Books: Old Hand, Old Stuff

CREATURES OF CIRCUMSTANCE (314 pp.)—W. Somerset Maugham—Doubleday ($2.75).

W. Somerset Maugham wrote, at 65: "The profession of authorship is on the whole a healthy one and authors are apt to live on long after they have given the world whatever of significance they had to offer." Still healthy at 73, "Willie" Maugham finds the manufacture of short stones without significance a habit he can't shuck.*

In this latest collection of magazine stories, Creatures of Circumstance, his yarns are as well made as ever, and as full of Maugham's slick brand of irony. Readers will find them useful on long train rides; it...