x dismiss this message
Did you know you can edit this page?
-
Sign Into Shelfari
-
Choose something to edit
-
Save your contributions
see page history
Description edit
"The Razor's Edge" is the last major novel of British author, W. Somerset Maugham. Published when he was seventy, the book was immediately a success in Europe and America.
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
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... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters edit
- Larry Darrell: Add a description of this character.
- Father Ensheim: A Benedictine monk.
- Elliott Templeton: Isabel's Parisian uncle.
- Isabel Bradley: Larry's fiance.
- Sophie: Larry's childhood friend.
- Gray Maturin: Isabel's suitor and eventually her husband
- Suzanne Rouvier: Friend to the main character and Larry
- Kosti: Polish coal miner who loves to cheat at cards.
- Joseph: Man servant to Eliot.
- Louisa Bradley: Mother to Isabel; sister to Eliot.
- Henry Maturin: Father of Gray; successful broker.
- Monsieur Achille
- Frau Becker: Woman in mining town that lets the Larry stay at her house.
- Marvin
- Dr Nelson
- Miss Keith
- Gregory Brabazon
- Shri Ganesha
- Paul Barton
- Molyneux
- Ellie
- Odette: Daughter of Isabel
- Bob
Quotes edit
-
“The pathway to salvation is as narrow and as difficult to walk as a razor's edge.”
Father Ensheim -
“A God that can be understood is no God. Who can explain the Infinite in words?”
-
“A mother only does her children harm if she makes them the only concern of her life.”
-
“American women expect to find in their husbands a perfection that English women only hope to find in their butlers.”
-
“An author spends months writing a book, and maybe puts his heart's blood into it, and then it lies about unread till the reader has nothing else in the world to do.”
-
“"For men and women are not only themselves; they are also the region in which they were born, the city apartment or the 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 you can't come to know by hearsay, you can only know them if you lived them. You can only know them if you are them."”
Setting & Locations edit
- Paris, France
- Lake Forest, Illinois
- Bonn, Germany
- Chicago
- America
- India
- London
- Riviera
- New York
- England
- Rome
- Ritz
- Europe
- Toulon
- Italy
- Spain
- Antibes
- Sanary
- Marseilles
- Monseigneur
- Greece
- Montmartre
- Montparnasse
- Cannes
- Providence
- Titian
- Ashrama
- Meyerheim
- Seville
- Poland
First Sentence edit
I have never begun a novel with more misgiving. If I call it a novel it is only because I don't know what else to call it. I have little story to tell and I end neither with a death nor a marriage. Death ends all things and so is the comprehensive conclusion of a stry, but marriage finishes it very properly too and the sophisticated are ill-advised to sneer at what is by convention termed a happy ending.
Themes & Symbolism edit
Series & Lists edit
This is book 570 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
This is book 217 of 213 in Best English-Language Fiction of the 20th Century. (authoritative list)
This book is in 100 One-Night Reads: A Book Lover's Guide. (authoritative list)
This is book 5 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels In 1944. (authoritative list)
This book is in Anthony Burgess's Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 - A Personal Choice. (community list)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Doubleday
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1944
ISBN: 0385043791
Page Count: 314
Publisher: Doubleday
Country: USA
Publication Date: 1944
ISBN: 0385043791
Page Count: 314
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: PR6025.A86 1944
- Dewey: 823.912
Subjects edit
Popular Tags
See all 50 tags
Movie Connections edit
- The Razor's Edge (1946) (IMDb): Staring Tyrone Power
- The Razor's Edge (1984) (IMDb): Staring Bill Murray
More Books Like This edit
Books with Additional Background Information edit
We’re hiding the errata, links to supplemental material, books that influenced this book, books influenced by this book, books that cite this book and books cited by this book sections. If you would like to add content to them, you must first make them visible.
