435: The norms of his day. After a three-year affair with Syrie Wellcome which produced their daughter, Liza , they married in 1917. The marriage lasted for twelve years, but before, during and after it, Maugham's principal partner was a younger man, Gerald Haxton . Together they made extended visits to Asia, the South Seas and other destinations; Maugham gathered material for his fiction wherever they went. They lived together in
12771-495: The oldest hotel in the world. During the Middle Ages , various religious orders at monasteries and abbeys would offer accommodation for travellers on the road. The precursor to the modern hotel was the inn of medieval Europe , possibly dating back to the rule of Ancient Rome . These would provide for the needs of travellers, including food and lodging, stabling and fodder for the traveller's horses and fresh horses for mail coaches . Famous London examples of inns include
12900-606: The ones above St Pancras railway station and Charing Cross railway station . London also has the Chiltern Court Hotel above Baker Street tube station , there are also Canada's grand railway hotels . They are or were mostly, but not exclusively, used by those traveling by rail. The Maya Guesthouse in Nax Mont-Noble in the Swiss Alps, is the first hotel in Europe built entirely with straw bales. Due to
13029-420: The original beach house. Designed by architect Regent Alfred John Bidwell of Swan and Maclaren , it was completed in 1899. The new main building offered numerous state-of-the-art (for the time) features, including powered ceiling fans and electric lights. In fact, the Raffles Hotel was the first hotel in the region to have electric lights. The hotel continued to expand over the years with the addition of wings,
13158-465: The original beach house. First, a pair of two-story wings were completed in 1890, each containing 22 guest suites. Soon afterward, the Sarkies Brothers leased a neighboring building at No. 3 Beach Road, renovated it, and in 1894, the Palm Court Wing was completed. The new additions brought the hotel's total guest rooms to 75. A few years later, a new main building was constructed on the site of
13287-517: The other motels which remain in operation joined national franchise chains, often rebranding themselves as hotels, inns or lodges. Some examples of chains with motels include EconoLodge , Motel 6 , Super 8 , and Travelodge . Motels in some parts of the world are more often regarded as places for romantic assignations where rooms are often rented by the hour. This is fairly common in parts of Latin America . Hotels may offer rooms for microstays ,
13416-498: The outside world". Maugham wrote of Haxton: He had an amiability of disposition that enabled him in a very short time to make friends with people in ships, clubs, bar-rooms, and hotels, so that through him I was able to get into easy contact with an immense number of persons whom otherwise I should have known only from a distance. After the South Seas trip Maugham visited the US and was joined by Syrie. In May 1917 they married at
13545-629: The part of proud father, managed to be civil to Syrie, and made a creditable speech at the reception at Claridge's afterwards". During a visit in 1954 he was invested as a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) by the Queen at a private audience in Buckingham Palace . He was widely understood in literary circles to have turned down a knighthood and to have hankered after
13674-454: The popular Ethel Irving in the title role. It ran for 422 performances at five different West End theatres. By the next year, while the run of Lady Frederick continued, Maugham had three other plays running simultaneously in London. Maugham later said that he made comparatively little money from this unprecedented theatrical achievement, but it made his reputation. Punch printed a cartoon of Shakespeare's ghost looking concerned about
13803-607: The raw". In maturity, he recalled the value of his experiences: "I saw how men died. I saw how they bore pain. I saw what hope looked like, fear and relief; I saw the dark lines that despair drew on a face." Maugham took rooms in Westminster , across the Thames from the hospital. He made himself comfortable there, filled many notebooks with literary ideas, and continued writing nightly, while studying for his medical degree. In 1897 he published his first novel, Liza of Lambeth ,
13932-518: The region. He was reunited with Haxton, who joined him as secretary-companion. In addition to his intelligence work, Maugham gathered material for his fiction wherever he went. He was, by his own account, not a particularly imaginative or inventive person, but he studied people and places and used them, sometimes with minimal alteration or disguise, in his stories. He was helped in this by Haxton – extrovert and gregarious in contrast with Maugham's shyness – who became what Morgan terms an "intermediary with
14061-428: The same childhood misfortunes as Maugham himself: the loss of his mother, the breakup of his family home, and his emotionally straitened upbringing by elderly relatives. In addition, Carey has a club foot , a disability which commentators equate with either Maugham's stammer or his homosexuality. According to some of Maugham's intimates, the main female character, the manipulative Mildred, was based on "a youth, probably
14190-489: The school, and became a generous benefactor. A modest legacy from his father enabled him to go to Heidelberg University to study. His aunt, who was German, arranged accommodation for him, and aged sixteen he travelled to Germany. For the next year and a half he studied literature, philosophy and German. During his time in Heidelberg he had his first sexual affair; it was with John Ellingham Brooks , an Englishman ten years his senior. Brooks encouraged Maugham's ambitions to be
14319-589: The south of France. They divorced in 1929. During the 1920s Maugham published one novel ( The Painted Veil , (1925)), three books of short stories ( The Trembling of a Leaf (1921), The Casuarina Tree (1926) and Ashenden (1928)) and a travel book ( On a Chinese Screen , (1922)) but much of his work was for the theatre. He wrote seven plays during the decade: The Unknown (1920), The Circle (1921), East of Suez (1922), The Camel's Back (1923), The Constant Wife (1926), The Letter (1927) and The Sacred Flame (1928). His longest-running play of
14448-426: The terrain. Some English towns had as many as ten such inns and rivalry between them became intense, not only for the income from the stagecoach operators but for the revenue from the food and drink supplied to the wealthy passengers. By the end of the century, coaching inns were being run more professionally, with a regular timetable being followed and fixed menus for food. Inns began to cater to richer clients in
14577-551: The time at a comfortable house on the estate of his American publisher, Nelson Doubleday . His lifestyle was modest: he felt that despite his considerable wealth he should not live luxuriously while Britain was enduring wartime privations. He saw little of Haxton, who undertook war work in Washington DC. As always, Maugham wrote continually. His daily routine was to write between an early breakfast and lunchtime, after which he entertained himself. His most substantial book from
14706-622: The ubiquity of Maugham's plays. Between 1908 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Maugham wrote a further eight plays, but his stage successes did not completely distract him from writing novels. His supernatural thriller The Magician (1908) had a principal character modelled on Aleister Crowley , a well-known occultist . Crowley took offence and wrote a critique of the novel in Vanity Fair , charging Maugham with "varied, shameless and extensive" plagiarism. Maugham
14835-482: The war years was The Razor's Edge ; he found writing it unusually tiring – he was seventy when it was completed – and vowed it would be the last long novel he wrote. Haxton was holding down a responsible job in Washington and enjoying his new independence and self-reliance. Maugham was happy for him and was reconciled to the possibility of returning to La Mauresque without him after the war. The possibility became
14964-532: The war, Maugham travelled to England and lived in London until the end of 1946. While there, he established and endowed the Somerset Maugham Award , to be administered by the Society of Authors and given annually for a work of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry written by a British subject under the age of thirty-five. After returning to Cap Ferrat he completed his last full-length work of fiction,
15093-412: Was Frederick Gerald Haxton , a young San Franciscan, who became his lover and companion for the next thirty years, but the affair between Maugham and Syrie Wellcome continued. In the weeks before the war began, Maugham had been completing his novel Of Human Bondage , a Bildungsroman with substantial autobiographical elements. The critic John Sutherland says of it: The hero, Philip Carey, suffers
15222-402: Was a departure from his previous style; its moral ambiguity and equivocal ending puzzled the critics and the public. Despite some help from Coward in the drafting and having Ralph Richardson as star and John Gielgud as director, it ran for a modest 83 performances. Maugham later wrote, "I grew conscious that I was no longer in touch with the public that patronises the theatre. This happens in
15351-435: Was a lie. Hastings quotes a contemporary's view that Kear was Maugham's revenge on Walpole for "a stolen boyfriend, an unrequited love and an old canker of jealousy". By the early 1930s Maugham had grown tired of the theatre. He told Noël Coward in 1933: I am done with playwriting. ... I cannot tell you how I loathe the theatre. It is all very well for you, you are author, actor and producer. What you give an audience
15480-577: Was a prominent solicitor and co-founder of the Law Society of England and Wales . Maugham's father, Robert Ormond Maugham (1823–1884), was a prosperous solicitor, based in Paris; his wife, Edith Mary, née Snell, lived most of her life in France, where all the couple's children were born. Robert Maugham handled the legal affairs of the British Embassy there, as his eldest surviving son, Charles, later did. The second son, Frederic , became
15609-464: Was acutely conscious of the fate of Oscar Wilde , whose arrest and imprisonment took place when Maugham was in his early twenties. Lifelong, Maugham was highly reticent about homosexual encounters, but it was thought by at least two of his lovers that at this period in his life he had recourse to young male prostitutes. Nevertheless he had a wish to marry, which he later greatly regretted. Looking back, he described his early attempts to be heterosexual as
15738-479: Was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German university. He became a medical student in London and qualified as a physician in 1897. He never practised medicine, and became a full-time writer. His first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), a study of life in the slums, attracted attention, but it
15867-911: Was as a playwright that he first achieved national celebrity. By 1908 he had four plays running at once in the West End of London. He wrote his 32nd and last play in 1933, after which he abandoned the theatre and concentrated on novels and short stories. Maugham's novels after Liza of Lambeth include Of Human Bondage (1915), The Moon and Sixpence (1919), The Painted Veil (1925), Cakes and Ale (1930) and The Razor's Edge (1944). His short stories were published in collections such as The Casuarina Tree (1926) and The Mixture as Before (1940); many of them have been adapted for radio, cinema and television. His great popularity and prodigious sales provoked adverse reactions from highbrow critics, many of whom sought to belittle him as merely competent. More recent assessments generally rank Of Human Bondage –
15996-456: Was installed. Its various food and beverage outlets were revamped, and the Writer's Bar formerly in a corner of the lobby given its own space. Its former Jubilee Theatre was transformed into a ballroom. The hotel reopened on 1 August 2019. Raffles Hotel has a shopping arcade with 40 speciality boutiques. The arcade also houses most of the hotel's restaurants. Luxury hotel A hotel
16125-489: Was legally the daughter of Henry Wellcome, although he had not seen his wife for many years. He successfully sued for divorce in 1916, citing Maugham as co-respondent . After the birth of his daughter, Maugham moved to Switzerland. His fluency in French and German was an advantage, and for a year he worked in Geneva – at his own expense – as an agent for the British Secret Service . He was recruited by Sir John Wallinger ,
16254-569: Was married to the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome , but the couple had formally separated in 1909, after which she had a succession of partners, including the retailer Harry Gordon Selfridge . By 1914 Maugham was famous, with thirteen plays and eight novels completed. Too old to enlist when the First World War broke out, he served in France as a volunteer ambulance driver for the British Red Cross . Among his colleagues
16383-491: Was refused admission to the country. The lifelong ban followed his arrest and trial over a homosexual incident in 1915. He was acquitted, but was nonetheless registered as an "undesirable alien". When in Britain, Maugham lived with his wife at their house in Marylebone , but the couple were temperamentally incompatible, and their relationship grew increasingly fractious. He spent much time travelling with Haxton. They visited
16512-651: Was renamed Syonan Ryokan ( 昭南旅館 , shōnan ryokan ) , incorporating Syonan ("Light of the South"), the Japanese name for occupied Singapore, and ryokan , the name for a traditional Japanese inn. The hotel was reclaimed in 1945 during Operation Tiderace by the British Navy. Stanley Redington raised the British Naval Jack on top of the Raffles Hotel. In 1987, a century after it first opened, Austrian writer and researcher Andreas Augustin discovered
16641-531: Was to counter German propaganda, and to encourage the moderate republican Russian government under Alexander Kerensky to continue fighting. He arrived in Petrograd in August, too late to influence the outcome: in November, Kerensky was supplanted by Lenin and the Bolsheviks , who took Russia out of the war. By that time Maugham was ill with tuberculosis. He returned to Britain and spent three months in
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