ABSTRACT

Somerset Maugham, one of the most popular and successful authors of the twentieth century, felt that he could not write honestly about the type of love which he knew best, homosexual love. For the homosexual to become public, to come out of the closet, entails much more than simply saying, “I am gay.” Many people never progress beyond the denial stage, and these people often become the most homophobic individuals, denouncing homosexuality as an evil, and fearing their own repressed desires. Those who have gone through the anguish of coming out of the closet find themselves changed since the process is somewhat similar to a religious conversion. Without the proselytizing of converts, there is no movement. It is still a particularly painful process to emerge from the closet, more painful than it was for Somerset Maugham to keep his homosexual identity secret.