Book excerpt: W. Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest short story writers in English literature. His complex characters and fascinating themes haunt people long after they are finished with reading his works. Maugham's stories mostly deal with lives of Western, mostly British, colonists in the Pacific Islands and Asia. They typically express the emotional toll the colonists bear by their isolation. Rain and Outstation are considered especially notable. This edition includes: The Punctiliousness of Don Sebastian A Bad Example De Amicitia Faith The Choice of Amyntas Daisy The Pacific Mackintosh The Fall of Edward Barnard Red The Pool Honolulu Rain Envoi Before the Party P. & O. The Outstation The Force of Circumstance The Yellow Streak The Letter A Marriage of Convenience The Happy Couple The Mother Red The Taipan Jane Mayhew German Harry In a Strange Land The Luncheon The Round Dozen The Happy Man Mr Know-All The Ant and the Grasshopper The End of the Flight The Consul The Creative Impulse