Maugham found a parallel to the turmoil of our own times in the duplicity, intrigue and sensuality of the Italian Renaissance.Then and Nowenters the world of Machiavelli, and covers three important months in the career of that crafty politician, worldly seducer and high priest of schemers.

William Somerset Maugham was born in 1874 and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with the idea of practising medicine, but the success of his first novel,Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to literature.Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 ofThe Moon and Sixpencehis reputation as a novelist was established. At the same time his fame as a successful playwright and writer was being consolidated with acclaimed productions of various plays and the publication of several short story collections. His other works include travel books, essays, criticism and the autobiographicalThe Summing UpandA Writer's Notebook. In 1927 Somerset Maugham settled in the South of France and lived there until his death in 1965.

Stunningly written and cleverly done, Maugham masters the enthralling and shocking world of Machievelli.