Cakes and Ale

“Pies and Beer, or the Skeleton in the Closet” is one of Maugham’s best-known novels. Immediately after its publication, readers and critics unanimously ranked it among the best works by the author. This is a sarcastic tale about the literary “afterlife” of British authors. At the center of the novel is the fate of a talented writer and his wife, set against the literary milieu of that time.