The Razor's Edge

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The Razor’s Edge is not simply Maugham’s finest novel, however; it is easily one of the best novels of all time. Later, Ashenden renews his acquaintance with the Driffields in London, gradually losing touch with them after Rosie leaves Driffield for a Blackstable coal merchant, Lord George Kemp.

Analysis of W. Somerset Maugham’s Novels – Literary Theory Analysis of W. Somerset Maugham’s Novels – Literary Theory

Maugham’s novels are written in a style highly idiomatic and fluent, revealing the qualities of simplicity, lucidity, and euphony which the author sought to attain. Yet, the paintings of El Greco suggest to Philip that the will of humankind is powerful, that life can be made meaningful through struggle.After this realization, Philip comes to understand the secret of a piece of Persian rug given him by an eccentric poet. A reader of Maugham would not want to miss novels such as The Painted Veil and The Narrow Corner, which narrate suspenseful and intense conflicts. The genius of Somerset Maugham is that it actually is both: one very well can get by perfectly find without losing the thread of the story, but the story of The Razor’s Edge is not just the story of Larry’s quest for meaning.

The Razor’s Edge : W.somerset Maugham - Archive.org The Razor’s Edge : W.somerset Maugham - Archive.org

Rather than enter the business world (as everyone expects him to do), he leaves his home and his fiancé Isabel and travels to Europe to, in his words, “loaf.He contrives for the dying Elliott Templeton to receive an invitation to a party given by the Princess Novemali after she had deliberately snubbed Elliott, and he is on hand to identify the body of Sophie Macdonald. The minor works reward the reader with their depiction of the ironies of human life, the eccentricities of human beings, and the unusual settings and universal conflicts, yet, however rewarding, they lack the thematic richness and emotional concentration of Maugham’s best novels. A veteran with good connections and a sharp mind, he could easily go into business and start making big money just like his friends. Significantly, in Maugham’s major novels, the important characters—Philip Carey, Larry Darrel, Rosie Gann, and Charles Strickland—either embody an ideal or achieve some measure of success in pursuit of an ideal, whereas idealism in the minor works is usually crushed and defeated.

The Razor’s Edge Summary | GradeSaver

Set in Chicago, Paris, and India in the 1920s and ’30s, it involves characters from sharply different worlds.

Instead of spanning decades, the plots narrate events that occur during a few months; novels such as Up at the Villa, for example, differ little from some of Maugham’s short stories. He rejects the idea of becoming a clergyman, quits a career in accounting, abandons the struggle to become an artist after studying in Paris, and finally decides to pursue medicine. A generous amount of modesty enables him to make the best of a life that reveals only goodness as an extraordinary element. Just as Liza of Lambeth represented an effort at producing a naturalistic novel, Maugham’s other early novels give the impression of deliberate attempts at imitating well-established forms.