--- product_id: 4445108 title: "UP at the Villa" brand: "vintage" price: "SAR 59" currency: SAR in_stock: true reviews_count: 22 category: "Book" url: https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/4445108-up-at-the-villa store_origin: SA region: Saudi Arabia --- # UP at the Villa **Brand:** vintage **Price:** SAR 59 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** UP at the Villa by vintage - **How much does it cost?** SAR 59 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.sa](https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/4445108-up-at-the-villa) ## Best For - vintage enthusiasts ## Why This Product - Trusted vintage brand quality - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description UP at the Villa ## Images ![UP at the Villa - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/915KtoE7A0L.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ I’ve been reading a great deal of W *by J***T on Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2015* I’ve been reading a great deal of W. Somerset Maugham lately; and I daresay it will continue. His tales of the human condition – of heartfelt mistakes and foolish blunders – juxtaposed against the matter-of-factness of imperialism in turn of the century Victorian England make for charming stories. They are so naturally international – about a time when Englanders thought of the world as their own and acted accordingly – that they teem with an unpretentious multi-culturalism.These days we are accustomed to reading political thrillers or crime stories set against the backdrop of this-or-that exotic location; authors attempting to prove their grandiloquence through expert, almost surgical use of the foreign. As if to show that simply through their ability to write about a dark corner of the world, the significance of their book is proven; and their use of these locations as the backdrop for grand moments of imperial import – this time American – confirm the multi-culturalism of the American artist in the new world. Yet somehow they do not ring true; they seem contrived, thereby losing their worth.Maugham’s novels shine because they do no emphasize the exotic in far-away places and try and shock with bizarre cultural rituals or the important geopolitical realities of life lived in significance in faraway places. His novels are in fact the opposite, as they emphasize the constancy of British civilization which was effortlessly employed even in the furthest corners of her empire.His stories are those of everyday British citizens who live ordinary lives – fraught with mischief and mistakes – as they carry out their business, live and love. In Up at the Villa, Maugham tells a story about a woman widowed from an unsatisfying marriage and who makes a careless mistake while on holiday in Florence that upends her life entirely. Rain is the story of a British missionary returning from furlough to his mission in the South Sea Islands when he confronts a worthy adversary in the form of a harlot from Hawaii and is bested in his attempts to convert her. Mackintosh is the tale of a colonial administrator of a small island in the pacific who misinterprets the changing times, and loses his life in the process.And there are many, many others.Each of these stories is so full of humanity, abounding in emotion and passion for life lived more abundantly; of the richness offered by the world around us; lives a spirit occasionally sweet but more often with a bitter bouquet, served indiscriminately in chalices both simple and majestic. Of the potential for great opportunity and of failure; of the ecstasy of forbidden and sometimes sordid love and the promise of redemption or at least the gentle salve of forgetting. These are Maugham’s stories, upon a canvas as vast as the world around us.I hope you pick up a book by W. Somerset Maugham, to find as I often do a new perspective or a refreshing moment. You will find yourself better for it. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "Up at The Villa" is a wonderful, entertaining *by J***O on Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2018* W. Somerset Maugham's, "Up at The Villa" is a wonderful, entertaining, thought provoking novel. Mary Panton, a wealthy, beautiful English widow, lives in her friend's villa overlooking Florence, Italy. In a strange twist of fate, the very thing she jokes about a few hours earlier suddenly becomes a nightmarish reality. The novel is amazingly suspenseful, lucid, and beautifully written. I highly enjoyed this novel. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A window to the past. *by A***R on Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2013* My first reaction was a yawn........not much happening here! The slow, deep rhythms of rich storytelling soon caught me and carried me into a recreation of the slower, more innocent time before television, before the frenetic mental functioning of the one minute ad and the 10 minute story entered our lives. These experiences and responses are those of a culture unchallenged by want of luxury and not blunted by cinematic carnage and bad behavior, people who are between wars and shocked that they should be restricted by crass politics. And so we have a story of a woman as innocent as a child in her depravity, as blind as possible in her choices......still a story told with recognition of beauty. The story itself is, however, blind in it's own time.....a writer of today would see the enabler in her, and understand the probable end of her romantic decision to leave with a man who has already hit her once and does not pretend to much of anything good. Excellent book if you are able to stand outside your "modern self" for a time. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/4445108-up-at-the-villa](https://www.desertcart.com.sa/products/4445108-up-at-the-villa) --- *Product available on Desertcart Saudi Arabia* *Store origin: SA* *Last updated: 2026-05-03*