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The voice of the turtle
The voice of the turtle is a short story by William Somerset Maugham. It was published in Nash's Magazine in January 1935. This particular short story deals, among other things, with the blind idolization of others.
11 pages, Unknown Binding
Published January 1, 1935
About the author
W. Somerset Maugham
1,836 books6,290 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
June 19, 2025
The Voice of The Turtle by William Somerset Maugham – one of my favorite novelists, author of Appearance and Reality https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
10 out of 10
‘I have learnt by experience that when a book makes a sensation it is just as well to wait a year before you read it. It is astonishing how many books then you need not read at all. But it chanced that one day I met Peter Melrose. With some misgiving I had accepted an invitation to a sherry party…’ this is at the beginning of the story…
And Peter Melrose is a novelist that has had good reviews, and some critics disproved, which explains the attitude of the narrator – we could presume it is based on Somerset Maugham himself, a god no less, if we agree with Penelope Lively, who says that the novelist creates a world in which whatever he says is the truth
This is detailed in According To Mark https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/... ‘the novelist decides what happens, in which way he will relate it’ and I have read in other books that some of the creators have in mind what the ending is, the whole plan, but others would just look for inspiration…
The young novelist in The Voice of The Turtle tells the narrator about his project, a book in which there is a love story between a young writer and a…prima donna – now let me digress, but not before inserting a spoiler alert, because the dysfunctional manner in which these notes are produced means I could never return to the ‘point’
Prima donna may be one of these words that have changed meaning – Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis looks at these transformations in his The King’s English https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/... and puts up some of the words that cannot be used anymore, or could not in his time
Take infamous, which comes from infamy, and yet, when Kingsley Amis was writing came to mean famous, ergo it became unusable, it could be the same for prima donna, initially a singer with extraordinary qualities, but now, as far as I know (it could be wrong) it is used mostly to signify somebody pretentious
In the short story, the narrator asks the young novelist if he had met a prima donna, and the latter says he had not, but had studied some biographies, so the older man is talking about inviting La Falteron for dinner, a famous singer, who lived just down the coast of the Riviera, where the novelist had been asked to stay
The prima donna was ‘a woman of ardent temperament, and she was celebrated not only for her singing, but for her love affairs’, she is retired now, and somehow, she makes me think of…Orange Jesus, the symbol of utter evil, for the under signed, but also of how little we have progressed in so many ways, in our social intelligence say
I mean, yes, there are all those fantastic discoveries, we can fly, write nonsense and post it on the net, but if you look at what the hoi polloi elect, the ‘values’ they share with these monsters, it gives you more than a headache, you would be tempted to say we are doomed, if the ‘greatest democracy’ will become again the realm of Trump, what is the hope?
On a personal, micro level, I had the ‘chance’ to listen to some successful people (in money terms) as they were partying next door – we live in a gated community, with folks that have had success, the best-selling local band, former number two in the land, and then these ruffians, they have a pool, though it could not be justified
It would take the salary for what, maybe eight hundred years, working in a public sector job, to accumulate what is on display there, and yesterday they had guests, who had an SUV luxury car, registered in one of the big economies of the West – member of the G7 actually – and yet, they talked like eejits
‘mancati-as’ one of the most used expressions was something abject, they talked in front of the child, who was about six, and they did not even realize that this is what she will grow up to be – Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/03/... has something to say
he says ‘words create worlds’; indeed, this is a future where those humans who can only use very few (and terrible) words will have so much control – incidentally, Trump has a very limited vocabulary, despite his insistence that he is a ‘very stable genius’ – they promote ghouls they can identify and share a ‘vision’ with
mind you, those individuals I mentioned, with their fancy cars, wealth, represent a segment of society that is not at the bottom, with all their stupid words, disgusting talk, they are ‘refined, educated, socially intelligent’, when compared with those who are lower down the ranks, you hear interviews on the street, where you see real cave men
they have no idea about, well, anything, geography, zero, science zero, they know nothing, and the proof is that they are corrupted, when they show veneration for Orange Jesus, the latter is the perfect paradigm, but the negative role model, this is the way we must not be, nevertheless, he is worshipped by multitudes
because they admire the fact that he has done so much harm, he got rich – when they see he is like them, flawed, defective – and they think he is with them, when all he feels for these hoi polloi is contempt…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
10 out of 10
‘I have learnt by experience that when a book makes a sensation it is just as well to wait a year before you read it. It is astonishing how many books then you need not read at all. But it chanced that one day I met Peter Melrose. With some misgiving I had accepted an invitation to a sherry party…’ this is at the beginning of the story…
And Peter Melrose is a novelist that has had good reviews, and some critics disproved, which explains the attitude of the narrator – we could presume it is based on Somerset Maugham himself, a god no less, if we agree with Penelope Lively, who says that the novelist creates a world in which whatever he says is the truth
This is detailed in According To Mark https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/02/... ‘the novelist decides what happens, in which way he will relate it’ and I have read in other books that some of the creators have in mind what the ending is, the whole plan, but others would just look for inspiration…
The young novelist in The Voice of The Turtle tells the narrator about his project, a book in which there is a love story between a young writer and a…prima donna – now let me digress, but not before inserting a spoiler alert, because the dysfunctional manner in which these notes are produced means I could never return to the ‘point’
Prima donna may be one of these words that have changed meaning – Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis looks at these transformations in his The King’s English https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/07/... and puts up some of the words that cannot be used anymore, or could not in his time
Take infamous, which comes from infamy, and yet, when Kingsley Amis was writing came to mean famous, ergo it became unusable, it could be the same for prima donna, initially a singer with extraordinary qualities, but now, as far as I know (it could be wrong) it is used mostly to signify somebody pretentious
In the short story, the narrator asks the young novelist if he had met a prima donna, and the latter says he had not, but had studied some biographies, so the older man is talking about inviting La Falteron for dinner, a famous singer, who lived just down the coast of the Riviera, where the novelist had been asked to stay
The prima donna was ‘a woman of ardent temperament, and she was celebrated not only for her singing, but for her love affairs’, she is retired now, and somehow, she makes me think of…Orange Jesus, the symbol of utter evil, for the under signed, but also of how little we have progressed in so many ways, in our social intelligence say
I mean, yes, there are all those fantastic discoveries, we can fly, write nonsense and post it on the net, but if you look at what the hoi polloi elect, the ‘values’ they share with these monsters, it gives you more than a headache, you would be tempted to say we are doomed, if the ‘greatest democracy’ will become again the realm of Trump, what is the hope?
On a personal, micro level, I had the ‘chance’ to listen to some successful people (in money terms) as they were partying next door – we live in a gated community, with folks that have had success, the best-selling local band, former number two in the land, and then these ruffians, they have a pool, though it could not be justified
It would take the salary for what, maybe eight hundred years, working in a public sector job, to accumulate what is on display there, and yesterday they had guests, who had an SUV luxury car, registered in one of the big economies of the West – member of the G7 actually – and yet, they talked like eejits
‘mancati-as’ one of the most used expressions was something abject, they talked in front of the child, who was about six, and they did not even realize that this is what she will grow up to be – Harvard Professor Tal Ben Shahar https://realini.blogspot.com/2015/03/... has something to say
he says ‘words create worlds’; indeed, this is a future where those humans who can only use very few (and terrible) words will have so much control – incidentally, Trump has a very limited vocabulary, despite his insistence that he is a ‘very stable genius’ – they promote ghouls they can identify and share a ‘vision’ with
mind you, those individuals I mentioned, with their fancy cars, wealth, represent a segment of society that is not at the bottom, with all their stupid words, disgusting talk, they are ‘refined, educated, socially intelligent’, when compared with those who are lower down the ranks, you hear interviews on the street, where you see real cave men
they have no idea about, well, anything, geography, zero, science zero, they know nothing, and the proof is that they are corrupted, when they show veneration for Orange Jesus, the latter is the perfect paradigm, but the negative role model, this is the way we must not be, nevertheless, he is worshipped by multitudes
because they admire the fact that he has done so much harm, he got rich – when they see he is like them, flawed, defective – and they think he is with them, when all he feels for these hoi polloi is contempt…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/u... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’
“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”
January 26, 2025
Never judge a book by its cover… though some covers are damned hard to judge.
June 27, 2026
Everything about how he describes her
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews