About this title: Philip Carey is an orphan, reared by his aunt and uncle, handicapped by his club foot. When he reaches the age of eighteen, he sets out in the world--first to study at Heidelberg, then to try an accounting job, then trying to launch an artistic career. Finally he returns to London to train as a doctor, and meets Mildred, a young woman with whom he becomes obsessed. He finally gets his M.D. degree and considers traveling the world as a ship's doctor, but falls in love with Sally Athelney and settles down happily to practice medicine in a small fishing village. Maugham said of this highly ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: This edition is with special arrangment with Doubleday & Company
Binding: mass-market paperback
Publisher: Vintage Books/Randon House, USA
Date Published: 1956
ISBN-13:9780394701370ISBN:0394701372
Description: Good. No dust jacket. Average spinewear / shelvewear / edgewear, has a crease on back cover, pages are starting to tan. Reprint. 684 p. later printing read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Pocket Books
Date Published: 1968
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Nice soft cover, lightly read, light shelf wear to cover, light rippling to pages, light aging. 309 p. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1978
ISBN-13:9780140018615ISBN:0140018611
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Pages lightly tanned, text unmarked and clean. A few minor creases and folds, no tears or stains. Remainder mark plus soiling to edges. Cover is creased and worn with scratches, edge wear and taped tear. Spine tilted and... Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 608 p. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books Canada, Limited
Date Published: 1978
ISBN-13:9780140018615ISBN:0140018611
Description: Good. No Jacket. Spine Creased, Sticker Removed Front Cover, Sticker On Back Cover, Edges Shelf Worn, Edges Tanned, Interior Unmarked, Good Copy. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Pocket
Date Published: 1966
Description: Good. No dust jacket. Signed by previous owner. Pocket Book #50080 w/red edges. 373 unmarked lightly tanned pgs in gd condition for age, cover has wear and creases; spot on top edges. Contains introduction by the author written especially for this abridged edition. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam Classic & Loveswept, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1991
ISBN-13:9780553213928ISBN:055321392X
"The story that Maugham weaves is according to his own introduction partly autobiographical. It was the first novel Maugham wrote after becoming a successful playwright. The central character is a young man born with a club foot. The story follows his search to find himself as an artist in Paris, as an accountant in London, in the study and practice of medicine, and through a tormented relationship with a woman that he meets in a small cafe. It is a excellent book full of marvelous characters, and fascinating reflections on art and life."
"Just as I was beginning to wish this novel was a short story, it took an unexpected turn and I was glad that I had 300 more pages or so to go (it's a 700-page book). It was fortuitous that I read it just after finishing _Nicholas Nickleby_. Like Nicholas, Maugham's hero, Phillip Carey, keeps reinventing himself and varying his stage and adventures. Phillip Carey, though, has no dependents for whom to toil. He is on a quest for freedom while all the time being bound by his own passions. Not until he submits to the yoke of common morality does he become free. To me, this book is a rewrite of the searchings in the book of Ecclesiastes. "Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Fortunately, the ending is left for the reader to write, and I think it comes out very well indeed."
"I read this just before going on my recent quest to read (at least some) novels by women of color. I decided on doing this out of frustration with the fact that the mostly "classic" lit I'd been reading was almost overwhelmingly, inappropriately, disgustingly dominated by white men. This book, I think, was the ultimate white male literary send off. It is long and simply told, without any of this "look at me I can write fancy sentences!" nonsense. In my opinion, Maugham does orphanhood better than Dickens, religious renunciation better than Tolstoy, Parisian artsy hipsterness better than Hemingway, medical school mazery better than Sinclair Lewis, and tough English boarding school social politics better than like 100 other white men with famous names. I can't figure out what's outstanding about this book, but somehow it seemed like a crowning achievement to read it and truly enjoy it and I'm proud of myself for that. I kinda would have liked to meet Maugham the way the characters in The Razor's Edge did..."
"Having plowed through The Razor's Edge the week before, I found the first several chapters of Maugham's most famous/best reviewed work a little disappointing. The story is extremely autobiographical, so the plot follows a tedious poor bullied english orphan schoolboy trajectory and it's hard to see how this defensive, angry little boy is going to grow up into an interesting adult. Phillip as both a boy and a man is a frustrating character, and very unlike the colorful strong-willed menagerie of The Razor's Edge. But after a while you start to become emotionally invested in his outcome if only for the fact that you've stuck with every detail of his ups and downs over the course of a few hundred pages.
Really, though, it's better than I'm making it out to be, and the time Phillip spends as an art student in Paris is particularly engaging. Maugham, as usual, has good insights about art, religion and America, and you can see why this book is so widely regarded, although I'd place The Razor's Edge above it in both readability and the quality of writing."
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