8vo. 6pp. publisher's ads at end. (Some marginal browning to several leaves.) Original pictorial green cloth gilt, with a design on the upper cover by Henry Bishop (rebacked, covers worn and stained, hinges reinforced, endpapers renewed); slipcase. Provenance: Mabel Maugham (née Beldy), wife of Maugham's brother (author's inscription); Craig V. Showalter (bookplate).

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, OF THE AUTHOR'S FIRST BOOK. INSCRIBED BY MAUGHAM TO MABEL BELDY: "Mabel, With the author's love, August 30, 97." Beldy (1874-1972) was the daughter of the artist Heywood Hardy and the wife of Maugham's elder brother Charles Ormond Maugham.

Maugham’s first novel, set in the slums of Lambeth, was informed by his time as a medical student at St. Thomas’ Hospital, where his firsthand exposure to the borough’s working-class life lent the narrative its striking realism. A lurid and immensely popular tale of adultery and its consequences, it remains one of his most vivid early works. ONE OF SIX COPIES PRESENTED BY THE PUBLISHER TO MAUGHAM (see Morgan, pp.32-33, 56). Stott A1a.