Liza of Lambeth, W. Somerset Maugham?s first novel, offers insight into the everyday lives of working-class Londoners at the turn of the 20th century. Liza Kemp is an 18-year-old girl working in a factory in the Lambeth slum along London?s Vere Street. As Liza enters into a misguided affair with an older, married man, Jim Blakeston, the novel reveals the tragedies and abuses suffered by those living in poverty. A mood of subdued acceptance of one?s life conditions prevails in this novel, which sparked the literary career of one of England?s most successful authors of the 20th century.