Now a major motion picture from USA Films starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Sean Penn, and director Philip Haas (director of Angels and Insects). In Up at the Villa, W. Somerset Maugham portrays a wealthy young English woman who finds herself confronted rather brutally by the repercussions of whimsy. On the day her older and prosperous friend asks her to marry him, Mary Leonard demurs and decides to postpone her reply a few days. But driving into the hills above Florence alone that evening, Mary offers a ride to a handsome stranger. And suddenly, her life is utterly, irrevocably altered. For this stranger is a refugee of war, and he harbors more than one form of passion. Before morning, Mary will witness bloodshed, she will be forced to seek advice and assistance from an unsavory man, and she will have to face the truth about her own yearnings. Erotic, haunting, and maddeningly suspenseful, Up at the Villa is a masterful tale of temptation and the capricious nature of fate.

萨默塞特·毛姆,二十世纪英国最重要、也是最知名的作家之一。一八七四年出生于法国巴黎,二十三岁即以第一本小说《兰白斯的丽莎》一鸣惊人,一九一五年的《人生的枷锁》与九一九年的《月亮与六便士》,则更确立了他在文坛的地位。他也是一位成功的剧作家,编写的舞台剧在当时伦敦的卖座程度与萧伯纳不遑多让。

毛姆的一生多彩多姿,几乎游遍世界各地, 次世界大战时曾担任情报员,战后游踪更广,最后在法国南部定居,直至一九六五年去世为止。

毛姆著作甚丰,无论是小说、剧本、评论、随笔、游记和回忆录都广受好评,一九六一年与福斯特(《印度之旅》作者)同获英国皇家“文学勋章”最高荣耀。毛姆的小说多以异国为背景,处理情节的技巧十分精练,善于营造悬疑气氛,而对于女性内心的描写更见细腻,处处展露出对于人性的洞察。其他作品尚有《兼差密谍阿申登》、《刀锋》、《饼与酒》、《书与你》、《毛姆写作回忆录》、《巨匠与杰作》等。