The Bishop's Apron

Canon Spratte is an important man...most of all in his own mind. He is the son of a Lord Chancellor, which alone should assure him the position to which he knows he is entitled. He deserves to be the next Bishop of Sheffield.


Spratte never concealed from the world that he rated himself highly. He esteemed bashfulness a sign of bad manners, and used to say that a man who pretended not to know his own value was a fool.  He knows theoretically that others might not share his good opinion of himself, but he is amazed to find his own family among them...


"The Bishop’s Apron" is one of W. Somerset Maugham’s early novels. It has a curious history of being transferred from one genre to another. The skeleton of the story is already present in the story “Cupid and the Vicar of Swale”. Then it was written as a novel called "Loaves and Fishes". When it failed to find a publisher, Maugham rewrote it into a play of the same name. However, its fortunes didn’t improve and it had to wait for three years until Maugham, as he declared, needed money to entertain the extravagance of a certain young person.  He consequently rewrote the play into a novel, which became The Bishop’s Apron.