W. Somerset Maugham Liza of Lambeth

 Down among the drab slums of Lambeth, eighteen-year-old Liza is the darling of Vere Street. Vibrant and bewitching, she has found an adoring if conventional beau in Tom. When she meets Jim Blakeston, a married man new to the area, she is immediately magnetized by his attentions But the streets are wise to their passionate affair and before long the secret is out. Written while Maugham was a medical student, and his first published novel, Liza of Lambeth is a vividly realistic portrayal of slum life.