Paul’s Comments (group member since Sep 18, 2011)

Paul’s comments from the W. Somerset Maugham Reader's Group group.

Sobia wrote: "For me, its Of Human Bondage as well. I read it at a fairly young age and it had a great impact on how I view the world."

I read it later and was struck by how much trouble it would have saved me in life if I had read it at an early age.

Deng wrote: "The moon and sixpence."

Interesting how similar the ending of Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut is. Hmmmm.

Padilla wrote: ""The Summing Up" is also going to be tackled."

The summing up is a great example of how good he is at spoon feeding the casual reader high philosophical concepts. Although I think you'll get much more out of "A writer's Notebook" which gives some great insight into the source material for much of his work.

Tony wrote: "W. Somerset Maugham has been a favourite of mine for a long time, and my favourite novel is usually the last one I have (re)read - at the moment that would be Ashenden. Although if pressed, I would..."

The Hastings biography is very entertaining. It's curious how significantly it diverges from the Ted Morgan bio.

Lisa wrote: "I prefer his short stories."

One great underrated story is "The Alien Corn". It's a scenario that he revisits over and over - notably in Of Human Bondage when Philip goes to art school.

Steve wrote: "The Razor's Edge is my favorite novel of all time, regardless of author. It's like a field manual for life."

It's interesting that the ending of the Razor's Edge is essentially the same as Of Human Bondage in terms of what the main character learns about life. All of that struggle and suffering to discover such a simple answer...