Creatures of Circumstance begins with an explanation from the author telling how this collection came about. He states that he "has never pretended to be anything but a story teller. It has amused me to tell stories and I have told a great many. It is a misfortune for me that the telling of a story just for the sake of the story is not an activity that is in favor with the intelligentsia. I endeavor to bear my misfortunes with fortitude." The short stories in this extraordinary collection—with the exception of one—were written after the close of World War I. Maugham shrewdly and brilliantly exploited the public taste of his time to put on display the changing morality of the twentieth century. An expert storyteller, he was also a master of fictional technique. His fiction offers a synthesis of pleasures in the form of realism, exoticism, shrewd and ironic observation, careful craftsmanship, and characterization. Among the stories included in Creatures of Circumstance are "The Colonel’s Lady," "Flotsam and Jetsam," "Sanatorium," "Appearance and Reality," "The Point of Honor," "A Woman of Fifty," "The Man from Glasgow," and "The Kite."

Product Description: After a brief escape from the summer heat, Olivia Greyson returns to find the safe at The Gingerbread House stuffed with unfamiliar cookie cutters. They're part of a priceless set owned by former local Greta Oskarson, who has come back in hopes that Olivia will broker their sale...read more

Product Description: Olivia Greyson is the proud owner of The Gingerbread House--a quaint shop that specializes in all things cookie--and her best friend, Maddie, is her sidekick, baking up scrumptious treats for their cookie-themed parties. But a dead body on their front porch might put their bake shop in a truly sticky situation...read more

Product Description: Tensions are running high as Chatterley Heights? 250th birthday celebration approaches. Gingerbread House cookie shop owner Olivia Greyson and her sidekick, Maddie, are working feverishly on a gingerbread model of the Chatterley Mansion...read more

Product Description: One morning, the lawn outside Olivia Grayson?s Gingerbread House cookie shop is covered with flyers reading SUGAR KILLS. Assuming they were put there by Charlene Critch, owner of The Vegetable Plate, Livie heads there to find the place trashed with a man running out the back door...read more

Product Description: No one is more shocked than Olivia Greyson when prominent business owner Clarisse Chamberlain is found dead. It was Clarisse who encouraged Olivia to open the Gingerbread House -- and she was one of her best customers. The sheriff is ready to call the case an accident, but Olivia disagrees...read more

Product Description: Cookie Dough or Die