An extraordinarily popular author during his lifetime W. Somerset Maugham created a literary legacy that includes such classics as The Moon and Sixpence and The Razor' s Edge. Maugham' s first novel Liza of Lambeth is the story of 18-year-old Liza Kemp a London factory worker near the beginning of the 20th century who falls deeply in love with a 40-year-old father of nine children. As the affair escalates Liza pays little mind to the damage her reputation is suffering. But society becomes increasingly troubled by the relationship.