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Trio
The Red and the Black, Moby DIck, The Brothers Karamazoy, Madame Bovary, David Copperfield, Pride and Prejudice, Tom Jones, Old Man Goriot, war and Peace, Wuthering Heights
- GenresFiction
156 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1950
1 person is currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
W. Somerset Maugham
2,140 books6,145 followersWilliam 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 almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays.
Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way.
During World War I, Maugham worked for the British Secret Service . He travelled all over the world, and made many visits to America. After World War II, Maugham made his home in south of France and continued to move between England and Nice till his death in 1965.
At the time of Maugham's birth, French law was such that all foreign boys born in France became liable for conscription. Thus, Maugham was born within the Embassy, legally recognized as UK territory.
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 almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays.
Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way.
During World War I, Maugham worked for the British Secret Service . He travelled all over the world, and made many visits to America. After World War II, Maugham made his home in south of France and continued to move between England and Nice till his death in 1965.
At the time of Maugham's birth, French law was such that all foreign boys born in France became liable for conscription. Thus, Maugham was born within the Embassy, legally recognized as UK territory.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 3, 2022
In 1948 Gainsborough released a portmanteau film of four W Somerset Maugham stories called Quartet, the success of which prompted a second outing in 1950 of three more Maugham stories under the title of Trio. A further three-part collection appeared a year later, called Encore (this one produced by Two Cities).
Portmanteau films suffer the disadvantage of having to start and stop each story, thus causing the film as a whole to lose momentum, but this is not a problem in the written form; each short story can stand alone. But in this edition, published with the film, the two forms are brought together, inviting comparison. Each of the three stories is followed by the screen adaptation. What I found most interesting was the way in which the screenplays differed from the stories and how influential the casting was on my imagining of the characters.
The stories in Trio are succinct and precise. The first two The Verger and The Know-all have neat twists and there is a transformative change in the third, Sanatorium. The first story concerns a verger of longstanding who is dismissed when the new vicar finds out the man can neither read nor write, despite the fact that the verger’s duties had always been performed meritoriously. It just wouldn’t do to have a person in that position who is illiterate. At a loss the verger wanders out of his usual way and spots a business opportunity, goes into trade and becomes very successful over the years. The screenplay expands this little story by introducing the verger’s family and inserting a whole scene where he is able to display his wealth. He makes a substantial donation to his old church after his new grandson is christened there.
The know-all of the title of the second story is named Max Kelada, travelling on a liner from San Francisco to Yokohama just after World War Two. Mr Gray, our narrator, is obliged to share his cabin on the crowded vessel with Mr Kelada who proves to be a man who knows everything about everything, much to the annoyance of Gray and the other passengers. At dinner when a pearl necklace worn by Mrs Ramsay becomes the subject of debate, Kelada says he’s an expert and the necklace is real. Mrs Ramsay’s husband says nonsense, it’s a cheap imitation. But what is the truth?
It’s a nice story but here the casting of the film adaptation influenced my imagining of the story. Wilfred Hyde White plays Gray, so he became more benign in my eyes, Kelada is played by Nigel Patrick, a solid leading man from the fifties, but a ‘Levantine’ in the story, someone born under sunnier skies than those found in England. Odd. Another oddity is that the destination is changed from Yokohama to Aden and the wager regarding the genuineness of the pearls, is changed from one hundred dollars to two five pound notes. Nothing really turns on this but they are curious changes.
Sanatorium, has a well to do former military man in his forties, Major Templeton, arriving at a tuberculosis sanatorium. Our narrator is Ashenden, Maugham’s secret agent character from another story, although he does no agenting in this tale. The sanatorium has a number of irascible or disagreeable characters in residence and a young woman Evie Bishop, a new arrival. Templeton and Evie fall in love. Despite their serious illnesses, indeed, chronic illnesses, they decide to marry, which lightens the hearts of their fellow patients.
Again the casting in the adaptation had an impact. Michael Rennie plays Templeton and Jean Simmons plays Evie. I know these performers but I have not seen the film so I don’t know, but I feel both of would have been far too healthy for their pallid roles. The curmudgeons of the film are played by Finley Currie and John Laurie (Private Fraser from Dad’s Army), so the dour personas in the story become more comic in the script.
An odd thought occurred to me. Sanatorium made me think of Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates, published in the fifties and featuring several stories set in United States tuberculosis wards after World War Two. Much darker than the Maugham story but with characters in both who are fated to spend the rest of their lives in the clinic.*
*Maugham’s mother Edith died of tuberculosis when her son was eight years old.
Portmanteau films suffer the disadvantage of having to start and stop each story, thus causing the film as a whole to lose momentum, but this is not a problem in the written form; each short story can stand alone. But in this edition, published with the film, the two forms are brought together, inviting comparison. Each of the three stories is followed by the screen adaptation. What I found most interesting was the way in which the screenplays differed from the stories and how influential the casting was on my imagining of the characters.
The stories in Trio are succinct and precise. The first two The Verger and The Know-all have neat twists and there is a transformative change in the third, Sanatorium. The first story concerns a verger of longstanding who is dismissed when the new vicar finds out the man can neither read nor write, despite the fact that the verger’s duties had always been performed meritoriously. It just wouldn’t do to have a person in that position who is illiterate. At a loss the verger wanders out of his usual way and spots a business opportunity, goes into trade and becomes very successful over the years. The screenplay expands this little story by introducing the verger’s family and inserting a whole scene where he is able to display his wealth. He makes a substantial donation to his old church after his new grandson is christened there.
The know-all of the title of the second story is named Max Kelada, travelling on a liner from San Francisco to Yokohama just after World War Two. Mr Gray, our narrator, is obliged to share his cabin on the crowded vessel with Mr Kelada who proves to be a man who knows everything about everything, much to the annoyance of Gray and the other passengers. At dinner when a pearl necklace worn by Mrs Ramsay becomes the subject of debate, Kelada says he’s an expert and the necklace is real. Mrs Ramsay’s husband says nonsense, it’s a cheap imitation. But what is the truth?
It’s a nice story but here the casting of the film adaptation influenced my imagining of the story. Wilfred Hyde White plays Gray, so he became more benign in my eyes, Kelada is played by Nigel Patrick, a solid leading man from the fifties, but a ‘Levantine’ in the story, someone born under sunnier skies than those found in England. Odd. Another oddity is that the destination is changed from Yokohama to Aden and the wager regarding the genuineness of the pearls, is changed from one hundred dollars to two five pound notes. Nothing really turns on this but they are curious changes.
Sanatorium, has a well to do former military man in his forties, Major Templeton, arriving at a tuberculosis sanatorium. Our narrator is Ashenden, Maugham’s secret agent character from another story, although he does no agenting in this tale. The sanatorium has a number of irascible or disagreeable characters in residence and a young woman Evie Bishop, a new arrival. Templeton and Evie fall in love. Despite their serious illnesses, indeed, chronic illnesses, they decide to marry, which lightens the hearts of their fellow patients.
Again the casting in the adaptation had an impact. Michael Rennie plays Templeton and Jean Simmons plays Evie. I know these performers but I have not seen the film so I don’t know, but I feel both of would have been far too healthy for their pallid roles. The curmudgeons of the film are played by Finley Currie and John Laurie (Private Fraser from Dad’s Army), so the dour personas in the story become more comic in the script.
An odd thought occurred to me. Sanatorium made me think of Eleven Kinds of Loneliness by Richard Yates, published in the fifties and featuring several stories set in United States tuberculosis wards after World War Two. Much darker than the Maugham story but with characters in both who are fated to spend the rest of their lives in the clinic.*
*Maugham’s mother Edith died of tuberculosis when her son was eight years old.
April 21, 2021
Somerset Maugham has always been a favorite author of mine since I read “Of Human Bondage.” His short stories are just as appealing to me-quick and concise insights into the human condition, sometimes sad, sometimes humorous. I think he’s always been a little underrated.
August 3, 2016
clean, part of one story was enough. three was a lot.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews