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The Razor's Edge is a novel by W. Somerset Maughamwritten in 1944. Its epigraph reads, "The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard." —Katha-Upanishad. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...
The Razors Edge is a sharp edge of a razor. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 395 × 600 pixel Image in higher resolution (399 × 606 pixel, file size: 47 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) 1946 edition, copyright Triangle Books. ...
W. Somerset Maugham as photographed in 1934 by Carl Van Vechten. ...
For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ...
A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ...
Doubleday is one of the largest book publishing companies in the world. ...
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ISBN-13 represented as EAN-13 bar code (in this case ISBN 978-3-16-148410-0) The International Standard Book Number, ISBN, is a unique[1] commercial book identifier barcode. ...
A novel (from French nouvelle Italian novella, new) is an extended, generally fictional narrative, typically in prose. ...
W. Somerset Maugham as photographed in 1934 by Carl Van Vechten. ...
In literature, an epigraph is a quotation that is placed at the start of a work or section that expresses in some succinct way an aspect or theme of what is to follow. ...
The Kaá¹ha Upanishad is one of the older, primary Upanishads commented upon by Shankara. ...
The Razor's Edge tells the story of an American, Larry Darrell, who, traumatized by his experiences as a fighter pilot in World War I, decides to searche for some transcendant meaning in his life. The novel tells its story 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 was twice adapted into film, first in 1946 starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney and a modern adaptation 1984 version starring Bill Murray in the lead, with Tibet replacing India as the place of Darrell's enlightenment. “The Great War †redirects here. ...
The Razors Edge is the first film version of W. Somerset Maughams 1944 novel. ...
Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. ...
Gene Tierney (November 19, 1920 – November 6, 1991) was an American Film and Stage actress. ...
The Razors Edge is the second film version of W. Somerset Maughams 1944 novel. ...
William James Bill Murray (b. ...
This article is about historical/cultural Tibet. ...
Plot
Maugham inserts himself as a minor character, a writer who drifts in and out of the lives of the major players. Larry's lifestyle is contrasted throughout the book with that of his fiancées uncle, Elliott Templeton, an American expatriate living in Paris and a shallow and unrepentant yet generous snob.
Wounded and traumatized by the death of a comrade in the First World War, Larry returns to Lake Forest, Illinois and his fiancée, Isabel, only to announce that he doesn't plan to work and instead will "loaf" on his small inheritance. He wants to delay their marriage and refuses to take up a job as a stockbroker offered to him by the father of his friend, the amiable and predictable Gray Maturin. Meanwhile, Larry's childhood friend, Sophie, settles into a happy marriage,only later tragically losing her husband and baby in a car accident. Incorporated City in 1861. ...
An engagement is an agreement by a couple to enter into marriage at some future time, usually accompanied by a formal or informal announcement to friends and family. ...
A stock broker or stockbroker or stock brokerage is someone or a firm who performs transactions in financial instruments on a stock market as an agent of his/her/its clients who are unable or unwilling to trade for themselves. ...
Larry moves to Paris and immerses himself in study and bohemian life. After two years of this "loafing", Isabel visits and Larry asks her to join his life of wandering and searching, living in Paris and traveling with little money. She cannot accept his vision of life and breaks their engagement to go back to Chicago. There she marries the millionaire Gray, who provides her a rich family life.
Larry has significant spiritual adventures in India and comes back to the City of Light. What he actually found there and what he finally concluded are held back from the reader for a considerable time, and in a scene late in the book, Maugham discusses India and spirituality with Larry in a café long into the evening. This article is about the capital of France. ...
Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. ...
The 1929 Stock Market crash has ruined Gray, and he and Isabel are invited to live in Uncle Elliott's grand Parisian house. Gray is bed-ridden with agonizing migraines due to a general nervous collapse. Larry is able to help him using an Indian form of hypnosis. Sophie has also drifted to the French capital, where her friends find her reduced to alcohol, opiumand promiscuity - empty and dangerous liaisons that seem to help her to bury her pain. Larry first sets out to save her and then decides to marry her, something that won't be tolerated by Isabel, who is still in love with. Crowd gathering on Wall Street. ...
Professor Charcot was well-known for showing, during his lessons at the Salpêtrière hospital, hysterical woman patients – here, his favorite patient, Blanche (Marie) Wittman, supported by Joseph Babiński. ...
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Isabel invites Sophie out on the pretext of shopping for a wedding dress. She arranges to leave Sophie alone with drinks on a cart and Sophie, tempted, falls off the wagon and disappears. At this point, Maugham the narrator comes back on the scene to tell what happens and to play amateur detective. He runs into Sophie in Toulon, where he finds her on the arm of a sailor who is "dumb but beautiful." Sophie is past redemption and admits to Maugham that she's not worthy of Larry. "When it came to the point, I couldn't see myself being Mary Magdalen to his Jesus Christ." Maugham learns later that Sophie has been murdered, her throat cut. Panorama of Toulon area. ...
Topics in Christianity Movements · Denominations Ecumenism · Preaching · Prayer Music · Liturgy · Calendar Symbols · Art · Criticism Important figures Apostle Paul · Church Fathers Constantine · Athanasius · Augustine Anselm · Aquinas · Palamas · Luther Calvin · Wesley Arius · Marcion of Sinope Pope · Archbishop of Canterbury Patriarch of Constantinople Christianity Portal This box: Mary Magdalene is described, both in...
This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ...
Meanwhile in Antibes, Elliott Templeton, who has compulsively through out his life sought out aristocratic society, is on his deathbed. None of his titled friends come to see him but he ignores his loss. "I have always moved in the best society in Europe, and I have no doubt that I shall move in the best society in heaven." Antibes (Provençal Occitan: AntÃbol in classical norm or Antibo in Mistralian norm) is a resort town of southeastern France, on the Mediterranean Sea in the Côte dAzur, located between Cannes and Nice. ...
Isabel inherits his fortune, but genuinely grieves for her uncle. Maugham confronts her Sophie, having figured out what happened. Isabel's only punishment will be that she will never get Larry, who has decided to return to America and live as a common working man. He is uninterested in the rich and glamorous world that Isabel will move in. Maugham ends his narrative by suggesting that all the characters got what they wanted in the end: "Elliott social eminence; Isabel an assured position; . . . Sophie death; and Larry happiness." Motto: (Out Of Many, One) (traditional) In God We Trust (1956 to date) Anthem: The Star-Spangled Banner Capital Washington D.C. Largest city New York City None at federal level (English de facto) Government Federal constitutional republic - President George Walker Bush (R) - Vice President Dick Cheney (R) Independence from...
Influences and Critical Reception Maugham, like Hermann Hesse, was remarkably prescient in 1944, anticipating an embrace of Eastern culture by Americans and Europeans almost a decade before the Beats were to popularize it. Maugham himself visited an ashram in India in 1938. Maugham's suggestion that he "invented nothing" was a source of annoyance for Christopher Isherwood, who helped him translate a verse from the Upanishads for the novel's epigraph. Many thought Isherwood, who had built his own literary reputation by then and was studying Indian philosophy, was the basis for the book's hero. Isherwood went so far as to write Time magazine denying this speculation. Hermann Hesse (pronounced ) (2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a Swiss-German poet, novelist, and painter. ...
The term Eastern world refers very broadly to the various cultures, social structures and philosophical systems of the East, namely Asia (including China, India, Japan, and surrounding regions). ...
The Beat Generation was a group of American writers who came to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s. ...
An Ashram (Pronounced aashram) in ancient India was a Hindu hermitage where sages (See Rishi) lived in peace and tranquility amidst nature. ...
Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Christopher Isherwood (left) and W.H. Auden (right), photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1939 Christopher Isherwood (prior to 1946 Christopher William Bradshaw-Isherwood) (August 26, 1904 – January 4, 1986), Anglo-American novelist, was born in the ancestral seat of his family, Wybersley Hall, High Lane, in the north west of...
The Upanishads (Devanagari: उपनिषदà¥, IAST: upaniá¹£ad) are part of the Vedas and form the Hindu scriptures which primarily discuss philosophy, meditation, and the nature of God; they form the core spiritual thought of Vedantic Hinduism. ...
The term Indian philosophy may refer to any of several traditions of philosophical thought, including: Hindu philosophy Buddhist philosophy Jain philosophy Sikh philosophy Carvaka atheist philosophy Lokayata materialist philosophy Tantric religious philosophy Bhakti religious philosophy Sufi religious philosophy Ahmadi religious philosophy Political and military philosophy such as that of Chanakya...
(Clockwise from upper left) Time magazine covers from May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...
Maugham's depiction of women is particularly narrow in this book. Isabel is shallow and controlling, having fondness for Elliott, possessive love for Larry and affectionate attachment, within the context of social approbation, for her husband. Sophie is confused and disordered. The accidental death of her husband and child leads her into a pattern of self-destruction.
In a scene illustrating Maugham's observations of women's behavior, he shows a woman in a cafe being slapped by her boyfriend and then resisting help. "If he slapped my face it's because I deserved it," she says to those who intervene. It can also be argued, however, that Maugham gave women more three-dimensional portrayals than was commonly fashionable in books and films of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. The 1920s is a decade that is sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or the Roaring Twenties, usually applied to America. ...
Face The 1930s (years from 1930–1939) were described as an abrupt shift to more radical and conservative lifestyles, as countries were struggling to find a solution to the Great Depression, also known in Europe as the World Depression. ...
This article does not cite any references or sources. ...
Though many might think Larry is an early Beatnik, the book speaks more to the romanticism attached to expatriate and bohemian living in European capitals. Larry does odd jobs just to get by as he scribbles away on a scholarly tome, telling the narrator it doesn't matter if few people read his finished work. Rather than wandering for "kicks" like Kerouac, Larry is driven by his quest for knowledge. When Isabel visits him in Paris and rejects his destitute lifestyle, Larry chooses café life and pursuit of wisdom over middle-class security. As his Buddhist mentor tells him, there are three paths to enlightenment - knowledge, service and prayer. Larry chooses the path of knowledge to find enlightenment, and ultimately does find some level of attainment within himself. Wanderer above the sea of fog by Caspar David Friedrich Romanticism is an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in 18th century Western Europe during the Industrial Revolution. ...
Jack Kerouac (pronounced ) (March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969) was an American novelist, writer, poet, and artist. ...
As with so many other works by Maugham, the book has been popular with readers, but less so with critics. Gore Vidal complained in an essay for The New York Review of Books in 1990 that Maugham's narrator is "heavy, garrulous and awkward." Edmund Wilson excoriated Maugham's prose in general, and V. S. Naipaul parodied Maugham's novel in his own Half a Life. Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (born October 3, 1925) (pronounced , occasionally , , etc) is an American author of novels, stage plays, screenplays, and essays. ...
This article is about the literary magazine. ...
Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ...
Edmund Wilson (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, noted chiefly for his literary criticism. ...
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, T.C. (born August 17, 1932, in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago), better known as V. S. Naipaul, is a Trinidadian-born British writer of Indo-Trinidadian ethnicity and Bhumihar Brahmin heritage from Gorakhpur in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. ...
V.S.Naipauls 2005 book Literary Occasions Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, T.C. (born August 17, 1932, in Chaguanas, Trinidad and Tobago), better known as V. S. Naipaul, is a Trinidadian-born British novelist of Indo-Trinidadian ethnicity and Bhumihar Brahmin heritage from Gorakhpur in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. ...
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