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On A Chinese Screen
ON A CHINESE SCREEN is a sequence of remarkable vignettes of Europeans residents in China just after the First World War -Westerners culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilisation. Somerset Maugham, who travelled over a thousand miles up the Yangtse river, used his acerbic and insightful notes to write this fascinating book.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published March 8, 1922
About the author
W. Somerset Maugham
1,722 books6,376 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 - 30 of 85 reviews
April 25, 2021
Este livro, ao contrário dos outros que li do autor, não me conseguiu entusiasmar. Gostei da escrita, mas esta é sempre boa - acho que leria até uma receita culinária desde que passada para o papel por Mr. Maugham. Com certeza teria outro sabor. :D
Apesar do pouco entusiasmo, esta leitura serviu para me familiarizar com o mundo das vinhetas, que não são exclusivo da banda desenhada. Também por serem vinhetas, não há como nos apegarmos à história, porque simplesmente não há uma. Há uma manta de retalhos, vários quadros de episódios que o autor testemunhou, cenários que viu, pessoas que conheceu durante a sua viagem à China no início dos anos vinte do século passado.
Alguns episódios primam pela crítica social que o autor faz de uma forma exímia e pela descrição bastante primorosa de cenários e paisagens. Também é realçada a "mania" da superioridade ocidental sobre os povos do oriente, como se estes fossem pessoas inferiores, quando há ocidentais que estão no oriente mas agem e tentam impingir os modos do ocidente - parece que se esquecem que são uma espécie de convidados naquelas paragens. Acho que nunca ouviram o dito "em Roma, sê romano", claro que não é necessário cair em extremos, mas ceder um pouco não parece que matasse alguém. Se esta gente soubesse hoje quem manda no mundo...
Foi uma leitura, como referi ao início, não muito entusiasmante, mas nem por isso tediosa, pois a escrita do autor faz muito pelo livro.
Valeu pelo travar conhecimento com as vinhetas, pela escrita do autor, mas sobretudo pela companhia. Obrigada, Cristina Luiz! :)
Apesar do pouco entusiasmo, esta leitura serviu para me familiarizar com o mundo das vinhetas, que não são exclusivo da banda desenhada. Também por serem vinhetas, não há como nos apegarmos à história, porque simplesmente não há uma. Há uma manta de retalhos, vários quadros de episódios que o autor testemunhou, cenários que viu, pessoas que conheceu durante a sua viagem à China no início dos anos vinte do século passado.
Alguns episódios primam pela crítica social que o autor faz de uma forma exímia e pela descrição bastante primorosa de cenários e paisagens. Também é realçada a "mania" da superioridade ocidental sobre os povos do oriente, como se estes fossem pessoas inferiores, quando há ocidentais que estão no oriente mas agem e tentam impingir os modos do ocidente - parece que se esquecem que são uma espécie de convidados naquelas paragens. Acho que nunca ouviram o dito "em Roma, sê romano", claro que não é necessário cair em extremos, mas ceder um pouco não parece que matasse alguém. Se esta gente soubesse hoje quem manda no mundo...
Foi uma leitura, como referi ao início, não muito entusiasmante, mas nem por isso tediosa, pois a escrita do autor faz muito pelo livro.
Valeu pelo travar conhecimento com as vinhetas, pela escrita do autor, mas sobretudo pela companhia. Obrigada, Cristina Luiz! :)
April 14, 2018
This book is not a book about travel. It is a book about people, or rather how Maugham viewed people, the people he saw and met as he traveled along the Yangtze River in 1919, right after the First World War. The people he met are predominantly expats, European diplomats and missionaries. This can scarcely be classified as a book about the Chinese or China. Neither is it about the effects of the war.
Maugham had a knack for really looking at people, observing what people say, what they mean by the words they say, and how they behave. He had also a talent for putting what he observed into words. The two together is what makes him a good writer. He was also extremely well read, and he learned from the authors he read.
The book reads as a collection of mini-mini-stories, observations of and comments about people, as explained above, expats residing in China in 1919. His opinions are not openly stated; his views are implied. Ironical humor is a common ingredient.
The second chapter entitled The Lady’s Parlour forewarns what will follow. A woman, an expat residing in China, is redecorating her parlor. In doing so, she attempts to avoid all things Chinese; she is attempting to replicate an English parlor. We are told “she had to buy a Chinese screen”, there was absolutely nothing else available that would have fit the spot, but this was not the end of the world because even in England they were frequently used. You must appreciate the humor here! This common theme, the expats’ disdain for all things Chinese, is exemplified over and over again in the stories. We are told that it is nonsensical to learn Chinese since “you could hire an interpreter for twenty-five dollars a month”. We intuit Maugham’s distaste of the expats and their life style. He is critical of the expats’ inability to appreciate what China offers--in beauty, history, knowledge and wisdom. He doesn’t shove his views down your throat though; he speaks through humor; you can take or leave his views as you wish.
Occasionally Maugham peppers with descriptions of landscapes and places. In just a few words he captures the atmosphere of a marketplace, an alley, mist over paddy fields, the stiff and ridged resplendence of a diplomat’s reception or an opium den for example.
I do wish he had told of his route and given us the names of the places he visited.
The names of the people are not given either. The lack of names and places transform the observations into mini-stories.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Richard Mitchley. His performance I have given four stars. He reads clearly and at a perfect speed.
I liked this book. It was interesting, but the diverse, very short “stories” could have held together better. We are given a bunch of well depicted observations that reflect Maugham’s personal views.
My ratings of Maugham’s books :
*Then and Now 5 stars
*Mrs Craddock 4 stars
*Cakes and Ale 4 stars
*The Painted Veil 4 stars
*The Verger 4 stars
*Liza of Lambeth 3 stars
*The Razor's Edge 3 stars
*The Summing Up 3 stars
*The Gentleman in the Parlour: A Record of a Journey from Rangoon to Haiphong 3 stars
*The Magician 3 stars
*Up at the Villa 3 stars
*Christmas Holiday 3 stars
*Catalina 3 stars
*On A Chinese Screen 3 stars
*Theatre 2 stars
*The Moon and Sixpence 2 stars
*Of Human Bondage 2 stars
*The Merry-Go-Round 1 star
Maugham had a knack for really looking at people, observing what people say, what they mean by the words they say, and how they behave. He had also a talent for putting what he observed into words. The two together is what makes him a good writer. He was also extremely well read, and he learned from the authors he read.
The book reads as a collection of mini-mini-stories, observations of and comments about people, as explained above, expats residing in China in 1919. His opinions are not openly stated; his views are implied. Ironical humor is a common ingredient.
The second chapter entitled The Lady’s Parlour forewarns what will follow. A woman, an expat residing in China, is redecorating her parlor. In doing so, she attempts to avoid all things Chinese; she is attempting to replicate an English parlor. We are told “she had to buy a Chinese screen”, there was absolutely nothing else available that would have fit the spot, but this was not the end of the world because even in England they were frequently used. You must appreciate the humor here! This common theme, the expats’ disdain for all things Chinese, is exemplified over and over again in the stories. We are told that it is nonsensical to learn Chinese since “you could hire an interpreter for twenty-five dollars a month”. We intuit Maugham’s distaste of the expats and their life style. He is critical of the expats’ inability to appreciate what China offers--in beauty, history, knowledge and wisdom. He doesn’t shove his views down your throat though; he speaks through humor; you can take or leave his views as you wish.
Occasionally Maugham peppers with descriptions of landscapes and places. In just a few words he captures the atmosphere of a marketplace, an alley, mist over paddy fields, the stiff and ridged resplendence of a diplomat’s reception or an opium den for example.
I do wish he had told of his route and given us the names of the places he visited.
The names of the people are not given either. The lack of names and places transform the observations into mini-stories.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Richard Mitchley. His performance I have given four stars. He reads clearly and at a perfect speed.
I liked this book. It was interesting, but the diverse, very short “stories” could have held together better. We are given a bunch of well depicted observations that reflect Maugham’s personal views.
My ratings of Maugham’s books :
*Then and Now 5 stars
*Mrs Craddock 4 stars
*Cakes and Ale 4 stars
*The Painted Veil 4 stars
*The Verger 4 stars
*Liza of Lambeth 3 stars
*The Razor's Edge 3 stars
*The Summing Up 3 stars
*The Gentleman in the Parlour: A Record of a Journey from Rangoon to Haiphong 3 stars
*The Magician 3 stars
*Up at the Villa 3 stars
*Christmas Holiday 3 stars
*Catalina 3 stars
*On A Chinese Screen 3 stars
*Theatre 2 stars
*The Moon and Sixpence 2 stars
*Of Human Bondage 2 stars
*The Merry-Go-Round 1 star
December 1, 2020
On a Chinese Screen is a collection of crafted sketches of Maugham’s trips, reflecting his understanding of China and its people. Altogether, the group of 58 chapters/articles paints an exciting collage of the author’s thoughts and impressions on China.
March 7, 2018
I loved this little book made up of Maugham's observations of characters and life during his Far East travels. In a relatively few paragraphs for each, he manages to convey not only the atmosphere but nature of every character. Despite the fact the book is quite old now, the characterisation was fresh and never felt dated. Many of the character vignettes could equally be applied to society today and were well-observed and, in part, contained the right level of dry humour. Some of the people were clearly quite unpleasant and Maugham's gentle and subjective writing never felt superior or sarcastic. Others were somewhat sad and, again, Maugham wrote those with just the right amount of pathos. The descriptive pieces were quite beautiful in their imagery.
June 27, 2023
(So…am trying to read more proactively, actually getting to those books I chose to read and more than likely purchased - often decades ago - rather than just reacting to the library website or WaPo book reviews that "look interesting"…will see how it goes.)
Bought this when it first came out in the mid-'80s, when Oxford University Press reprinted some 60-70 classic travel books under their "Oxford in Asia" imprint, a good half dozen of which are still on my TBR bookshelf nearly four decades later.
Less than stories, less than essays, these are largely vignettes, a literary style that has largely and sadly disappeared these days. Maugham wrote these on the heels of two trips to China taken in 1919 and 1922; and while he is for the most part a keen observer and workmanlike writer, he is also at least two parts asshole, looking down on basically all foreigners in China (and paying only distracted attention to the Chinese themselves). And okay, I get it - I've known my share of Asia-based Western missionaries, businessmen and bureaucrats…but hey - he who is without sin, right?
And of course, Maugham's snarky bitchiness doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book either. It provided another look at the brief Nationalist-slash-warlord period between the overthrow of the Manchus and the rise of the Communists, a period that is close to the heart of any friend of Taiwan or fan of Roy Chapman Andrews. Maugham drops names I've been long familiar with - Jardines, B.A.T. (the infamous British American Tobacco that swooped into China to fill the void left by the outlawing of opium; for more on that, see Robert Easton's enjoyable China Caravans: An American Adventurer in Old China) - as well as others I had to look up, such as A.P.C. and B&S, (Asiatic Petroleum Co. and Briggs & Stratton respectively…I think). This was also written during a time when apparently everyone - or at least every cultured Englishman - spoke French,* and so he frequently drops French terms that sounded vaguely familiar but I still had to look up, (and at least I now know what an epergne is!).
Opinionated and dated, this is still a fun read for anyone interested in the rough and tumble early days of post-Imperial China.
__________________________________
* And yes, I realize (or at least now know) that Maugham was in fact born in Paris; but he's not alone in this - a lot of those early 20th Century Brit writers either liked showing off their linguistic abilities or at least assumed everyone else had them as well.
Bought this when it first came out in the mid-'80s, when Oxford University Press reprinted some 60-70 classic travel books under their "Oxford in Asia" imprint, a good half dozen of which are still on my TBR bookshelf nearly four decades later.
Less than stories, less than essays, these are largely vignettes, a literary style that has largely and sadly disappeared these days. Maugham wrote these on the heels of two trips to China taken in 1919 and 1922; and while he is for the most part a keen observer and workmanlike writer, he is also at least two parts asshole, looking down on basically all foreigners in China (and paying only distracted attention to the Chinese themselves). And okay, I get it - I've known my share of Asia-based Western missionaries, businessmen and bureaucrats…but hey - he who is without sin, right?
And of course, Maugham's snarky bitchiness doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book either. It provided another look at the brief Nationalist-slash-warlord period between the overthrow of the Manchus and the rise of the Communists, a period that is close to the heart of any friend of Taiwan or fan of Roy Chapman Andrews. Maugham drops names I've been long familiar with - Jardines, B.A.T. (the infamous British American Tobacco that swooped into China to fill the void left by the outlawing of opium; for more on that, see Robert Easton's enjoyable China Caravans: An American Adventurer in Old China) - as well as others I had to look up, such as A.P.C. and B&S, (Asiatic Petroleum Co. and Briggs & Stratton respectively…I think). This was also written during a time when apparently everyone - or at least every cultured Englishman - spoke French,* and so he frequently drops French terms that sounded vaguely familiar but I still had to look up, (and at least I now know what an epergne is!).
Opinionated and dated, this is still a fun read for anyone interested in the rough and tumble early days of post-Imperial China.
__________________________________
* And yes, I realize (or at least now know) that Maugham was in fact born in Paris; but he's not alone in this - a lot of those early 20th Century Brit writers either liked showing off their linguistic abilities or at least assumed everyone else had them as well.
July 27, 2013
Produced by Dianna Adair, zsak and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48788
Opening: THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN: You come to the row of hovels that leads to the gate of the city. They are built of dried mud and so dilapidated that you feel a breath of wind will lay them flat upon the dusty earth from which they have been made. A string of camels, heavily laden, steps warily past you. They wear the disdainful air of profiteers forced to traverse a world in which many people are not so rich as they. A little crowd, tattered in their blue clothes, is gathered about the gate and it scatters as a youth in a pointed cap gallops up on a Mongolian pony. A band of children are chasing a lame dog and they throw clods of mud at it. Two stout gentlemen in long black gowns of figured silk and silk jackets stand talking to one another. Each holds a little stick, perched on which, with a string attached to its leg, is a little bird. They have brought out their pets for an airing and in friendly fashion compare their merits. Now and then the birds give a flutter into the air, the length of the string, and return quickly to their perch. The two Chinese gentlemen, smiling, look at them with soft eyes. Rude boys cry out at the foreigner in a shrill and scornful voice. The city wall, crumbling, old and crenellated, looks like the city wall in an old picture of some Palestinish town of the Crusaders.
Luscious snippets, a peek into humanity here, a stifled laugh at the ex-pat there. The most ludicrous is pot-pourri # II: My Lady's Palour. Travel doesn't seem to broaden some people's minds does it! Interesting snapshots but unfulfilling as a read, probably for WSM completists.
2* On a Chinese Screen
5* Of Human Bondage
4* The Razor's Edge
4* The Painted Veil
3* Cakes and Ale
WL Up At the Villa
4* Collected Stories
3* Tha Magician
3* Ashenden
OH Rain and other stories
3* The Narrow Corner
3* Mrs Craddock
TR The Merry-Go Round
2* The Circle
4* The Moon and Sixpence
FORDescription: Maugham spent the winter months of 1919-20 travelling 1500 miles up the Yangtze River. Always more interested in people than places, he gave full rein to a sensitive and philosophical nature. On a Chinese Screen is the refined accumulation of the countless scraps of paper on which he had taken notes. Within the narrow confines of their colonial milieu, missionaries, consuls, army officers and company managers are all gently ridiculed as they persist obliviously with the life they know.
SYRIE
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/48788Opening: THE RISING OF THE CURTAIN: You come to the row of hovels that leads to the gate of the city. They are built of dried mud and so dilapidated that you feel a breath of wind will lay them flat upon the dusty earth from which they have been made. A string of camels, heavily laden, steps warily past you. They wear the disdainful air of profiteers forced to traverse a world in which many people are not so rich as they. A little crowd, tattered in their blue clothes, is gathered about the gate and it scatters as a youth in a pointed cap gallops up on a Mongolian pony. A band of children are chasing a lame dog and they throw clods of mud at it. Two stout gentlemen in long black gowns of figured silk and silk jackets stand talking to one another. Each holds a little stick, perched on which, with a string attached to its leg, is a little bird. They have brought out their pets for an airing and in friendly fashion compare their merits. Now and then the birds give a flutter into the air, the length of the string, and return quickly to their perch. The two Chinese gentlemen, smiling, look at them with soft eyes. Rude boys cry out at the foreigner in a shrill and scornful voice. The city wall, crumbling, old and crenellated, looks like the city wall in an old picture of some Palestinish town of the Crusaders.
Luscious snippets, a peek into humanity here, a stifled laugh at the ex-pat there. The most ludicrous is pot-pourri # II: My Lady's Palour. Travel doesn't seem to broaden some people's minds does it! Interesting snapshots but unfulfilling as a read, probably for WSM completists.
2* On a Chinese Screen
5* Of Human Bondage
4* The Razor's Edge
4* The Painted Veil
3* Cakes and Ale
WL Up At the Villa
4* Collected Stories
3* Tha Magician
3* Ashenden
OH Rain and other stories
3* The Narrow Corner
3* Mrs Craddock
TR The Merry-Go Round
2* The Circle
4* The Moon and Sixpence
October 12, 2024
This is a delightful collection of short essays by W. Somerset Maugham containing observations of people and places experienced during a protracted visit to China with his companion Gerald Haxton. On A Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham: Observations and Insights from the East describes a China inhabited by British colonials serving as consuls, business representatives, missionaries, and sea captains -- virtually none of whom spoke Chinese.
Typical of the people he describes is a businessman with British American Tobacco (BAT):
One can easily see that advocating for Maugham in 21st century America would not be easy. One has to see writers who lived in the past take on attitudes that would be regarded as highly charged. Once one passes that hurdle, however, Maugham writes with a pleasant style and does a good job describing the British expatriates who controlled much of the country circa 1920.
Typical of the people he describes is a businessman with British American Tobacco (BAT):
He had lived in China for five years, but he knows no Chinese and takes no interest in the race among whom in all likelihood the best years of his life will be spent. His business is done through an interpreter and his house is managed by a boy.By boy, Maugham means a Chinese man who might be older than his employer. One has to discount the century-old British attitudes toward racism to appreciate this book, which describes a China that is no more.
One can easily see that advocating for Maugham in 21st century America would not be easy. One has to see writers who lived in the past take on attitudes that would be regarded as highly charged. Once one passes that hurdle, however, Maugham writes with a pleasant style and does a good job describing the British expatriates who controlled much of the country circa 1920.
July 28, 2022
★★½
This is the first Maugham I've read.
A collection of non-related essays on the people he met. Not purely Chinese, but most of them have some inkling with China.
Loved a few encounters with navy personnel towards the end.
Overall didn't find it much impressive.
Recommended: If you’re into writing and want to study ways in which random observations can be penned down.
This is the first Maugham I've read.
A collection of non-related essays on the people he met. Not purely Chinese, but most of them have some inkling with China.
Loved a few encounters with navy personnel towards the end.
Overall didn't find it much impressive.
Recommended: If you’re into writing and want to study ways in which random observations can be penned down.
July 17, 2021
Sketches - some good, some excellent. Maugham's merciless whipping of the expat community made me simper with recognition - (lived in Taiwan for a few years, in my twenties).
November 27, 2017
Surprisingly, this thin volume took longer for me to read than anything else I have ever encountered by Maugham. (I found myself rereading the stories several times and imagining their extensions into bigger tales.) It is a collection of short sketches about Europeans living in China during Maugham's 1920 trip into China's interior. It includes officials, failed businessmen, and displaced seamen and adventurers. But mostly it describes missionaries adrift and isolated in a culture where their futures seem consigned to obscurity and personal failure of one sort or another.
Yet it is the setting of the stories that captures the reader's imagination, here. Usually, I have found that Maugham's exotic settings are little more than interchangeable backdrops, against which the inner drives, fears, and lusts of his protagonists are situated. But it is different in On a Chinese Screen. Here, the settings are active, seemingly with a life their own. The backdrop whips the subjects of Maugham's tales into actions that illustrate their misplaced lives and values in a vast Chinese landscape that swallows them whole. And, in the end, each little vignette contains the germ of a greater story waiting to be told.
Of course, one haunting thought continues throughout the book. As these Europeans work in China and plan on remaining there throughout their lives, they cannot imagine the ravages of war, both the Chinese civil war and the war against Japan, that would come in just a few years. Among all these missionaries Maugham describes and creates there would have been more than a few Eric Liddells who ended up dying in Japanese internment camps. Or others who found themselves the victims of Communist revenge against European colonialists.
Yet it is the setting of the stories that captures the reader's imagination, here. Usually, I have found that Maugham's exotic settings are little more than interchangeable backdrops, against which the inner drives, fears, and lusts of his protagonists are situated. But it is different in On a Chinese Screen. Here, the settings are active, seemingly with a life their own. The backdrop whips the subjects of Maugham's tales into actions that illustrate their misplaced lives and values in a vast Chinese landscape that swallows them whole. And, in the end, each little vignette contains the germ of a greater story waiting to be told.
Of course, one haunting thought continues throughout the book. As these Europeans work in China and plan on remaining there throughout their lives, they cannot imagine the ravages of war, both the Chinese civil war and the war against Japan, that would come in just a few years. Among all these missionaries Maugham describes and creates there would have been more than a few Eric Liddells who ended up dying in Japanese internment camps. Or others who found themselves the victims of Communist revenge against European colonialists.
January 14, 2013
This short book reads more like a series of journal entries than anything else, noting the differences in Chinese society at that time and how Westerners tend to cope with it. These are a series of snapshots into different individuals that could have been sketches for stories themselves. I've only ever read one other Maugham book (Christmas Holiday) which I loved, but I have to admit, I didn't really get on with this book at all. On finishing it, I feel slightly confused over what it was all about, and the only entries I can remember vividly are the ones where he talks about the Chinese labourers or "coolies" as they were known at that time. When he talks about the loads that they carry, and the work that they carry out, I found it quite moving and probably would have preferred to read more about that than missionaries or pompous army officers, no matter how ridiculous he made them.
I'm definitely going to read more by Maugham, I have Of Human Bondage coming up fairly shortly and am looking forward to it, but I'm afraid this book wasn't for me. The slightly generous rating I have given it is based on the strength of Maugham's writing and the beauty of his descriptions.
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.wordpress.com
I'm definitely going to read more by Maugham, I have Of Human Bondage coming up fairly shortly and am looking forward to it, but I'm afraid this book wasn't for me. The slightly generous rating I have given it is based on the strength of Maugham's writing and the beauty of his descriptions.
Please see my full review at http://www.bibliobeth.wordpress.com
June 27, 2008
Maugham is amazing - his vision of China in a time where no one dreamed of extensive travel is captivating
June 17, 2022
An oriental painting in words. Maugham displaying his eye for detail and empathy for his subjects. If you read him completely, you will find that he does write about the locals (not only expats). An example is the last story in this collection, but in such cases he writes, of necessity, as an outsider. I ‘d give it five stars based on the last story alone.
January 15, 2018
A collection of short-short stories and character sketches of Europeans in early 20th century China. Many of the portraits are pretty scathing, but they are generally pretty humane as well. They range from comic to tragic to, in at least one instance, supernatural, but all are told with Maugham's sardonically polite emotional distance. Easy to read, and worth reading.
July 19, 2022
A lot of short sketches about China, missionaries there, and Britishers far away from home.
February 4, 2020
So this is where Maugham mined material for his stories! Old salts, jaded Brits, and wizened Chinese sages are on array here. Some characters, or an amalgam of characters, sound familiar to me, while one, The Taipan, is exactly how I read it the first time, in one of his collections of short stories. A standout article for me was Maugham's meander outside a Chinese city's walls, where he discovers a tower designating a well-type hole in the ground for unwanted babies; he is told four babies have been left just that morning. That an option to slowly lower the babies via a basket tied to a rope, as opposed to just throwing the babies to a quick death, just served to underscore the inhumanity of either choice. Thankfully, his stroll ends on a redemptive note, with a visit to an orphanage run by nuns, where they gladly give him a tour, and happily show him their new arrivals: four newborn babies!
This is a book to be enjoyed slowly. It's a combination of Maugham's travelogues of his journey across China, people watching, and sketches of the people he meets on his journey. Naturally, I am partial to the pieces that involve people, especially the ones he's randomly thrown together with. But it is when he writes of romance as I too have come to understand romance where his ecstatic narration makes me absolutely swoon (Filed under Romance, my "professional romancer" waxes romantic on the most unlikely of places and contraptions, and yet this fellow romantic swoons with him).
Meanwhile...
Ironies abound, at least for me, as I was reading this book. No thanks to the novel corona virus, the Filipinos' Sinophobia is at an all-time high. Paranoia rules, and for good reason: the first reported virus-related death outside of China was on February 2, in the Philippines. And while he died in Manila, he and his girlfriend, who survived despite being the first to come down with symptoms of the virus, had stayed in Dumaguete City for 4 nights.
This is a book to be enjoyed slowly. It's a combination of Maugham's travelogues of his journey across China, people watching, and sketches of the people he meets on his journey. Naturally, I am partial to the pieces that involve people, especially the ones he's randomly thrown together with. But it is when he writes of romance as I too have come to understand romance where his ecstatic narration makes me absolutely swoon (Filed under Romance, my "professional romancer" waxes romantic on the most unlikely of places and contraptions, and yet this fellow romantic swoons with him).
Meanwhile...
Ironies abound, at least for me, as I was reading this book. No thanks to the novel corona virus, the Filipinos' Sinophobia is at an all-time high. Paranoia rules, and for good reason: the first reported virus-related death outside of China was on February 2, in the Philippines. And while he died in Manila, he and his girlfriend, who survived despite being the first to come down with symptoms of the virus, had stayed in Dumaguete City for 4 nights.
January 3, 2013
These days travellers take photographs. When cameras were less portable or had not been invented, they took a pad and pencils and sketched. Somerset Maugham drew word pictures of the things he saw and people he met which (and who) caught his attention. This book is the equivalent of an album of his holiday snaps.
In the preface Maugham says that this is not a book, but the material for a book. The sketches are not arranged by theme and it is difficult to tell if there is any order to them at all. That is an observation, which affected how I read the book, not a criticism. I found I enjoyed the sketches more if I read just a few at a time. Each one is delightful and deserves to be savoured and enjoyed. You wouldn't eat a box of very nice, expensive chocolates all in one session, would you?
In the preface Maugham says that this is not a book, but the material for a book. The sketches are not arranged by theme and it is difficult to tell if there is any order to them at all. That is an observation, which affected how I read the book, not a criticism. I found I enjoyed the sketches more if I read just a few at a time. Each one is delightful and deserves to be savoured and enjoyed. You wouldn't eat a box of very nice, expensive chocolates all in one session, would you?
July 20, 2013
Free download available at Project Gutenberg.
The original file is available at Internet Archive.
And the audio version is also available at LibriVox..
The original file is available at Internet Archive.
And the audio version is also available at LibriVox..
May 5, 2026
A wonderful collection of (ultra) short stories set in China during the early years of the 20th century. The overall atmosphere the stories create is fascinating.
The stories are mostly observations by a Western man (in essence Maugham himself) about China and often times about other Europeans living in China. Some of the stories are so short that it is hard to get into them, but so be it.
Mostly, Maugham's observations in these stories are brilliant and bring you into a world that was. There are 58 stories in total (over 150 pages!); let me highlight "The Tiapan", "The Sights of the town" and perhaps "The Consul". But let me end with a quote from "The philosopher", probably the most developed Chinese character in the book: "Ask one of your English friends. Those wo know most about China know nothing...".
The stories are mostly observations by a Western man (in essence Maugham himself) about China and often times about other Europeans living in China. Some of the stories are so short that it is hard to get into them, but so be it.
Mostly, Maugham's observations in these stories are brilliant and bring you into a world that was. There are 58 stories in total (over 150 pages!); let me highlight "The Tiapan", "The Sights of the town" and perhaps "The Consul". But let me end with a quote from "The philosopher", probably the most developed Chinese character in the book: "Ask one of your English friends. Those wo know most about China know nothing...".
September 17, 2023
Having read two of the most well known Somerset Maugham's books, this one comes across as a bit underwhelming.
It's a compilation of a series of short texts that translate observations, conversations, thoughts and analysis of the everyday life of colonized China at the beginning of the 20th century.
At some point it felt like I was reading Maugham's daily journal. Which it's not bad at all. He for sure can write, and the texts are quite diverse:
- a landscape
- a Chinese ritual
- a diplomatic dinner
- one reflecting on the contradictions of the fellow British colonisers
- and the one I enjoyed the most revealing the importance of smell in class discrimination
When you can write, even the most small, normal or uneventful things may sound remarkable.
And this always deserves at least 4 stars
It's a compilation of a series of short texts that translate observations, conversations, thoughts and analysis of the everyday life of colonized China at the beginning of the 20th century.
At some point it felt like I was reading Maugham's daily journal. Which it's not bad at all. He for sure can write, and the texts are quite diverse:
- a landscape
- a Chinese ritual
- a diplomatic dinner
- one reflecting on the contradictions of the fellow British colonisers
- and the one I enjoyed the most revealing the importance of smell in class discrimination
When you can write, even the most small, normal or uneventful things may sound remarkable.
And this always deserves at least 4 stars
March 3, 2026
Like many collections, some stories are more enjoyed than others. While the writing was expectedly good, too many of the short (extremely short) stories lacked any content, or insight to the Chinese (along the Yangtze) in the early 1920s.
I, myself sailed up the Yangtze in 1986, (this experience is long gone, thanks due to Three Gorges Dam), and while some places can change profoundly in 65 years, this part of China hadn't. Of course, it has in the past 40...
I, myself sailed up the Yangtze in 1986, (this experience is long gone, thanks due to Three Gorges Dam), and while some places can change profoundly in 65 years, this part of China hadn't. Of course, it has in the past 40...
February 6, 2019
Pequeñas estampas de un viaje por la China de los años 20. El autor retrata principalmente la fauna occidental que allí reside -hombres de negocios, misioneros, diplomáticos-, si bien los relatos más interesantes son aquellos referentes a personajes orientales -el filósofo o el mandarín-. Cierto tufillo clasista y etnocentrista en los comentarios de maugham
June 14, 2017
I enjoyed the glimpses at China Maugham offers us. Living and having travelled around China, I can vividly imagine what Maugham saw with his own eyes. While in some parts the country is rapidly modernizing, in others it hasn't changed at all - the only things not to be found anymore are bound feet, opium dens, and coolies caring the rich in sedan chairs.
March 21, 2018
It is not easy to get into this book, so not easy to continue after 3-4 stories, and definitely not easy to pick up another Maugham if this is the first.
But once dared to be into it, it discovers itself into a great insight about unsettling Europeans on a Chinese land of 18th century.
No elaborate collection of stories or plots, each piece is a snippet of experiences and perceptions drawn from the authors journey across China.
In today’s world, some of these snippets could be similar to Social media status updates.
And behold, while this book might seems to be a thin, quick read but take a lot time for grasping each piece. There are many I left unfathomed and probably will go back to reading it later in life, sometime. Hence the 4 star.
I liked it,
1. For the very thought of writing this book.
2. Clever and variety of fluidity used in the pieces
3. For I like history. And wondered, if the Europeans, especially the britishers felt similar ways in India too...
But once dared to be into it, it discovers itself into a great insight about unsettling Europeans on a Chinese land of 18th century.
No elaborate collection of stories or plots, each piece is a snippet of experiences and perceptions drawn from the authors journey across China.
In today’s world, some of these snippets could be similar to Social media status updates.
And behold, while this book might seems to be a thin, quick read but take a lot time for grasping each piece. There are many I left unfathomed and probably will go back to reading it later in life, sometime. Hence the 4 star.
I liked it,
1. For the very thought of writing this book.
2. Clever and variety of fluidity used in the pieces
3. For I like history. And wondered, if the Europeans, especially the britishers felt similar ways in India too...
March 31, 2016
It was pleasing to have purchased this book in Shanghai and to have read it with the images of Shanghai and Hangzhou fresh in my mind. Maugham captures a good deal of the Chinese culture and, from what I saw of The Bund in Shanghai, the Colonial era in full swing. The work consists of 58 portraits of individuals and their idiosyncrasies and various places. At times, it is difficult to tell whether Maugham is mocking, mimicking, or satirising the various ways in which an air of cultural superiority was practised by foreigners in China. Yet it is fascinating reading, particularly in the context of just having visited Shanghai and noting the extent of its Colonial history in the face of ancient culture.
May 6, 2017
I hold Maugham in such high regard, and he never lets me down. ON A CHINESE SCREEN is a series of short vignettes based on his observations from a lengthy sojourn in China around 1919. Portraits of Chinese and Westerners of all varieties, and as always acutely observed and possibly slightly embellished. It's reportage, a snapshot in time, of a China that had not existed until that time and which soon no longer existed at all. An absolutely fascinating book. The one sour note comes when Maugham devotes a lengthy paragraph to describing the Great Wall -- oddly, he oversteps and it just doesn't come off at all. All the rest is splendid, though!
October 22, 2012
Fragmented literary sketches of ideas for a future book. Could also be seen as entries in a travel diary. Some of the stories could stand as a chapter in a book but most would have to be a paragraph in a chapter. Not bad, but some end as abruptly as they started and left me wanting to know more.
May 5, 2024
I have never been to China. Somerset Maugham visited the country over 100 years ago. Having recently read “The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng, a fictional account of Maugham’s travels in Malaysia, I was interested to read this book from this time.
It’s a curious book. It’s made up of short 3-5 page vignettes painting various images of the places he traveled or people he met. Many of these people are consuls, vice consuls, missionaries, doctors, ship captains and their wife’s. Some of them have lived decades in China, prided themselves in never learning Chinese, had no intent to return to Britain, and in most cases, actually hated the Chinese. This strange mix of racism and patriotism made for some strange chapters.
On the Chinese side, which includes a general, a philosopher, and a woman burning money as a libation to the gods, there is a mix of exoticism and patriotism. The Philosopher speaks of how China was once a cultured place ruled by wisdom but the white man came with machine guns, wielding their power and taking control. Apart from these people, there are a lot of blue clothed coolies abiding to the elite foreigners.
One needs to remember that during this time China became a republic in 1912. However after the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, when many Christian missionaries were killed, Britain and other foreign powers invaded China. Their mandate was to protect their citizens and keep the peace. Of course no Republic wants foreign powers ruling over them. During this time of Maugham’s travels that Dr. Sun Yat-sen would come to power. Was the philosopher Dr. Sun? He never names the Chinese.
Maugham doesn’t really take sides but in his typical fashion, he gives you a snapshot of that person, only to ask “do they really see who they are?” If this is the crème de la crème of the Brits, are we not in trouble?
There is one story that does arise from all these vignettes, The Taipan. It’s about a hard working man who worked his way up the bureaucratic ladder. One day is visits the local cemetery. He know so many that died too young, too greedy, or went down the wrong path. He is gloating upon their sad demise when he sees two men digging a new grave. Who is next? He ponders who and makes inquiries back in his office.
It’s not all about the people though. He is a traveller and he is quite taken by what he sees. China is a land very beautiful and full of culture. It’s not like his native land and he understands that. I will leave you with one of the shorter vignettes:
Arabesque
“There in the mist, enormous, majestic, silent, and terrible, stood the Great Wall of China. Solitarily, with the indifference of nature herself, it crept up the mountain side and slipped down to the depth of the valley. Menacingly, the grim watch towers, stark and foursquare, at due intervals stood at their posts. Ruthlessly, for it was built at the cost of million lives and each one of those great grey stones has been stained with the bloody tears of the captive and the outcast, it forged its dark way through a sea of rugged mountains. Fearlessly, it went on its endless journey, league upon league to the furthermost regions of Asia, in utter solitude, mysterious like the great empire it guarded. There in the mist, enormous, majestic, silent, and terrible, stood the Great Wall of China.” p. 113
It’s a curious book. It’s made up of short 3-5 page vignettes painting various images of the places he traveled or people he met. Many of these people are consuls, vice consuls, missionaries, doctors, ship captains and their wife’s. Some of them have lived decades in China, prided themselves in never learning Chinese, had no intent to return to Britain, and in most cases, actually hated the Chinese. This strange mix of racism and patriotism made for some strange chapters.
On the Chinese side, which includes a general, a philosopher, and a woman burning money as a libation to the gods, there is a mix of exoticism and patriotism. The Philosopher speaks of how China was once a cultured place ruled by wisdom but the white man came with machine guns, wielding their power and taking control. Apart from these people, there are a lot of blue clothed coolies abiding to the elite foreigners.
One needs to remember that during this time China became a republic in 1912. However after the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, when many Christian missionaries were killed, Britain and other foreign powers invaded China. Their mandate was to protect their citizens and keep the peace. Of course no Republic wants foreign powers ruling over them. During this time of Maugham’s travels that Dr. Sun Yat-sen would come to power. Was the philosopher Dr. Sun? He never names the Chinese.
Maugham doesn’t really take sides but in his typical fashion, he gives you a snapshot of that person, only to ask “do they really see who they are?” If this is the crème de la crème of the Brits, are we not in trouble?
There is one story that does arise from all these vignettes, The Taipan. It’s about a hard working man who worked his way up the bureaucratic ladder. One day is visits the local cemetery. He know so many that died too young, too greedy, or went down the wrong path. He is gloating upon their sad demise when he sees two men digging a new grave. Who is next? He ponders who and makes inquiries back in his office.
It’s not all about the people though. He is a traveller and he is quite taken by what he sees. China is a land very beautiful and full of culture. It’s not like his native land and he understands that. I will leave you with one of the shorter vignettes:
Arabesque
“There in the mist, enormous, majestic, silent, and terrible, stood the Great Wall of China. Solitarily, with the indifference of nature herself, it crept up the mountain side and slipped down to the depth of the valley. Menacingly, the grim watch towers, stark and foursquare, at due intervals stood at their posts. Ruthlessly, for it was built at the cost of million lives and each one of those great grey stones has been stained with the bloody tears of the captive and the outcast, it forged its dark way through a sea of rugged mountains. Fearlessly, it went on its endless journey, league upon league to the furthermost regions of Asia, in utter solitude, mysterious like the great empire it guarded. There in the mist, enormous, majestic, silent, and terrible, stood the Great Wall of China.” p. 113
July 31, 2024
No es fácil tenerlo todo, la naturaleza siempre compensa y lo que te da por un lado, te lo suele quitar por otro. A Somerset Maugham le pasó algo parecido. Fue el auténtico autor de éxito en las décadas del 20 y 30 del siglo XX, el más vendido, el más leído y el que más dinero ganaba escribiendo. Pero todo eso tuvo un precio. Ya se sabe que si ganas dinero escribiendo, automáticamente eres sospechoso de tener calidad, así funciona el canon, y lo ha hecho siempre. Así que Maugham no tardó en recoger el desprecio de critica y mucha envidia de compañeros de profesión.
Pero su situación de olvido actual, debe a más razones, y se produjo de forma abrupta a finales de los 30, con el estallido de la SGM. Maugham era un místico, pacifista, antimilitarista y anticolonial que fue puesto en remojo cuando el fervor patriótico estalló. incluso hubo descerebrados que le tildaron de traidor por apreciar las culturas asiáticas, y sobre todo las "amarillas". Y si esto no fuera suficiente, Maugham fue casi un apátrida, demasiado afrancesado para los británicos, e inglés para los franceses, además de europeo para los norteamericanos, y extranjero para los asiáticos. Y eso al final se nota, no olvidemos que una enorme cantidad de desarrollo literario hisórico está vinculado al hecho geográfico, hay un turismo local que sustenta ayuntamientos para reivindicar figuras del pasado, y generar un turismo con ello. Maugham es un inglés que nació y murió en Francia, y que tuvo su corazón más allá del Hindú Kush.
Y por todo ello, vuelvo a reivindicar a Somerset Maugham, sus libros no han envejecido nada, todo lo contrario que los William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce o Virginia Woolf, con un estilo experimental y modernista, que termina por ser ornamentacion ególatra. Maugham no; su estilo es directo, sencillo, claro y clásico en el mejor sentido.
El libro que tenemos entre manos, es una maravilla, "On a Chinese Screen" (En una pantalla china), van desfilando múltiples personajes en sus relatos a cuál mejor. Por citar uno, "El filósofo" es una pequeña obra maestra absoluta. Es imprescindible leer a Maugham hoy, en un momento de chauvinismo occidental tan evidente, que alguien que fue agente del MI6, diga las cosas como son, es refrescante.
Uno de los autores que hay que leer sí o sí.
Pero su situación de olvido actual, debe a más razones, y se produjo de forma abrupta a finales de los 30, con el estallido de la SGM. Maugham era un místico, pacifista, antimilitarista y anticolonial que fue puesto en remojo cuando el fervor patriótico estalló. incluso hubo descerebrados que le tildaron de traidor por apreciar las culturas asiáticas, y sobre todo las "amarillas". Y si esto no fuera suficiente, Maugham fue casi un apátrida, demasiado afrancesado para los británicos, e inglés para los franceses, además de europeo para los norteamericanos, y extranjero para los asiáticos. Y eso al final se nota, no olvidemos que una enorme cantidad de desarrollo literario hisórico está vinculado al hecho geográfico, hay un turismo local que sustenta ayuntamientos para reivindicar figuras del pasado, y generar un turismo con ello. Maugham es un inglés que nació y murió en Francia, y que tuvo su corazón más allá del Hindú Kush.
Y por todo ello, vuelvo a reivindicar a Somerset Maugham, sus libros no han envejecido nada, todo lo contrario que los William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce o Virginia Woolf, con un estilo experimental y modernista, que termina por ser ornamentacion ególatra. Maugham no; su estilo es directo, sencillo, claro y clásico en el mejor sentido.
El libro que tenemos entre manos, es una maravilla, "On a Chinese Screen" (En una pantalla china), van desfilando múltiples personajes en sus relatos a cuál mejor. Por citar uno, "El filósofo" es una pequeña obra maestra absoluta. Es imprescindible leer a Maugham hoy, en un momento de chauvinismo occidental tan evidente, que alguien que fue agente del MI6, diga las cosas como son, es refrescante.
Uno de los autores que hay que leer sí o sí.
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