The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham

The next Book Group meeting will be by Zoom on Wednesday, March 23, from 6:45 to 8:30 PM. Back again in our rotation is a “Popular Classic;” this time it’s The Razor’s Edge, by W. Somerset Maugham, first published in 1944.

From today’s publisher, Penguin Random House Vintage International: “Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of this spiritual odyssey involves him with some of Maugham’s most brilliant characters – his fiancée Isabel, whose choice between love and wealth have lifelong repercussions, and Elliot Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob. The most ambitious of Maugham’s novels, this is also one in which Maugham himself plays a considerable part as he wanders in and out of the story, to observe his characters struggling with their fates.”

From Wikipedia: “ . . . It tells the story of Larry Darrell, an American pilot traumatized by his experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. The story begins through the eyes of Larry’s friends and acquaintances as they witness his personality change after the war. His rejection of conventional life and search for meaningful experience allows him to thrive while the more materialistic characters suffer reversals of fortune. The book has twice been adapted into film: first in 1946 starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, with Herbert Marshall as Maugham and Anne Baxter as Sophie, and then a 1984 adaptation starring Bill Murray.”

If you are interested in attending, RSVP to John Campbell ([email protected]) to receive the Zoom link, which will be published about a week ahead of the meeting.

Source: Bellevue Rotary Club