The Razor's Edge

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Not even the narrator, however, can explain or account for it; the reader savors its presence without fully understanding its origin. Though people are under no obligation to create a design, they are free to do so if they choose; or, if they reject freedom of the will, it may seem that they are free. Among the early novels of Maugham, Liza of Lambeth, published when the author was only twenty-three, is probably the best known.

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In The Razor’s Edge, Larry Darrel reveals a basic goodness, a difficult quality to depict, partly because it may be attributed to the absence of either appetites or temptations. Having been born with a clubfoot, which becomes a source of ridicule among school boys, and having lost both parents in childhood, he becomes overly sensitive. It is the central element unifying the various stories of the other far less interesting characters, but the funny thing about the structure of the novel is that it mirrors what we know of Larry quest. To express the necessity for disillusionment, Maugham depicts Philip as growing up in an atmosphere of illusion involving religious beliefs and assumptions about the code of an English gentleman. Maugham,” like the young Philip Carey, seeks a pattern in the lives of those he has met, and he finds that each life in The Razor’s Edge has been a success.Ashenden knows that a tactful biographer such as Kear, who has secured the approval of Driffield’s second wife, cannot include such revealing recollections, and thus he tells them to the reader. They are motivated by their passions or emotions and by their attempts to control their destinies, not by an ideology or set of ideals. Reflecting upon happiness, Philip is puzzled as to how this quality fits as a purpose in life, since his own is unhappy. A story of intrigue, assassination, and revenge, it is derived from a brief passage in a work by Niccolò Machiavelli.

The Razor’s Edge Study Guide: Analysis | GradeSaver The Razor’s Edge Study Guide: Analysis | GradeSaver

And what we know are individual blocks of time with extended periods in between remaining unexplained and untold. At the beginning of the novel, Maugham invents a “scholarly” tradition on Strickland, complete with footnotes, to enhance the realism. Ashenden’s knowledge of all these details merges in flashbacks that go back as far as his childhood. Life is short, nature is hostile, and man is ridiculous but oddly enough most misfortunes have their compensations and with a certain humour and a good deal of horse-sense one can make a fairly good job of what is after all a matter of very small consequence. With this bleak conclusion, Philip comes to another realization: Like the weaver of the carpet, a person may choose the strands that please his aesthetic sense and make a pattern of his life satisfying to his own taste.Situated inside Manchester’s famous Royal Exchange, Razors Edge is a dynamic hair salon offering the very best in haircuts and colours. Could you help me please, my teacher asked me about psychology as a branch of psychological prose and its characteristic which Maugham imbibes into his works? In the concluding segment set in Tahiti, he introduces characters who had known Strickland during his final years and who report on his decline and death. With the aid of an omniscient narrator, the reader follows the life of Philip Carey from his mother’s death when he was only nine until he becomes a doctor and resolves to marry. He is detached and analytical in his attitudes, revealing a fondness for the maxims of Blaise Pascal and La Rochefoucauld.

The Razor’s Edge Summary | GradeSaver

Fred Blake and Erik Christensen in The Narrow Corner find only disappointment, disillusionment, and early death, as does the unfortunate Karl Richter in Up at the Villa. Some have seen the 1946 film adaptation starring Tyrone Power, which was fairly true to the book, and almost 40 years later Bill Murray attempted an ill-conceived film version that, while not stellar, is ultimately what introduced me to the novel. Maugham’s novels are written in a style highly idiomatic and fluent, revealing the qualities of simplicity, lucidity, and euphony which the author sought to attain. Maugham based his characters upon people whom he had known or whose lives he had somehow come to know; their actions are presented with consummate realism. As in the earlier Of Human Bondage and later in Christmas Holiday, art is an important theme, and allusions to paintings and painters are numerous.As is typical of naturalistic fiction, the characters are generally without hope, yet even in a naturalistic tradition Maugham reveals an original perspective. Instead of spanning decades, the plots narrate events that occur during a few months; novels such as Up at the Villa, for example, differ little from some of Maugham’s short stories. Those who seek happiness through the enjoyment of art waste their lives, and those who struggle to create art seldom find happiness, even when they succeed. Alroy Kear, who is writing a biography of Driffield, discovers that Ashenden has been a longtime acquaintance of the Driffields.