Mrs Craddock

by W. Somerset Maugham

Bertha Ley comes of age, inherits her father's money and promptly marries a handsome, calm and unimaginative man. Bertha is wildly in love with Edward and believes she can be happy playing the role of a dutiful wife in their country home. But, intelligent and sensual, she quickly becomes bored by her oppressively conventional life, and finds her love for her husband slipping away.

Originally rejected by publishers, Mrs Craddock was first published only on condition that certain 'shocking' passages were removed. It was thirty years before the full text could be published.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Novels, Romance, British Literature, 20th Century, Historical

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1902

About the author

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 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.

Reviews

[Paul Bryant · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the five possible ratings we give books here, three stars is the most irritating. It looks like a hmmm yeah okay blah blah not bad, didn’t rock my world kind of statement but it in fact hides complexities other ratings don’t have. You know where you are with one, two, four and five stars. But three can be 2.5 rounded up – it was bad but I love this author so I will be kind, or, it was horribly written but the main idea was great, etc, or on the other hand it can be 3.5 rounded down, kind of within sight of greatness but just missing, like a cathedral with no stained glass windows.

This Somerset Maughan novel is a 3.5. It was written when he was 26 which is a rather ghastly thought because it’s way too clever and insightful for any 26 year old. Starts off as a silky funny social comedy all about the landed gentry of merry England circa 1899. There is much talk about eating :

Dr Ramsay ate his lunch with a voracity that Miss Ley thought must be a satisfaction to his butcher.

Mrs Ramsay…thought of nothing beyond her husband’s enormous appetite and the methods of subduing it.

If health and a good digestion are all that is necessary in a husband, Bertha certainly ought to be the most contented woman alive.

but then moves swiftly into a careful, sympathetic and convincing portrait of a marriage between the lovely young Bertha and the stolid unthinking Edward, a handsome big strong man with not too many brains. This marriage is quite wrong from the start :

Love to her was a fire, a flame that absorbed the rest of life; love to him was a convenient and necessary institution of Providence, a matter about which there was as little need for excitement as about the ordering of a new suit of clothes

The focus is always on Bertha who gets gradually worn down by this bovine hunk she thought she loved and the tone downshifts into explorations of dark psychological landscapes of wretched wrenched emotion - it must be one of the best novels about a female character written by a man - but it always effortlessly surfaces time and again into the daylight of ironic social fun.

The most hilarious section is when the Bovine Hunk goes into politics and gets elected as a local councilor. It turns out that his brand of semi-coherent gibberish is just what the public had been looking for.

This was my first Somerset Maugham – it seems he has a dodgy reputation these days, maybe because he was way too successful and wrote novels, stories, plays, essays and probably songs and shopping lists too. But I will be reading him again for sure.

[Djali · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un libro che definirei perfetto, di quelli che ti rimangono addosso come cicatrici sulla pelle.
A distanza di sei anni dalla lettura, non riesco a togliermelo dalla testa. Finitomi tra le mani quasi per caso, rovistando curiosamente tra i vecchi volumi di casa, polveroso, ingiallito dal tempo, con pagine mangiate, è finito tra i libri che hanno segnato la mia storia di lettrice e, senza dubbio, tra quelli che mi hanno fatto riscoprire il piacere della lettura e grazie ai quali ho continuato, anzi, ripreso a divorare i libri.
Prosa impeccabile. La paura di leggere altro di Maugham è forte, sono convinta che pochi siano all’altezza di questo.

[Chrissie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excerpt from Wiki:

"Maugham had some difficulty finding a publisher (for this book). Completed in 1900, the novel was eventually published in 1902 by William Heinemann, but only on the condition that the author took out passages which, according to Heinemann, might have offended the readers. A successful and popular book, Mrs Craddock was reissued in 1903 and again in 1908. In 1938 the first non-Bowdlerized version, stylistically improved by Maugham, came out."

Non-Bowdlerized means a non-censored version, i.e. Heinemann's previous omissions had been reinserted. This is what I have read, the 1938 edition based on Maugham's original manuscript with only minor punctuation and grammatical corrections. It begins with a short but interesting introduction about both the book and its author.

In this novel, W. Somerset Maugham describes extremely well the marriage of two, where love is not equally reciprocated. Which would you choose: to love another with all your heart or to be yourself loved with passion? Think about this awhile. It is not a simple question.

Bertha Ley comes to be married to Edward Craddock. Bertha is passionate and devoted. Edward is virile, handsome and strong, at least at the start, when they marry. A good man, virtuous and honorable but also level-headed and placid and totally obtuse to Bertha’s emotional needs! Is he really as kind as he seems? She is marrying down, but she doesn’t care; she is marrying for love! He is marrying up in society, but only if he can prove his value to those of status in the community. A marriage of two individuals, each having completely different temperaments. Maugham draws each superbly well.

The setting is a country village, Blackstable, in Kent, about 1890 to 1900. There are excursions to London and Paris and Rome. The question is: who will make these excursions and who will remain home? He or she, but not both.

The story is about taking chances.

Th story is realistic and true to life.

Maugham capably and fairly draws two diametrically opposed characters. He uses irony often. He equally well makes clear his own values, but never shoving his views down your throat. Besides marital incompatibility, religion and politics, love and passion, common good sense, public opinion, education and the value of travel are the varied themes cleverly woven into the story. Maugham is talking to his readers, subtlely expressing his views through the story. I like stories that make me think. I also like how he accurately draws another time and place different from my own showing both what is shared what has changed.

The audiobook I listened to was narrated by Beth Chalmers. I really did not like the voices she uses for several subsidiary female characters, particularly Fanny Glover, the sister of a town vicar; I found these ridiculously squeaky and shrill. Nevertheless, the story is easy to follow, and the other characters’ voices are fine. I also liked how you audibly heard the maturation that occurs in Bertha. I have given the narration three stars; on the whole, I liked it.

If you have not read W. Somerset Maugham, you should. My advice would be though to not necessarily start with his most acclaimed book!

Mrs Craddock 4 stars
Cakes and Ale 4 stars
The Painted Veil 4 stars
Christmas Holiday 3 stars
The Moon and Sixpence 2 stars
Of Human Bondage 2 stars

[Georgia Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember when I was first married. I was in a doctor's waiting room. The nurse called "Mrs -." And I just sat there. It didn't register. Mrs - was for my mother-in-law, not me. The "Mrs" in this novel title might conjure thoughts of someone else, too. Someone more mature and, from the sound of her last name, less than lovely. Yet, Craddock in Welsh means beloved and this is what the young woman dreams to be in this novel named for her.

Mrs Craddock is young, innocent, and a romantic. She infuriated me at times while I got to know her. Yet, I saw myself in her as well. This is where Somerset Maugham is so good. Note, I didn't say at his best. That will come later in his career, particularly with his stories of expats overseas. The unlikeliest of characters in outlandish even horrible situations will contain something that readers can recognize in themselves. There, he is a master.

Still, this early novel of his is well worth reading. Though short and quite simple, it is a devil to forget. I wanted to at first. Now, I don't. It cuts close to the bone of married life, the reality not expectation. And it contains the saddest and most beautiful kiss that you can imagine and that I have ever read.

[Sketchbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If love dies--" Don't ask, What if? It always dies.
Get your second wind and go on.

[Nazanin Taghizadieh نازنین تقی زادیه · Rating 1 out of 5]

دل های ضعیف و ترسو هرگز نمی توانند قلب زنان زیبا را تسخیر کنند

بزرگترین وظیفه آدم این است که دیگران را به حال خود رها کند

خوشبختی هرگز همان نیست که آدم برای خود در خیال مجسم می کند و انتظارش را دارد

بین دو عاشق، همواره یکی عاشق است و دیگری عشق او را می پذیرد. همواره او که عشق می ورزد به خطا رفته است

[Richard Seltzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel begins with terse and memorable ironic wit like Oscar Wilde, like George Bernard Shaw. The British caste system and its related prejudices and pompous tomfoolery are easy targets. The author might very well have hammered home obvious messages of social justice, with the characters as pawns in a game of moral social-consciousness. But, miracle of miracles, the main character, Bertha AKA Mrs. Craddock comes alive and does what she will, and falls in and out of love, matures and falls in and out of love again, as she advances to the ripe old age of thirty. And the reader gets wrapped up in her life and the trite moral and social lessons are all forgotten. Her husband, from a slightly lower caste, who rises to the ranks of a gentleman through hard work and ingenuity and who might in the hands of a Tolstoy have become an exemplary figure like Levin in Anna Karenina is remembered by his widow and by the reader as an emotionless though well-meaning man, incapable of passionate love.

This is not a great work of literature, but I thoroughly enjoyed it because Bertha was so very much alive. And for me, that's what makes a novel worth reading -- plot be damned. I crave that illusion of getting into someone else's skin, imagining what it would be like to live a life very different from my own. And Maugham is a master at that kind of magic, even in his minor works.

Another explanation of the pleasure of reading such a dated and long-forgotten novel appears on pp. 144-145
"She found unexpected satisfaction in the half-forgotten masterpieces of the past, in poets not quite divine whom fashion had left on one side, in the playwright, novelists, and essayists whose remembrance lives only with the bookworm. It is a relief sometimes to look away from the bright sun of perfect achievement; and the writers who appealed to their age and not to posterity have by contrast a subtle charm. Undazzled by their splendor, one may discern more easily their individualities and the spirit of their time; they have pleasant qualities not always found among their betters, and there is even a certain pathos in their incomplete success."

[Benjamin Duffy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Between any two lovers there is always one who loves, and one who lets themself be loved. It is the one who loves, that always gets hurt."

This quote from Mrs. Craddock (I've rendered it as best I can from the original French) sums the book up well. The theme of unrequited love, or less-requited love at least, is also central to Maugham's superb Of Human Bondage (in fact, I believe a character in that book says it as well, only in English).

While Mrs. Craddock is definitely not up to the snuff of Of Human Bondage, it's a powerful story in its own right. For one of Maugham's earliest published works, it already shows his impressive capacity to drag the reader with him through joy and despair. It also shows his knack for presenting characters as three-dimensional people with realistic motivations and needs; he does an amazing job in this novel of presenting characters in bitter conflict with each other, yet he refuses to take the side of either one, leaving the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.

Some of the writing is a little precious and melodramatic compared to his stark, raw later work; this is clearly a novel with one foot still in the 19th century. But it was still a very worthwhile read, for its emotional impact and as an interesting glimpse into Maugham's development as a writer.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

W. Somerset Maugham is one of my all time favorite writers but I was very disappointed in Mrs. Craddock. I’m still sorting why I didn’t like it but one thing that grated was the exaggerated emotions of the main character. Even taking into account her extreme age, eighteen when the story opens, her lost in puppy love gushing about a local farmer named Edward Craddock did not ring true or I suppose teenagers do have such feelings but they continue into her twenties and we have to hear about them unrelentingly.

Throw into the mix that I listened to this novel on librivox.org and the no doubt well intentioned reader made Mrs. Craddock’s voice whiny to the extreme as well has having Edward’s blithely practical reactions to his wife’s need for affection blustery to the nth degree. Written 1902 this was Maugham’s fourth novel. I suppose it could feel heartening to young writers to know that even the best authors have a learning curve.

[Arwen56 · Rating 3 out of 5]

“La signora Craddock” è la storia (che sempre si ripeterà, non per tutti fortunatamente, ma per molti sì) di un rapporto tra un uomo e una donna, sul quale si erano riversate molte speranze, ma che si rivelerà essere molto diverso da quel che i due protagonisti dello stesso avevano creduto.

Scritto molto bene, sebbene non sempre del tutto riuscito, amaro, ironico e spesso pungente, il romanzo ci rammenta quel che fondamentalmente siamo, ossia degli egoisti e, potendolo eventualmente fare, dei despoti. Non per cattiveria, ma semplicemente perché questa è la nostra natura. Ci piacerebbe che tutto precedesse secondo i nostri desiderata, ci piacerebbe che tutti fossero felici quando noi siamo felici e che tutti fossero tristi se noi siamo tristi. Ma le cose non funzionano così, è bene farsene una ragione.

Il pessimismo di Maugham, devo dire, mi è congeniale, per cui mi sono molto divertita leggendo questo romanzo, che è una delle sue prime opere e contiene diversi elementi autobiografici, come avviene quasi sempre, del resto, a chiunque scriva. L’autore ha una scarsa opinione del sesso femminile, ma neanche gli uomini ne escono molto bene. Di conseguenza, meriti e demeriti vengono equamente distribuiti tra le due parti. Ne risulta un quadro piuttosto veritiero, a mio modesto avviso, dei rapporti sociali e personali, anche se un tantino grezzo e, talvolta, parecchio superficiale. Il che è un peccato. Ma, ripeto, questa è uno dei suoi primi scritti. Non subito, ma a breve, sono intenzionata a leggere “Schiavo d’amore”, forse il suo romanzo più famoso. E vedremo come andrà. Le premesse per una buona lettura ci sono tutte.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of a marriage, seen mainly through the eyes of the young wife. She brings alot of unrealistic expectations into the relationship, then feels frustrated when her husband doesn't meet them. Although Bertha can seem whiney and needy at times, the author still can make us feel sympathetic towards her. The husband isn't portrayed as an awful ogre, but simply a man whose emotions are more subdued than his wife. An interesting and realistic look at marriage during that time.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Free download available at Project Gutenberg.

In this book, Maugham describes the English society by the end of the 19th century.

Through the marriage of Bertha Ley and Edward Craddock, the author seems to approach to the masterpiece written by Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary.

A splendid book. We never expect the way the plot develops itself wit always with an unexpected end. That is why I do love his books.

5* The Razor's Edge
5* Of Human Bondage
4* The Painted Veil
4* The Narrow Corner
4* The Moon And Sixpence
3* Liza of Lambeth
3* Ashenden
4* For Services Rendered and Other Plays
2* The Circle - A Comedy in Three Acts
3* The Magician
4* Mrs Craddock
TR Cakes and Ale
TR Up At The Villa
TR The Trembling of a Leaf

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

19 DEC 2014 -- spied on Laura's update feed. Sounds super.

Free download here -- http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47470

Thank you, Laura! You ALWAYS read the best books!

10 DEC 2017 - a realistic novel of marriage. Bertha brought her unrealistic expectations of marriage and person into her relationship and marriage to Mr Craddock. She gave in to her carnal feelings and married the best looking specimen of man she found - something that does not always work out. Also, Craddock was a man of simple needs and pleasures - he did not require the mental and emotional stimulation which Bertha did - the farm and his wife were quite enough for him. A marriage between two completely opposite individuals can work if each is committed to the hard work to make it so. Bertha was not so committed and Craddock did not possess enough experience to understand Mrs Craddock.

[Amanda Brookfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Somerset Maugham first presented the manuscript of 'Mrs Craddock' to his publishers it was deemed too shocking to publish. When the book finally did see light of day, in 1902, it was on the condition that the 'shocking' sections were removed. Knowing this, it is impossible not to embark on a reading of the novel in its current unedited form without speculating on what had been judged too terrible to appear in print, while at the same time marvelling that any publisher would want to leave out a single one of its brilliant sentences.

Lots of authors swing in and out of female and male heads in the telling of their stories, but I have to say that - speaking as a woman - Somerset Maugham's understanding of the female psyche is uncanny. In fact, if I had not known that the author of this wonderful story was male, then I swear I would have decided that such insights could only have come from a fellow female! Couple that with the book having been written a hundred and twenty odd years ago and the achievement is all the more remarkable.

As its title suggests, 'Mrs Craddock' is essentially the story of one woman, Berta Ley, who inherits a lot of money on her father's death and promptly marries Edward Craddock, a placid, unimaginative man with whom she believes herself to be deeply in love. Love is a funny business. If you believe yourself to be in love then....you are! But Maugham shows us so skilfully, right from the get-go, that this is not going to be a match made in heaven. Berta is wilful, and romantic, and misguided, ensuring in so many ways that the road she travels is never going to be easy. Yet neither do her choices turn out to be wholly bad either, happiness and satisfaction often emerging from the most unexpected situations. Best of all, it never feels as if Maugham is judging Berta, or indeed any of his characters. Instead, he creates the impression of merely presenting what happened in this woman's life, managing in the process both to heighten the tension of his plot, and also to create the clever illusion that his story is just a reflection of the haphazard roller-coaster of real life: Stuff happens. We make decisions. Some of them go wrong. We regroup. We make more decisions. There unexpected highs and terrible downs. Surviving it all can take many forms.

All of which made 'Mrs Craddock' for me one of the most perceptive and poignant portraits of a marriage that I have ever read. Its realism is startling and compelling. No wonder the Victorians/Edwardians were shocked!! And by that I refer to the realism of feelings explored, rather than anything remotely 'pornographic'. There are physical longings aplenty between the characters, making the world go round as they always do, but never overstepping the bounds of decency in terms of how they are described. Maugham is too great a writer for that, knowing that what is suggested has far more power than what is actually set down in black and white.

At various points of reading I kept imagining that I knew what was going to happen next. But I was always wrong! And that was another reason I loved this novel. A domestic pot-boiler! Vivid and relevant in spite of being 120 years old! Somerset Maugham may have written many more famous titles, but 'Mrs Craddock' has it all.

[Jose Santos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Esta foi a primeira obra que li de Somerset Maughgam e irei certamente ler mais deste autor.
Este é sem dúvida, para a época em que foi publicado (1902), um romance audaz e controverso. Gostei do retrato da pequena comunidade, num círculo restrito de personagens e acho que o autor é um exelente construtor de personagens.
Tanto as principais, como as secundárias são muito interessantes, mesmo que as suas "personalidades" sejam discutíveis.
A minha favorita é, sem dúvida, a Miss Ley. Uma tia solteirona e bastante arguta.
De resto, este romance é sobre o casamento. Libertador, apaixonado e asfixiante.

[Wealhtheow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maugham wrote a great deal about unequal love affairs, and this is a particularly infuriating one. Mrs. Craddock tells the story of an intelligent, educated, tasteful young woman who falls in love with a very provincial, limited young farmer. She stubbornly resists her guardians’ well meaning attempts to break the attachment, and marries him as quickly as she can. Edward Craddock is a good man by his peers’ standards, but his narrow, self-satisfied mind precludes any understanding between the lovebirds. This is a brutal book, but there are many beautiful flashes of prose and psychological insight. Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book. Overall, it’s a much better version of Ethan Frome.

[Smitha Murthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would it be a wee bit scandalous if I say that I liked ‘Mrs Craddock’ even better than Maugham’s classic bildungsroman ‘Of Human Bondage?’ Perhaps. I fell in love with the uneven pace of ‘Mrs.Craddock.’ There was something that I could relate to in the slow unraveling of a marriage that Maugham paints here. It’s not his best work, yes, as the narration is unwieldy and Maugham tries a bit too hard to be Oscar Wilde. And he almost succeeds. In Bertha’s aunt, he has created a character for the ages. I laughed aloud at some of her witticisms, reminiscent of the Dowager Countess from Downton Abbey.

Ultimately, I finished this in a day because it was just unputdownable.

[Ava · Rating 3 out of 5]

این کتاب هم از اولین کارهای موام محسوب می شه و یه جایی در گذشته دور تقریبا😊 یه جایی حدود یک قرن پیش چاپ شده . اولین چاپش گویا سال ۱۹۰۲ بوده. از نظر یه خواننده ی امروزی کتاب یه مقدار خود سانسوری داره. اما باز هم ازین نظر که موام مشاهده گر خوبی ه و انگیزه ها و احساسات شخصیت هاش رو خوب وصف می کنه، مورد توجه هستش. داستان بسیار ساده است و و راوی سرانجام یک ازدواج عجولانه در بافت انگلیس اون زمان هستش. تضاد بین این زن و شوهر گاهی من رو یاد کتاب مادام بواری انداخت.
��تاب چندان جالبی برام نبود اما من همچنان قصد دارم از موام بخونم.

آوا
تیر ۹۸

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bettie's Books

[Catherine Vamianaki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bertha a rich girl who loved Edward. But did Edward love her too?

[Gwynplaine26th · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vibrante affresco di amori, freddure e temperamenti nel verde paesaggio del Kent e della provincia inglese vittoriana. La parte finale è indubbiamente la più interessante, l'evoluzione e la crescita emotiva di Berta, penetrante e non più così indulgente tra le debolezze umane.

[Fonch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ladies, and gentlemen if Providence is propitious my intention is to write three reviews, and more after the great YouTuber @quillobarrios in Thursday's live told me, that I hardly post anything on Instagram. By the way I recommend his wonderful channel is one of the great youtubers of Real Madrid. From today they will have the honor of enjoying it triple, since it will edit three videos per day (the Youtube account of Quillo Barrios is in the review of this book, which was published on Instagram).
Regarding the book that concerns us, which has been my last reading (penultimate, since a few days ago "Daughters of Mary" by the Valencian writer Fernando Vizcaíno Casas was read https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... ). I suppose you remember, and if I do not refresh your memory, that my friend Enrique Casany Alonso-villalobos was promised that he would reread, and a review of the wonderful "The razor's edge" would be written https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... the fact that April has been such a weak month in readings. It made me postpone reading "The Razor's Edge", and dedicate myself to expanding my readings for the challenge of @goodreads. Instead he read this book, which Maugham wrote in the late nineteenth century, and which he reissued twenty years later with some modification.

It saddens me sovereignly, but much to my regret I have suspended this novel. Before explaining my reasons, another fact must be added. This book is the second longest book Maugham wrote after "Human Servitude" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... (others like "Razor's Edge" seem longer to me). Nor is it that it has so many pages 286 in particular. However, and returning to Ariadne's thread despite how well written it is, and despite being a wonderful analysis of the life of a marriage, its crises, and heartbreaks. Better than George Eliot's "Middlemarch" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... (although I like Eliot's work better as a novel). With all this book I have been very bored. I must confess. It has a virtue that, is that, it is able to recreate a great period of the life of a group of characters during a large period of time (that was one of the virtues of the literature of pre, and between wars), but unlike "Thepainted veil" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9..., or "The razor's edge" where the spiritual progression of a person is appreciated (his metanoia), or conversion. Nor does it take us to exotic settings such as "The Sixpenny Moon" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... (a life inspired by Gaugin, which may well have inspired Irving Stone's bionovels "The Torment, and the Ecstasy" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3..., or his novels about Darwin. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..., Sigmund Freud https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7..., or Vincent van Gogh https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... among others. If "Torment, and Ecstasy" inspired Carol Reed's wonderful adaptation. Van Gogh's inspired Vincent Minelli's film "The Madman with Red Hair" played by Kirk Douglas, and in which Gaugin also appears whose interpretation earned him an Academy Award to Mexican Anthony Quinn. (Personally, I liked Kirk Douglas' performance much better.) Nor is it a plot as fantastic, nor esoteric as "The Wizard" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... inspired by the life of Aleister Crowley https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... It is not the first suspense I give to Somerset Maugham https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... (who for me is one of the best writers I have read, but still has books in which I have suspended him, such as "The Narrow corner" and some other short stories). Many writers would sell their soul (especially the writers of our time, although they do not confess it, at least the one who has a vocation as a writer, yes) to write novels as good as those written by W. Somerset Maugham. I remember a "The Narrow Corner" that I put a two, because there was a suicide, and a murder, and it seemed a tad immoral, but it was well written, and had coas of interest like that translator of the works of the Portuguese Camoens https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... That work had a Conradian touch https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... But so far this is the only work of Maugham that I recognize, that has become heavy for me, and has bored me.
By the way, if Maugham had wanted to write a historical novel he would have had a tremendous success as shown in the novel "Then, Now" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... (incomprehensible the very low rating that this wonder has in Goodreads) where there are impeccable recreations of César Borgia, and Machiavelli (whose experiences in this story will be the fruit of inspiration for his novel "The "Mandrake" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... ). We'll see if Samuel Shellabarger's "The Prince of Foxes" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... (a novel that is one of my friend's favorites @JulieDavis https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... to whom I take the opportunity to send an affectionate Hispanic hug) is able to overcome it. I think it's going to cost you a lot.
This novel is more realistic, and tells more everyday events. The protagonist is a girl with property whose father died, and is raised by her aunt Polly Leys (no, she is not Aunt Polly from "Tom Sawyer" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..., nor the adorable girl created by Eleanor H. Porter https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1... . The girl that many of us would love to have as a daughter. Since it is one of the most beneficent beings, and optimistic of universal literature). Aunt Polly is the most interesting character in the novel. It's a shame that neither Berta Leys (later Craddock), nor Edward Craddock (my sister's name in English likes it very much) are up to the task. One of the problems with this story is the traditional Maughamian misogyny whose exception might be Carey's second girlfriend in "Human Bondage." But Maugham usually has a terrible opinion of his female characters, perhaps the most repulsive being Mildred (along with Nefer Nefer of "Sinuhe the Egyptian" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...) a man-eater. Some may be a bit foolish like Lawrence Darrell's girlfriend, or destructive like Sophie Campbell, or immature like Kitty Fane from "The Painted Veil", or they can be irritating like some Salvation Army character, even if they end up getting their man. Maugham tends to treat the Catholic Church much better than the Protestant Church, and something in his favor is his Hispanophilia. He didn't believe in the Black Legend as shown in "Catalina" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9... (his latest novel, and his note also seems to me to have an unfairly low rating on Goodreads), and he was a lover of El Greco.
The problem I see with this novel is that except with Polly, it is very difficult to empathize with the characters. Bertha is despite what her aunt says is a rather foolish character, irrational, and subject to her passions. She is in love with Edward, and against all odds, and tide insists on marrying him despite, to the opposition of her tutor Doctor Ramsay, and the meddlesome, nosy Fanny Glover. Maugham says that the inspiration to create this character was Amelia Sedley (the adorable but tasteless protagonist of William Thackeray's "The Vanity Fair" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5... although the real protagonist is Becky Sharp the unscrupulous careerist who could inspire Scarlett O'Hara https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...). Perhaps Maugham is too harsh on Fanny Glover's character, especially at the end. As for Craddock, he is a country man, hardworking, and somewhat chauvinistic. At first I thought he might be a fortune hunter, who was going after Bertha's capital. But I was wrong. Bertha's problem is that due to the adoration she feels for Edward Craddock she happens to omit his faults, and insist on marrying him against all odds, although according to her he may be a dissolute, a drunkard, or a gambler (which is none of those things). The opposition of Ramsay, and Miss Glover is due to social snobbery, which is fiercely attacked by Maugham. Then as the story progresses we will see how they change their minds, and go on to defend Craddock tooth and nail.
Of the best of the novel is undoubtedly Maugham's acidic dialogues (some very politically incorrect as when Polly Leys tells Doctor Ram, sey that the woman is intolerant, and spiteful. Something that cannot be said today), except for some honorable dialogues of Polly with the Doctor, Miss Glover, or Edward Craddock. Maugham is ruthless with Bertha, who is unable to realize the success, which has her husband, and that it is not he who arouses the hilarity of the Brandertons, Hancock, Ryle Hoycot, or Anthill but her. Her passion makes her act like a spoiled child, and capricious. She wants more attention from her husband, but what she does is make a fool of herself every time, which presents herself. I think there are two times when Edward Craddock goes a little too far when he replaces her with Mrs. Glover as a tennis partner (because she doesn't play so well. He said protocol prevented him from taking her as a couple throughout the event. I understand that she feels hurt). On the subject of beech trees, the owner is not her husband, and yet, despite her (Craddock's) protests, she ends up cutting them. There is a very dramatic event, that every parturient who has suffered it will understand the evolution of Bertha, since it changes a person this fact. The relationship as the film of Viaggio a Italia (film by Roberto Rosellini starring George Sanders and, Ingrid Bergman). It cools down, they even end up having several crises (it seemed to me a realistic study of the phases, and crises that a marriage goes through). Many times Bertha will threaten separation, or divorce. There will be a time when she flirts with a young libertine, she may have become Madame Bovary https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2..., Ana Ozores https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6..., or Ana Karenina https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8... , or even the suburb Liza of Lambeth https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... (this one does have the note, which I think, that corresponds to it), since trousers (happy expression of Dorothy Leigh Sayers https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9...) with a young libertine, who could be his daughter. In fact, Bertha could quietly be a Cougar. Thanks to his aunt, and the love he feels for his aunt, he will prevent him from having such a terrible fate. There will also be jealousy, quarrels, or misunderstandings. Bertha is unable to perceive reality, and the success that her husband has. His political triumph is due to something that is happening to the boredom of the political class, and that people are fed up with the system, and its management, and that speaks to the people of their needs. In any case, one cannot sympathize with Craddock too chauvinistic, and ignorant, see his bad conception of literature, and his ignorance when judging the letters of Madame Sevigny https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... whom he despises for being a foreigner. What counts is exciting, but then it is very boring. It is true that the characters travel to London, Paris, Rome, but the novel is too corseted. It's a bit more realistic. The end could be intuited, and he lets it fall, although at first it is dreamlike. But this proves how unconscious, and irresponsible, Edward Craddock is. It is very interesting the reflection that Maugham makes of suicide, and its cause that is to have stopped believing in God. He goes so far as to say that what prevents suicides is the fear of condemnation at the Last Judgment. As religiosity has weakened, these things happen, and suicide has become a pandemic that our rulers try to hide from us. The ending is very good, and shows the purifying power of literature. In fact, the end is a perfect summary of the whole work. Perhaps not as good finisher as Evelyn Waugh https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... although, if more regular. I like better how Maugham writes. Although "Brideshead Revisited" is https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3... better than everything Maugham has written, and I like Waugh better. Before I start writing my next review. There is one thing I forgot to say about the end, which I will not reveal, but which is a characteristic of W. Somerset Maugham. Although Maugham's endings in this case may be sad. They will never leave a bad body in the reader, because Maugham has a quality that my admired Don @juan_manuel_de_prada https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... understands and that is that he puts saccharin, or in other words. You sweeten the ending. In such a way that it does not end up being a tragedy like the novels of Thomas Hardy https://www.goodreads.com/author/show..., or the books of Arthur Schopenhauer https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... On the contrary, as the back cover of my book says, they are his books comedies of life. This debate was had by my schoolmate, brother, and friend Kunniotani, and I. That he does not live at the cinema to see movies that depress him, as happened to me this Friday watching the night of the living dead of Romero, but that one is going to enjoy, and have fun, that life is hard enough to add more deprivations. He did not buy essentially the speech to my friend Kunniotani, because sometimes it is necessary to make people aware of showing them unjust situations, and the desire to end them. Of course, the problem is that we are going over with so much denunciation, and we are depriving people of hope. Charles Dickens does https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... do more to change the injustices he experienced in his time than any activist today. That is why I think Maugham's behavior is optimal, and how this novel ends. I regret that the stupidity of the characters, and a too bland plot forced me to put this note. I can only tell Somerset Maugham (Maugham was the inspiration for the character played by Morgan Freeman in "Seven" https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...) what Maira told Steve Urkel in Family Matter." Don't worry Steve my Einstein also had his failures," https://www.goodreads.com/author/show.... Next time I think he will come out much better. With all the pain in my heart my grade is (2/5). PD. By the way Maugham was able to devote himself to writing, because G.K. Chesterton was https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... the one who approved, and recommended his manuscript "Liza of Lambeth". So we owe it to G.K. Chesterton to be able to enjoy Maugham. One more gift from our beloved San G.K.C.

[Dana Loo · Rating 4 out of 5]

E' il primo romanzo di Somerset Maugham che leggo, tra l'altro un'opera quasi prima e, anche per questo, lettura davvero sorprendente, coinvolgente sopratutto per quel che concerne l'evoluzione della protagonista man mano che si dipana la sua storia con Edward. Un romanzo di rottura con la tradizione vittoriana che espone, in modo decisamente moderno e senza reticenze, un conflitto di personalità ma sopratutto di sentimenti all'interno di un matrimonio piuttosto anomalo dove Bertha, una giovane donna volitiva, indipendente, passionale sceglie, sfidando più di qualche parere contrario, di sposare un bel giovane socialmente e intellettualmente inferiore, ma integro e di sani principi, il fattore della sua antica e nobile dimora. Bertha è assolutamente presa da Edward, lo idolatra, non vede alcun difetto in lui, è totalmente dominata dall' amore e dalla passione che la rende quasi cieca di fronte ai limiti che l'uomo rivela nella sfera privata. Amato e rispettato da tutti, onesto lavoratore, pilastro della piccola comunità rurale ma totalmente anaffettivo, indifferente alle sue sollecitazioni, incurante e inconsapevole delle umiliazioni e del dolore che infligge alla giovane ed eccitabile moglie la quale, capisce ben presto che Edward è incapace di ricambiare la sua passione, semplicemente od ottusamente non se ne cura. Un uomo irritante nella sua giovialità, con una visione del matrimonio fin troppo convenzionale, ancorata ancora a vecchie ideologie. Dopo un episodio tragico, la perdita del loro bambino, nato morto, e di fronte all'ennesimo comportamente insensibile del marito, comincia ad aprirsi un baratro tra i due, ma è sempre Bertha l'unica consapevole del fallimento del loro matrimonio, sopratutto del mutare del suo amore, della sua passione in disprezzo e poi in indifferenza. Cominciano le separazioni sempre più lunghe nella speranza che lui possa sentire la sua mancanza, le tentazioni nella figura del giovane cugino, l'ennesima delusione... La parte finale è la più bella dal punto di vista psicologico ed introspettivo, dell'evoluzione del pensiero di Bertha, della sua dolorosa presa di coscienza e, alla fine, dell'accettazione di questa unione per quello che è. Se non che improvvisamente... Personaggio interessantissimo ma non è da meno zia Polly che, dall'alto della sua cinica e disincantata visione del mondo, ha subito ben chiara la portata della situazione, anche se preferisce non interferire e lasciare la nipote libera di decidere del proprio destino...

[Swati · Rating 5 out of 5]

An intimate and intuitive character study. I loved the exploration of the shifts of feelings that different relationships experience. Individual characters, too, like Bertha, Miss Ley, and Gerald were finely drawn. Miss Ley had me chuckling quite a few times with her wry, sarcastic wit.

One of Maugham's lesser known (?) but definitely worthwhile reads.

[Zoha Mortazavi · Rating 3 out of 5]

«بزرگ‌ترین وظیفه‌ی هر آدمی این است که دیگران را به حال خود رها کند.»

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Maybe it was the writing, maybe it was the prime insight into life during this period of time...but most likely it was because of its relevance. There is love, passion, sadness, frustration, and indifference. Mrs. Craddock is about human nature, and how in every relationship there is one who is loved and one who loves; a feeling that all of us have felt in a relationship at one point or another. Maugham masterfully guides us along the relationship of Mr. and Mrs. Craddock, giving us the details but neither directing us to the bias of either character. In addition, Maugham reflects upon emotions felt in relationships, such as the anxiety of not being loved, that are not as commented on in literature---and he does it well. Maugham begs the question, is it better to be passionate, present and in love with someone who is indifferent, or be indifferent yourself?

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

An impressive examination of, as the back jacket describes, "an unequal marriage". Maugham achieves a penetrating exploration of a young wife's emotions and shattering disappointments in the wake of her ill-advised infatuation with the simple and admirable man she insists on marrying.

The author was barely 26 when when he wrote this novel and I was mesmerized by his perceptive and mature realization of the protagonist, Bertha. Highly recommended novel.

[Mo · Rating 1 out of 5]

I initially enjoyed reading this, but as the story progressed I lost interest. Bertha's over-the-top drama became tedious and unbearable.

[Uli_iM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Про разных людей
Коров, собак и лошадей

Это очень потешное чтиво, вспоминая обсуждения на книжном клубе, у меня на лице появляется улыбка.
Стоит ли говорить, что тётушка моя люби��ая героиня?
Каждая реплика - стендап-перл.
Настроение книги такое чисто: "Вот это сплетня, ну а он такой прикинь что сделал?! ","Боже какой стыд, давай ещё!"

Разрушение воздушных замков - база на которой строится книга. Плохо ли это? Думаю, что это полезно, открыть глаза пошире в нужный момент. Это всегда неприятно, но очень действенно. Рада ,что главная героиня выбирает себя, хотя времена были абсолютно не про эти темы.
Я балдею от независимых сильных женщин, хочется каждой пожать руку. Книга читается легко. Советую каждой 18-19 летней куколке почитать, перед тем как съезжаться с парнем или упаси господь выйти за него. Сначала читаем, потом анализируем: любит вас и смотрит как котик на сметанку, а не кур и собак( в нашем случае чрезмерная дотка и полное отсутствие заинтересованности в вашей жизни)? Замечательно! Сходите на пару свиданок и позовите поклеить обои.
Если вдруг оказалось, что он как наш главный герой..то знай: подруга, тебе не нужны такие отношения.

Перечитаю обязательно♡

[São · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 estrelas, nao consigo dar 4 estrelas. Já li varios livros de Somerset Maugham, gosto bastante da sua escrita mas, de todos os que li, este foi o que gostei menos.
A escrita é muito boa, mas a historia nao me cativou.