The Hero W Somerset Maugham 9781466213371 Books
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This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past, this is an invitation to reunite with old friends in a fresh new format. From Shakespeare s finesse to Oscar Wilde s wit, this unique collection brings together works as diverse and influential as The Pilgrim s Progress and Othello. As an anthology that invites readers to immerse themselves in the masterpieces of the literary giants, it is must-have addition to any library.
The Hero W Somerset Maugham 9781466213371 Books
This is the first novel by Maugham that I've read, and I'm glad I decided to read one of his lesser celebrated books first. It was short, and free, so it was a no-brainer, but it so happens it was a good choice.I'm surprised by certain things I've read about Maugham's style, that he lacks an original voice, or that his prose is not as colorful as other celebrated authors, that he makes use of convenient forms of rhetoric, speech, and cliche, that kind of thing; because it seems to me that he's just as good a writer as Henry James, for example, while not as lyrical and mellifluous as Galsworthy, nor as expansive as George Eliot. The thing I take most powerfully from this novel is its honesty. It is at times brutally honest. Maugham lays open his protagonist to total scrutiny, allows us to see every feeling, every desire, every thought and raw nerve, and lets us feel the final sensation of claustrophobic moral constraint and helpless entrapment and resolve.
I'm almost inclined to give the novel only four stars, because if I'm honest myself I have to admit the narrative is unbalanced: there is too much 'telly' reportage and probably not enough 'show' ie: graphic description. If it were a poem, it would be heavy-handed and didactic. But as a novel, it redeems itself of its artistic faults by being so absolutely straightforward, and painfully accurate, especially for the period in which it was written. James loathes Mary and is in love with Mrs. Wallace; these are plain facts not dithered over or danced around in the least, in the way they would be if George Eliot had told the story. Had Eliot penned it, it would have been twice as long, beautifully delineated, and we might have been more accepting of its climax due to her authorial command; but from Maugham we get it straight and without any delicacy at all.
Unfortunately, Nature is the way it is, and tragic, pointlessly terrible things occur all the time. One could argue, should it be the job of the artist to bring Nature's losers into the spotlight? We know, as Thoreau had said, "that most men lead lives of quiet desperation", but do we need to open a novel for entertainment and have this desperation and seeming purposelessness paraded before us? Shouldn't we focus on the good, on the brighter side, on the greener pastures of our human experience?
Two years ago I would have said, yes, the artist ought to point to man's possibilities, his meaning, his purpose and intentionality in an ostensibly hostile world and cosmos. And I still do say, yes, this is what artists ought to do. But then again, what of those among us who don't get the happy ending and the sweeping music as the credits roll up? There are undoubtedly far more of those in the world, and in our history, than the happy winners who catch the golden ring and go out with a kiss and a smile and a symphony orchestra.
The Hero is a great and tragic book, and it paints its story without shallow, degrading anti-humanism and mockery. This is not a misanthropic novel. It probably perfectly reflects the lives and sufferings of many, many millions of human beings past and present. Read it.
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Tags : The Hero [W. Somerset Maugham] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. This anthology is a thorough introduction to classic literature for those who have not yet experienced these literary masterworks. For those who have known and loved these works in the past,W. Somerset Maugham,The Hero,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,146621337X,Literature & Fiction General,FICTION Classics
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The Hero W Somerset Maugham 9781466213371 Books Reviews
Family and friends welcome back a vet returning from the war, but find that he's a bitter and changed man. It's well-covered ground for Vietnam and Iraq, but Maugham wrote this in 1901 while the Boer War was still in progress. One would guess that some of the opinions expressed by the main character must have been controversial at the time. It's a serious, sober book that faces some difficult questions, and it makes it clear that the returning Hero isn't the only one suffering.
Nevertheless, I can't call it one of Maugham's best. Some good stretches of it have the classic Maugham style but other patches have wooden, speech-y dialog, a tone that's out of place, or landscape description pasted in for no good reason. The rector character is an attempt to satirize the clergy but is clumsy and too obvious.
Definitely worth a read but I wouldn't read it twice- it's the literary equivalent of eating your vegetables.
Whoever said `the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation'[1] could have been referring to much of W. Somerset Maugham's work. No author of his era drilled down so relentlessly into the anguish people suffer trying to lead acceptable lives while still hoping to find a scrap of love amidst society's buttoned-down restrictions. Maugham's primary setting was the England of the turn of the nineteenth century, a formidable crucible for his vulnerable protagonists who dream beyond their station, and whose growth (or demise) involves yielding to a brutally honest view of life, riddling them with angst and self-doubt.
In The Hero James Parsons returns to his idyllic and stifling British village from the Boer War a changed man. Awarded the Victoria Cross for an act of bravery, he considers the medal unwarranted (it's not), and is idolized by the village of Little Primpton--until he breaks off his engagement to the woman who has been waiting five years for his return. In South Africa James encountered certain truths that have eluded his fellow villagers, and one of them is that falling in love with the wrong person (in his case the fickle wife of a superior officer) is more emotionally honest than pretending to be enamored with the supposedly perfect woman back home. Although James clearly sees the affair for what it was, he cannot go through the hypocrisy of marrying someone he doesn't love, despite the fact that it will be his social undoing.
Typical of Maugham's protagonists, the reader inwardly cheers when James pulls the trigger and makes a tentative break for happiness. Then we squirm as he makes one terrible choice after another, eventually asking his jilted fiancée to marry him--again. The tension is razor sharp in Maugham's inner monologues, all delivered in precise prose devoid of profanity, explicit situations, and sentimentality. He manages some biting humor as well as he skewers the British middle class. Maugham's characters, from the dowdy fiancée Mary Clibborn with her cold, haughty attitude towards the lowly patients she nurses, to James' pious parents, to the foppish uncle who sees himself as a catch, to the aging would-be mother-in-law who wears a little too much rouge and has an eye for James, are all on target.
The Hero does not have the scope of Maugham's Of Human Bondage, considered one of the finest 100 novels of all time, but it explores similar territory and does so with a much more economical word count and tighter plot. And, unlike the club-footed Philip Carey in Of Human Bondage, James Parsons is perhaps more deserving of life's elusive rewards, although the outcome for him is much darker.
The Hero was first published in 1901 but the writing has aged incredibly well, considering the original audience, and any out-of-fashion devices are easily overlooked as the reader is pulled into James' terrifying loneliness. It's no surprise that Maugham was one of the best-selling authors of his time. He was, and continues to be, a master of the psychological novel.
[1] It was Thoreau.
This is the first novel by Maugham that I've read, and I'm glad I decided to read one of his lesser celebrated books first. It was short, and free, so it was a no-brainer, but it so happens it was a good choice.
I'm surprised by certain things I've read about Maugham's style, that he lacks an original voice, or that his prose is not as colorful as other celebrated authors, that he makes use of convenient forms of rhetoric, speech, and cliche, that kind of thing; because it seems to me that he's just as good a writer as Henry James, for example, while not as lyrical and mellifluous as Galsworthy, nor as expansive as George Eliot. The thing I take most powerfully from this novel is its honesty. It is at times brutally honest. Maugham lays open his protagonist to total scrutiny, allows us to see every feeling, every desire, every thought and raw nerve, and lets us feel the final sensation of claustrophobic moral constraint and helpless entrapment and resolve.
I'm almost inclined to give the novel only four stars, because if I'm honest myself I have to admit the narrative is unbalanced there is too much 'telly' reportage and probably not enough 'show' ie graphic description. If it were a poem, it would be heavy-handed and didactic. But as a novel, it redeems itself of its artistic faults by being so absolutely straightforward, and painfully accurate, especially for the period in which it was written. James loathes Mary and is in love with Mrs. Wallace; these are plain facts not dithered over or danced around in the least, in the way they would be if George Eliot had told the story. Had Eliot penned it, it would have been twice as long, beautifully delineated, and we might have been more accepting of its climax due to her authorial command; but from Maugham we get it straight and without any delicacy at all.
Unfortunately, Nature is the way it is, and tragic, pointlessly terrible things occur all the time. One could argue, should it be the job of the artist to bring Nature's losers into the spotlight? We know, as Thoreau had said, "that most men lead lives of quiet desperation", but do we need to open a novel for entertainment and have this desperation and seeming purposelessness paraded before us? Shouldn't we focus on the good, on the brighter side, on the greener pastures of our human experience?
Two years ago I would have said, yes, the artist ought to point to man's possibilities, his meaning, his purpose and intentionality in an ostensibly hostile world and cosmos. And I still do say, yes, this is what artists ought to do. But then again, what of those among us who don't get the happy ending and the sweeping music as the credits roll up? There are undoubtedly far more of those in the world, and in our history, than the happy winners who catch the golden ring and go out with a kiss and a smile and a symphony orchestra.
The Hero is a great and tragic book, and it paints its story without shallow, degrading anti-humanism and mockery. This is not a misanthropic novel. It probably perfectly reflects the lives and sufferings of many, many millions of human beings past and present. Read it.
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