W. Somerset Maugham

About W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) was a prolific English writer, renowned for his novels, short stories, and plays, which often explored themes of human nature, morality, and travel across global settings. His significant contribution to 20th-century literature-including works like Of Human Bondage and The Razor's Edge-is recognized by the Pantheon project, which ranks him at an HPI Rank of #977 among history's most influential figures.

Despite this historical importance, Maugham's modern digital presence shows a relative disconnect: he accumulated 417K annualized Wikipedia pageviews in 2025. This places his online attention roughly on par with his historical influence, suggested by his near 1x Attention Gap score. To provide context, figures ranked significantly higher in importance, such as Honorius (#572), garnered only 120K views in the same period, indicating that Maugham is attracting more attention than some more historically weighted individuals.

However, the trend suggests his current internet footprint is shrinking. His pageviews have declined by 18.2% year-over-year, and his Q1 versus Q3 momentum shows a further 14% drop, suggesting a consistent cooling of contemporary online curiosity surrounding the author.