W. Somerset Maugham 
Christmas Holiday 

A coming-of-age novel that moves from genteel British society to the grim underworld of Paris before the war.

At the age of twenty-three, Charlie Mason is endowed with good looks, good manners and a cheerful disposition. Following three years at Cambridge and one working in his father»s business, he is looking forward to a jaunt in Paris with one of his oldest friends. Yet Paris is not what he expects — in just a few days his young eyes are opened to the tragedies and ugly dramas of its underworld.