The Razor’s Edge, a book review

Of Human Bondage is generally considered W. Somerset Maugham’s masterpiece, but The Razor’s Edge was his most successful novel (economically). Maugham is a character in the story — the first-person narrator — and he assures the reader that it is a true story, with nothing embellished (surely, at the very least, an over-simplification: even assuming this is a true story, Maugham has undoubtedly embellished it). Whether the novel is based on real events has been a topic of debate since the novel’s publication, but I find it difficult to believe it is a true-life story. Similar plots occur in at least three other works of his (The Hero (1901), The Fall of Edward Barnard (1921), and The Road Uphill (1924)). I suspect that the plot intrigued him and, after his visit to India in 1938 when he met Ramana Maharshi (the inspiration for Shri Ganesha in the novel), he finally got it the way he wanted in The Razor’s Edge. Of course, as all authors do, he populated the novel with characters that had similar characteristics to those that he met in real life.

He undoubtedly wrote the novel in the five years during WW II that he lived in Beaufort County, on Bonny Hall Plantation, which was owned by Nelson Doubleday, who just happened to have been in charge of Doubleday, which published the novel in 1944.

It is probable that Gray Maturin’s character was based on  Doubleday, a very tall, soft-spoken businessman. And it is almost certain that Elliot Templeton was inspired by Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon. It becomes less clear, however, whether Larry Darrell (who took The Road Not Taken) was modeled on a real person; some have suggested Guy Hague, others Christopher Isherwood (who wanted nothing to do with the connection), but neither real-life person fits the story well if we are to believe Maugham’s assertion that nothing in the novel was embellished. It is quite conceivable that Larry is based on a type of person; an amalgam of Maugham’s imagination and the people the he had met (there is an interesting site devoted to the identification of Darrell).

Whatever the inspiration for the novel was, it is a good read, particularly the way Maugham juxtaposes the upper-class, the poor, and the saintly Larry Darrell. As usual, Maugham’s characterizations are brilliant, and the descriptions of the different strata of society are wonderful period pieces. Maugham’s female characters are generally not as likeable as their male counterparts, and I found that to be the case in this novel as well. The male characters, although flawed, are presented in a much more sympathetic manner.

Recommended.

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Of Human Bondage, a short review

“His mind was concrete and moved with difficulty in regions of the abstract; but, even when he could not follow the reasoning, it gave him a curious pleasure to follow the tortuosities of thoughts that threaded their nimble way on the edge of the incomprehensible.”

From Of Human Bondage (LIII, p 256)

W. Somerset Maugham was a master of character portrayal and Of Human Bondage is his classic ‘coming of age’ novel (a Bildungsroman). The protagonist, Philip Carey, is a sensitive, intelligent boy, born with a clubfoot and raised by a religious aunt and uncle. He is an outwardly dull, shy character, but leads a rich inner life. The novel follows Philip from age nine to thirty: the arc of a character who yearned for a lofty, philosophical life, but eventually settled comfortably in what he had always considered the mundane.

Of Human Bondage is a simple story (and I’ve read many reviews that decry the lack of action), but the writing is genuine and compelling. Maugham’s short stories are exceptional, but Of Human Bondage is his masterpiece.

Highly Recommended