I came to Cakes and Ale not with a sense of moral urgency, but with a cup of tea and a faint suspicion that I was about to be gently mocked. That suspicion, as it turns out, is the correct posture in which to approach W. Somerset Maugham. One doesn’t read Maugham expecting thunderbolts from … Continue reading Cakes and Ale, or the Saints and the Sinners
Tag: somerset-maugham
The Painted Veil: A Saucy Dissection of W. Somerset Maugham’s Sublime Slap in the Face
W. Somerset Maugham’s The Painted Veil is a bit like finding a deceptively lovely flower in a poisoned Chinese river. Ostensibly a story of love, betrayal, and redemption, it teases the reader with a delicate veneer of romance, only to plunge us headfirst into a cynical, uncomfortably reflective look at the human soul. If you thought you … Continue reading The Painted Veil: A Saucy Dissection of W. Somerset Maugham’s Sublime Slap in the Face
The Razor’s Edge: A Fine Line Between Genius and the Mundane
Mundane is perhaps how I'd describe this post; it's been a strange and emotional day, with few cogs working. Somerset Maugham's The Razor's Edge is a peculiar novel, one that teeters precariously on the fine line between profound existential inquiry and the sort of navel-gazing typically reserved for teenage diary entries. At the heart of … Continue reading The Razor’s Edge: A Fine Line Between Genius and the Mundane
Wording 