About this title: Maugham traces the development of six friendships in Paris and London, evoking the sense of loss, despair, and unmoored personalities just after wartime.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin in association with Heinemann
Date Published: 1963
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Clean pages, no marks or tears, heavy tanning on pages, creases on cover & spine, chipping on edges, lightly bumped corners, pages slightly turned up, tight binding. 314p., 19 cm. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. 0140073132 Former owner wrote name inside cover. Great 1984 edition tightly bound and intact. Book shows tanning and surface/edge scuffing with obvious crease on back and remainder mark on bottom page ends. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
"The typical teenager would be bored stiff reading this book. The common complaint among young readers that "nothing happens" probably aptly applies to The Razor's Edge. Fortunately I am no longer a teenager, and I was really able to enjoy this book. Personally, I really identified with the character Larry. After a life-changing experience in World War I he dismisses the high hopes and expectations his friends (including his fiance) and family have for him and begins a life of wandering, loafing, reading, and searching for the meaning of life itself. Meanwhile, his associates all pursue the life of worldliness that they are sure will lead them to success and happiness. It's true that nothing much happens -- sure, there is an unsolved murder and a mean-spirited scheme to drive a recovering alcoholic back to drinking, but most modern novels have more action in the first 10 pages -- but for middle-aged guys like me who really do ponder the meaning of life itself The Razor's Edge is a memorable and notable book."
"This book is, in essence, a study of man's search for happiness. Each character is vastly different, though undoubtedly justified, in his or her ideas of what will make him or her happy. Maugham does an excellent job of illustrating various outlets by which his characters find some sort of personal meaning: books, art, clothes, society, family, sex, drugs and alcohol, money, and of course, spiritual enlightenment. While Maugham (who, interestingly, serves as his own first-person narrator) must have his own opinions as to what goals are actually worthy of pursuit, he is supremely objective and makes it clear that everyone is entitled to pursue what he believes will make him most happy.
Although Maugham can do no wrong with words (seriously folks, his prose is impeccable) and there was some fascinating dialogue on religion, God, and spirituality in the last third of the novel, nothing really stuck with me. Larry, the spiritualist, was a little too mystic and dreamy for my taste, Isabel too hard-edged, Gray too nondescript (albeit intentionally) and Maugham himself a bit too saintly. Not at all an unpleasant read, I just didn't make a strong connection between the lives of the people in the novel and my own."
"Somerset Maugham has a flair for writing and his style is understated yet distinct. But this book which I have been hearing about since a very young age as being a very powerful one fails to match up to that description. The rhythm and language are beautifully crafted but for me great literature is more about content. The protagonist certainly does not live on "the razor's edge". He is searching for meaning in life which is good but that in itself is not exemplary as the writer constantly tells us. Maugham himself appears uninspired as he admires the youth but himself seems to be content with doing surprisingly little which is probably why he thinks that Larry lives where he does. Having a war shoved in your face could be the catalyst to trying to understand the reasons for it and actively working for peace but Larry with all the literature at his disposal chooses to read spiritual books and become part godman. Isabel's husband lost some money but you would think that they were starving the way they keep on groaning about it. The honest working man has little need of soul searching. There is no need to spend years of your life obsessively looking for happiness because you have the leisure and be commended for it as if you had done something for society."
"I've been trying to finish this book for a while now. I started it because I thought I would probably love the protagonist but hate the writing style. As it turns out I loved the writing style and feel rather apathetic about the protagonist. I rather suspect something was lost on me because by other's accounts Larry Darrel is supposed to be a vital and compelling character of great feeling and intrigue. And while I would not go so far as to call him dull, I was a bit disappointed in him as a main character. I saw almost nothing of the self-sacrifice and transformation which is supposed to be the fulcrum of the story. Perhaps I expected too much, but it just seems to me that Larry begins and ends as more or less the same person- someone a little too saintly and detached from the real world to be entirely sympathetic to the reader. Whatever hardship he faces he seems to glide through, unperturbed. His main character aside, Maugham writes in such perfectly human and gritty detail- revealing with irony and acceptance all the contradictions and subtle flaws of humanity. It is the supporting characters and the narrator's voice that raise this book to be worth mention in my opinion. These side characters and the narrator himself are both likable and dislikable at times, the way real people are- they are petty, vain, snobbish, material creatures and yet natural, pitiable, and affectionate in their mannerisms and moments of candor. Overall this book was a bit of a let down for a book I've been trying to read for so long, but ultimately I think a consummate piece of good writing."
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