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The Razor's Edge

by W. Somerset Maugham, Anthony Curtis (Introduction), Anthony Curtis (Introduction)

4.14 of 5 stars 4.14 · rating details · 14,821 ratings · 1,230 reviews

Larry Darrell is a young American in search of the absolute. The progress of his 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 Elliott Templeton, her uncle, a classic expatriate American snob.Maugham himself wanders in and out of the story, to observ...more

Paperback, 314 pages

Published March 1st 1992 by Penguin Classics (first published 1944)

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Apr 30, 2013 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: Intimate acquaintances but less than friends, they meet and part in postwar London and Paris: Elliot, the arch-snob but also the kindest of men; Isabel, considered to be entertaining, gracious, and tactful; Gray, the quintessence of the Regular Guy; Suzanne, shrewd, roving, and friendly; Sophie, lost, wanton, with a vicious attractiveness about her; and finally Larry, so hard and so trustful, lost in the world's confusion. Their story, one of Somerset Mau...more Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: Intimate acquaintances but less than friends, they meet and part in postwar London and Paris: Elliot, the arch-snob but also the kindest of men; Isabel, considered to be entertaining, gracious, and tactful; Gray, the quintessence of the Regular Guy; Suzanne, shrewd, roving, and friendly; Sophie, lost, wanton, with a vicious attractiveness about her; and finally Larry, so hard and so trustful, lost in the world's confusion. Their story, one of Somerset Maugham's best, encompasses the pain, passion, and poignancy of life itself.

My Review: It is pleasant to give yourself over to the care of a master, or mistress, of craft. The Razor’s Edge is masterful. It is an expression of the mastery Maugham earned through many long years of novel-writing and mostly successful critical reception of his work that this book, which came almost twenty years into a career of more than forty years, feels as fresh as his first book (The Moon and Sixpence). It deals, as is the case with so many writers’ oeuvres, with many of the same themes and issues as the first book and most of his subsequent work.

A critic reviewing The Razor’s Edge today would likely fault the author for choosing to write the story from his own first-person point of view. The fashion today is for first-person narratives, it’s true, but Maugham uses a narrative device…the story told to the narrator by others…very much out of fashion in today’s world. It is accused, perhaps with justice, of taking the forward thrust out of a story. It makes the reader a follower, a passive observer of the story, instead of giving the presently fashionable sense of watching the story unfold before the reader’s eyes. In a world that craves “The Real World” and “Survivor,” the technique of the cicerone leading the reader around the story feels artificial and affected. That is too bad. The Razor’s Edge is a pleasant journey in the company of interesting people. It’s not a fast-lane zoom like Less Than Zero, in a car full of noisy meretricious mercenary monkey-boys. It is a subtler pleasure, a trip more akin to touring the blue roads of the American countryside than that superhighway journey.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.(less)

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Mar 20, 2013 Jenn(ifer) rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: brits, own, read-in-2013, self-discovery

"One of Maugham's three major novels ..." TIME. That's high praise coming from TIME magazine. This MUST be good.

I’m sure some of you are familiar with a little American television drama series that aired on HBO from 2002-2008 called The Wire. I was way late to the party, but over the past 6 months or so, I’ve managed to watch all 5 glorious seasons back to back to back. Well, glorious to a point. But what the hell happened in season 5? I kept waiting for it to get good, kept waiting for somethin...more
"One of Maugham's three major novels ..." TIME. That's high praise coming from TIME magazine. This MUST be good.

I’m sure some of you are familiar with a little American television drama series that aired on HBO from 2002-2008 called The Wire. I was way late to the party, but over the past 6 months or so, I’ve managed to watch all 5 glorious seasons back to back to back. Well, glorious to a point. But what the hell happened in season 5? I kept waiting for it to get good, kept waiting for something to happen. Waiting for the outlaw Omar Little to come along, whistling ‘The Farmer in the Dell,’ and take that bitch Marlo down. Man. Talk about anticlimactic. How you gonna do Omar like that, huh?

I had a similar experience with this book. I was really digging it for about 200 pages. Then an unfortunate thing happened…

I forgive the weirdness of Maugham interjecting himself as a minor character in the story and the weirdness of him being the narrator. I forgive the implausibility of every character just happening to feel the need to unburden themselves in his presence, whether they really knew him or not. What I cannot forgive is this:

I feel it right to warn the reader that he can very well skip this chapter without losing the thread of such story as I have to tell, since for the most part it is nothing more than the account of a conversation that I had with Larry. I should add, however, that except for this conversation I should perhaps not have thought it worth while to write this book.

What? What the What??? Well of course I have to read it now that you’ve said “(blah blah blah) except for this conversation I should perhaps not have thought it worth while to write this book.” But good God man, I wish I hadn’t. That was just awful. All that bullshit Eastern philosophy seemed so contrived. I think Maugham got confused for a moment there and thought he was Hermann Hesse. He is not Hermann Hesse. No one wants him to be Herman Hesse.

I loved that the main character (Larry Darrell) was going through his own ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ spiritual journey type thing, travelling from country to country trying to find his own version of Truth. I loved him, and I loved the way he eschewed all of the so called social norms and expectations and did his own thing. But that whole conversation was just plain hackneyed and I wish I had never read it. Minus that chapter, this is definitely a 4 star book. But quite honestly, I was sitting in a park reading the chapter that INSPIRED THE BOOK and I almost threw it in the garbage can unfinished.

I’m just bitterly trying to pretend that chapter never happened. If I could do it all again, I’d be like that annoying little kid who doesn’t want to listen to his mother, with his fingers in his ears going “la la la laaaa.. I can’t hear you." The end.
(less)

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Oct 06, 2012 Steven Kent rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: absolute-favorites

I love this book. I absolutely adore it.

Larry has returned from World War I and refuses to engage in life. Isabel, his finance, is a member of Chicago high society who finds Larry's lack of interest in life troubling.

Grey, Larry's good friend and a successful stock broker, is loyal to Larry despite his secret love for Isabel.

Sound like a soap opera? It should. Told from the first person by Maugham himself, who runs into Larry every few years over a twenty-year period, this is the story of one ma...more

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Nov 06, 2012 Stefania T. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Ebbi l'intuizione, non saprei chiamarla altrimenti, che nell'anima di quel ragazzo c'era un'aspirazione confusa, fatta non capivo se di idee embrionali o di vaghe emozioni, che lo riempiva di irrequietezza e lo spingeva verso qualcosa a lui ignoto.

Pronta anch'io a partire per l'India alla ricerca dell'Illuminazione, mentre impacchetto tutte le mie cose, cercando di ricongiungere ciascun calzino "multicolor" con il proprio compagno perduto e di sorvegliare la mia gatta affinché non si addorment...more

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Jan 16, 2013 Henry Avila rated it 4 of 5 stars

In 1919,war hero Larry(Laurence) Darrell,returns to his hometown of Chicago.Wounded twice,the aviator, has a deeper injury.A friend saved his life but lost his, over France,dying on the ground...Isabel Bradley, Larry's fiancee,notices the change.When his best friend Gay Maturin, gets his millionaire father Henry ,to offer his pal a good job. Darrell turns it down!He doesn't want to sell bonds.Who does ? But you can make a lot of money.W.Somerset Maugham,the famous British author is visiting the...more In 1919,war hero Larry(Laurence) Darrell,returns to his hometown of Chicago.Wounded twice,the aviator, has a deeper injury.A friend saved his life but lost his, over France,dying on the ground...Isabel Bradley, Larry's fiancee,notices the change.When his best friend Gay Maturin, gets his millionaire father Henry ,to offer his pal a good job. Darrell turns it down!He doesn't want to sell bonds.Who does ? But you can make a lot of money.W.Somerset Maugham,the famous British author is visiting the windy city.His book "The Moon and Sixpence", has just been published and is a bestseller.Doing interviews with the local newspapers,Maugham gets an invitation to have lunch with Elliott Templeton. An old friend and Isabel's rich uncle. Elliott lives in Paris and comes home to see his family. Maugham, the writer, mostly in France too. Mr.Templeton is a big snob and proud of it, but also a kind man.He loves High Society and thinks Paris is the only place to live.Later Maugham has dinner with all the main characters, at Isabel's mother's home,Elliott's sister(the author insists that this is a true story).Sophie, Isabel's childhood friend, talks to the writer,a shy teenager.Who is in love with Larry and Gay with Isabel! Sophie,Isabel and Larry, all have known each other, since they were children.Everyone there tells the veteran, be a man and sell bonds!Larry is suffering from war shock.And just wants to loaf!After joining up in Canada,the air corps,in France, at seventeen,he's now 20.Decides to go to Paris for two years and live on his small inheritance.Explaining to the not understanding Isabel,"The Dead look so terribly dead when they're dead".Many years after, they all will meet again, in a seedy Paris nightclub.Larry roams the world and looks like a bum, trying to find a reason for life.Takes a job as a coal miner,for the experience.Stays at a monastery for months, seeing if inner peace can be achieved there. Even visits India and a famous Yogi.Saintliness, is how Larry describes the man,in a loincloth.But will Darrell ever find happiness?(less)

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Oct 06, 2010 Brad rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

My youngest daughter came home from college the other day with this book under her arm. I grabbed it and expected it to be great.

It almost met my expectations. Maugham's theme is to explore how the things we want most shape our lives. He sums it up in the final paragraph. Elliot valued social standing above all else. Isabel, a rich husband. Gray, to be one of the guys in business. Suzanne, security. Sophie, death. Larry, spiritual happiness.

One surprise to me is that none of Maugham's characte...more

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Mar 04, 2008 Maryll rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I didn't love it as much as I expected. The premise that Eastern philosophy has something to offer us in the West just isn't as novel as when this book was originally published. Maugham's description of upper crust society in Paris is bitchy and wonderfully astute at times. But, like most authors, he found it easier to describe the sinners than the saints. Larry Darrell, the saint of this book, just doesn't seem human or interesting. He and his quest for enlightenment and/or belief in God are on...more

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Jan 12, 2008 A Rye rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Those who used to identify with Holden Caulfield, but are growing up.

Shelves: philosophy

Boring for most, enlightening for some, and absolutely beautiful to very few, this book describes the journey of a man disillusioned with the materialistic predilections of society.
After some rather traumatic experiences as a fighter pilot in WW I, American Larry Darrell relocates to France, where he dedicates himself to a life of learning and seeking. A pilgrimage to India results in a spiritual revelation for Darrell, and it is at this point that his entire world begins to shift.
Stylisticall...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Riku Sayuj rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, reviews

This has to be the most endearing and accessible of Maugham's books. With the right smattering of philosophy and literary techniques to keep one challenged too.

It has been one of the defining books in my life.

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Mar 28, 2013 ·Karen· rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: f2f-book-group-reads

Maugham appears as the narrator in this story of Larry Darrel, a young American who lied about his age to be able to become an airman in the first World War. After a traumatic experience there he no longer wishes to satisfy the expectations of his friends and join his schoolmate Gray's father's brokerage company, or indeed any other reasonable form of earning a living. He wishes to 'loaf'. Isabel, his shallow, mercenary fiancee gives him two years in Paris to get this strange idea out of his sys...more

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May 23, 2010 Kemper rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sky-cake

Back in the dark days of the mid-’80s, I read somewhere that Bill Murray was going to be in a movie called The Razor’s Edge, and that it was based on a book. Since this was long before the days where you could check IMDB to see what the movie was going to be about, I figured the book had to be hilarious since Murray was starring in it. So I found the book at the library and started reading. I was pretty shocked to find that it was a serious story about a guy who goes looking for the meaning of l...more Back in the dark days of the mid-’80s, I read somewhere that Bill Murray was going to be in a movie called The Razor’s Edge, and that it was based on a book. Since this was long before the days where you could check IMDB to see what the movie was going to be about, I figured the book had to be hilarious since Murray was starring in it. So I found the book at the library and started reading. I was pretty shocked to find that it was a serious story about a guy who goes looking for the meaning of life. I was even more shocked that I loved it. And even though the movie version flopped and caused Murray to drop out of film making for years, I still want to say, “Thanks, Bill!”. If it wasn’t for the movie, I probably never would have read this.

Maugham engages in a bit of meta-fiction by incorporating himself into a story he claims at the beginning was true. (I guess there’s been a fair amount of debate on if it actually was based on fact, but I’m content to consider it fiction.) Maugham is friends with Elliot Templeton, an American born snob whose passion is for European high society. Maugham meets Templeton’s relatives while on a trip to Chicago, including Elliot’s niece, Isabel. Isabel is engaged to Larry Darrell. (Feel free to insert your own jokes about “Hi, I’m Larry. This is my brother Darrell, and my other brother Darell.”) Larry was a World War I pilot who is driving Isabel’s family crazy with his continued refusal to get a job and start grabbing some of that postwar prosperity that the rest of America is cashing in on.

Over the course of the next two decades, Maugham will learn the story of Larry and Isabel from updates by Elliot and chance encounters with the people involved. Larry and Isabel break their engagement, and Larry travels the world, taking different jobs and doing extensive research on varying subjects without explaining why. Eventually, Maugham learns that the war gave Larry a burning desire to explore the nature of existence and eventually leads him to India where he‘d try to find enlightenment.

Re-reading this, a couple of things struck me about why it appeals to me. The first is the character of Larry. The idea of a character profoundly changed by war isn’t anything new, but Larry comes across as distinct and unique. He isn’t bitter or angry. He isn’t seeking solace in booze or sex or turning into a raging nihilist. Larry comes across as a curious person who was genuinely puzzled about the nature of death and evil, and decides to look for his own answers. His ability to withstand the overwhelming peer pressure to follow his friends into jobs shows his will to follow his own path, but Larry isn’t looking down his nose at anyone. He doesn’t judge others and is content to live his own life in the way he’s chosen. As another character describes Larry, he’s a very religious man who doesn’t believe in God, and that’s a really great character to read about.

The other thing I like is the structure of the novel. Telling the story over a period of years, sometimes as second hand stories told to Maugham was a way to make you curious about Larry and his quest, and Maugham’s talent makes the other characters and subplots come alive. (less)

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Jun 16, 2008 Bettie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Feb 05, 2008 Ben rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, chicago-books-authors

So let me start with a few of the reasons why I shouldn't have liked this book.
-I usually prefer contemporary fiction.
-The Americans are, for the most part, sad, sad characters. Eliot is obsessed with society and culture to the detriment of love and emotion. Isabel wouldn't marry Larry because he would never be rich, and she was disappointed when she inherited some Picassos and Matisses because they wouldn't match her modern decor. Gray was somewhat single minded about work.
-The level of detail...more

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Aug 24, 2007 Michael W. rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-read

This book was given to me as a gift by a good friend. I had only a vague idea of what is was about, but as I started reading it, realized that it is an incredible work of fiction. I learned after reading it that it's actually more a work of non-fiction in that the narrator and the characters are based fairly closely on Somerset Maugham and people he knew well throughout his life.

Maybe for this reason, the character development in this novel is some of the best I've ever read. The novel plays out...more

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Dec 09, 2007 Charlie Schlangen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Somerset Maugham continues to justify his place on my list of favorite writers. His narrative is crisp and moves the plot along well without giving characters or events short shrift. His insightful, soul-searching characters (which not all of them are) have the kinds of conversations you sometimes have and wish you did more often about philosophy, art, and life issues. He is able to find the good in his characters and yet no sugar-coat their flaws. This book will be helpful and meaningful for an...more

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Oct 12, 2011 Kiri rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Maugham may literally be one of my favorite authors period. I have yet to read something of his that I haven't thoroughly enjoyed and wasn't grabbed by. While I haven't read all of his works yet, and there are several that I really like The Razor's Edge stands out as a real favorite. Which is unusual as I seem to prefer his stories that are set entirely in the east. Then again I'd been to Europe by the first time I'd encountered this book and since then I have traveled and stayed in Asia - and e...more

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Mar 01, 2009 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jonathan by: Charlton Griffin

My first Maugham, and definitely not the last.
The best novels are always unsettling, as this was when I saw so much of myself in the character of Larry Darrell.
It's the bittersweet sort of experience, this unsettling: more of an acknowledgment than a discovery.

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Jan 06, 2009 Briynne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think I’d be tempted to give this one six stars if I could. I adored this book, and I regret not reading it when I was sixteen or so; even though you can’t properly understand much at that age, books that merely impress you later on “change your life” as a junior in high school. I believe this one would have done so, but I’m happy enough with the experience of having now read it at the ripe old age of 24.

I’m a sucker for books of the Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and now Maugham mold, where rather g...more

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May 16, 2012 Guido rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

La prosa di Maugham è elegantissima, raffinata, perfettamente cosciente dei propri limiti: lui stesso li riconosce e ne discute tranquillamente, da narratore in prima persona, in questo romanzo. Troppo a lungo autori capaci di scrivere così bene sono stati considerati "superficiali" dalla critica, alla disperata ricerca di eccentricità stilistiche e lunghe autoindulgenti divagazioni filosofiche. Non che queste cose debbano essere viste come difetti, semplicemente non erano parte del talento di M...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Aubrey rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-06-12, reviewed, 4-star, existential-bzns

4.5/5

Maugham has a nigh-unparalleled keenness of observation when it comes to the human spirit. In this book he hones this power into a tool of metaphysical dissection and wields it on a widely differing people with great accuracy. The successful socialite, the genteel lady, the eminent businessman, the capable prostitute, the ruined woman, and the recluse philosopher. Each one determines an end goal to their life, consciously or otherwise, and each one manages to meet it in their own way. What'...more 4.5/5

Maugham has a nigh-unparalleled keenness of observation when it comes to the human spirit. In this book he hones this power into a tool of metaphysical dissection and wields it on a widely differing people with great accuracy. The successful socialite, the genteel lady, the eminent businessman, the capable prostitute, the ruined woman, and the recluse philosopher. Each one determines an end goal to their life, consciously or otherwise, and each one manages to meet it in their own way. What's especially brilliant is how Maugham touches on every life and showcases the attributes and the faults in equal degrees. Not even the near omniscient philosopher is shown to be the perfect answer to what a life should hope to achieve. The philosopher admittedly comes close, in that he embraces the doctrine that one’s meaning of life is always a work in progress, one whose completion before death is not guaranteed. Surely the socialite's death would have been an example of this incompleteness riddled with regrets, had the narrator not bothered trying to satisfy his petty concerns on his death bed.
Speaking of these two beings, the social monger and the wise man define the ends of a spectrum of mentalities along which Maugham lays out all his characters. Everyone else, including the narrator himself, is a much more even mix of materialistic desires and existential needs, forces that become more or less defined during the course of a person's lifetime. These forces may not be physical, but they are no less powerful, as they send one person around the world, another to a work office, and yet another to a brutal end. However, as the genteel lady shows, very few are willing to understand that these widely varying compulsions and lifestyles are all normal displays of the human psyche. Society only has room for a select few of these styles of living; the 'normal' response then is to live a life rife with materialistic distraction from one's existential unhappiness. Maugham works to demonstrate how this life is barely enough, and offers an objective glimpse into the heads of those who refuse to conform.
Social critique aside, I especially enjoyed how Maugham candidly laid out his predictions of the conflict between his goal as an author and the expectations of his readers. This view is encompassed within this passage: 'I feel it right to warn the reader that he can very well skip this chapter without losing the thread of such story as I have to tell....I should add, however, that except for this conversation I should not have thought it worth while to write this book.'
You can't get more wittily self-deprecating than that.(less)

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Jun 09, 2008 Trevor Jones rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Is it possible to love a story and yet dislike a book's "narrative" That's the question "The Razor's Edge" as an artifice poses to me.

Ok, well first the story: Larry Darrell is the World War I veteran who embarks on a life-long quest to find meaning after disillusionment with his peers back home and the universe-at-large on the battlefield. The discovery of Eastern mysticism may have been an entirely original thought to Maugham's readers, but today I subscribe to the idea that this book is prim...more Is it possible to love a story and yet dislike a book's "narrative" That's the question "The Razor's Edge" as an artifice poses to me.

Ok, well first the story: Larry Darrell is the World War I veteran who embarks on a life-long quest to find meaning after disillusionment with his peers back home and the universe-at-large on the battlefield. The discovery of Eastern mysticism may have been an entirely original thought to Maugham's readers, but today I subscribe to the idea that this book is primarily about discovering yourself as a "Seeker", an idea that has little to do with Eastern or Western thought necessarily. The people around him fall apart when the reality they've chosen for themselves crumbles, and Larry persists in his self-doubt, quiet spirituality and melancholic drifting (but never maudlin).

What I found, reading the book, is that Darrell's experience becomes once-removed from the reader with the narration of Elliot, a snob who observes more than he admits. The film (starring Bill Murray, who was laughed at for doing the role in the early '80s, but I think it stands up well today) reduced Elliot's perspective and it made for a better story-- if so much of this book becomes life-defining for so many people, how is the old snob's take on the whole ordeal really provided for?

Today, Darrell's story would be told in first person or third person omniscient, I imagine; it was Maugham's realism that needed to provide for a storyteller, and while it doesn't ruin the book or anything so severe as that, it renders Darrell's entire "journey" and psyche into a collection of rumors, memories and hearsay-- maybe this is the point. Such a figure that manages the escape from the material West and the ravages of war and so on might only be one everyone else can float around and comment on with half-formed opinion, but to directly address this figure and demand testimony might be asking too much. I'm glad Maugham had enough sense for that, because I wouldn't have. (less)

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May 29, 2008 Kristopher Jansma rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

by W. Somerset Maugham

Sorry to be getting this up later than usual. I've been keeping my nose to the grindstone with a rewrite of my novel and I read John Gardner's On Becoming a Novelist, which was good, but sort of dry and not really the sort of thing I'd recommend to anyone who isn't a writer. But this week I have jury duty, so I expect to be getting a lot of extra reading done in the process.

The Razor's Edge came up in last week's book, as something that character enjoyed, but I didn't reall...more

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Feb 25, 2008 Gregg rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

I think Larry Darrell is my new hero. So is Bill Murray for doing the film in 1984, but that's another story. The novel follows the lives and developments of four main characters: an arch-snob with a heart of gold; a wreck of a woman who's lost her family; a woman who's chosen security over love, and an American seeking a spiritual meaning to his life.

That's Larry. He's my hero.

Larry rejects the life of a stockbroker after the Great War and goes on a "loafing odyssey," devouring texts like Wil...more

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May 10, 2008 Inder rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, 20th-century, fiction, england, india

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This was not what I expected, having read several of Maugham's other novels and a lot of short stories. I was not expecting a spiritual quest to India and subsequent enlightenment at an Ashram. How could I not know this?

This book has a lot going for it. Great characterizations of two extremely shallow people - Elliot and Isabel - and one anti-shallow person - Larry. The plot was amorphous, but I still kept turning the pages. A pleasure to read. In the end, it's all left pleasantly unresolved and...more

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Oct 27, 2007 Taylor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people in their 20s

Shelves: fiction, own, the-power-of-love

Plain and simply, the story of Larry Darrell, a young man on something of a spiritual quest for higher learning. This story follows a large cast of characters, but at the center is Larry and how his quest effects his life and the lives of those around him, most notably his fiancée, Isabel.

In a recent NYT editorial, someone talked about how the 20s are the "odyssey" years where we sort of explore life and its/our possibilities. This absolutely addresses that period in life and is very good readin...more

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Oct 17, 2008 Ann M rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-literary-and-mainstream

I remember what I disliked about this book the first time I read it: Maugham tells you more about the people surrounding the main character than about the character himself. Which is kind of a drag since they are much less interesting. The book, then, is not about a man's search for meaning, but the reactions of his mostly upper middle class friends and acquaintances to this extreme eccentricity.

Reading it gives me a sense that the party is happening somewhere else. Fortunately, the writing is...more

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May 20, 2013 Нина rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, favorites

Блестящ образец от творчеството на Моъм. Сигурно малко жени биха го изтърпели този Лари да си търси смисъла на живота на три континента, но пък така е описан, че...
Още в началото много ми напомни на разказа му "Падението на Едуард Барнард", сякаш темата е развита в роман, дори и тук годеницата е Изабел. Героят е многообещаващ американски младеж, който след драматична случка по време на войната тръгва по свой собствен път. Романът е във вид на разказ в първо лице, ед. ч ., авторът описва за срещ...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Rodriqueze rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Although this book contains a great deal of reflection on modern religion, and contrasts Eastern and Western orthodoxies about the nature of God/the universe, and of course touches on various aspects of Catholicism along the way, I found that I could not add it to my unofficial "the Catholic Church does not come off well in this book" collection. Sadly, there are no scenes of Larry Darrell fighting off murderous members of the Swiss Guard in a desperate and bloody halberd duel. Well, to be fair,...more

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May 23, 2013 Ruthiella rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

I read this book a couple of weeks ago for my book club. I had checked out from one library a really unwieldy omnibus which contains 5 Maugham novels, including The Razor’s Edge. I was just going to peruse the first chapter and later check out a more manageable single volume later from another library…but I didn’t. Unwieldy as it was, once I finished the first chapter I read another, then another and so on and before I knew it, I had finished the book. Considering the novel was published in 1944...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Chris Zhao rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Have you ever asked yourself in silence: what is life? What is the meaning of life? What is happiness? We go to school, work, get married, retire, die, what is the meaning of that? Why do we do that? Maybe we can get some explanation from Maugham' book "The Razor's Edge".
This book mainly narrates the experience of an American young pilot, Larry Darrel. During World War 1, he witnessed a close friend's death since his friend tried to save him. After that, Larry started to get confused about li...more

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About W. Somerset Maugham

William Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874. He spoke French even before he spoke a word of English, a fact to which some critics attribute the purity of his style.

His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in 'Of Human Bondage' , Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he alm...more

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Quotes from The Razor's Edge

“You're beginning to dislike me, aren't you? Well, dislike me. It doesn't make any difference to me now.” — 128 people liked it

“For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they are born, the city apartment or farm in which they learnt to walk, the games they played as children, the old wives tales they overheard, the food they ate, the schools they attended, the sports they followed, the poets they read, and the God they believed in. It is all these things that have made them what they are, and these are the things that you can't come to know by hearsay...” — 64 people liked it

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