英国著名作家威廉·萨姆赛特·毛姆(1874—1965)一生著作颇丰,他的许多作品雅俗共赏,影响深远。毛姆的作品几乎从不涉及敏感的政治问题和时代主题,但是很多作品都对人性主题进行了形象的刻画。在他的作品里,人性的阴暗面被赤裸裸地展现在读者面前。白先勇就曾说过,一个伟大的作家应该是一个描写人性的作家。毛姆自己也说过,“我所做的只不过是把许多作家观察到了而不愿意公布于众的人类特性揭露出来而已。人类最令我困惑的就是人性的矛盾[1] The famous English writer William Samset Maugham (1874-1965) has a long history of writing, and many of his works have a far-reaching influence on both the public and the popular. Maugham’s works almost never involve sensitive political issues and theme of the times, but many works have portrayed the theme of human nature. In his work, the dark side of humanity is exposed nakedly to the reader. Bai Xiangyong once said that a great writer should be a humanistic writer. Maugham himself said, ”All I did was reveal the human characteristics that many writers observed and did not want to make publicly available to me. What puzzled me most was the contradiction between humanity [1]