"The Razor's Edge" is a 1944 novel by Somerset Maugham. The novel describes the era between the two world wars, giving a vivid description of different layers of European and North American society. Entered the Publishers Weekly Bestseller List for 1944 in the United States.
"Hard to walk on a razor's edge; just as difficult, say the sages, is the path leading to Salvation" ― Kaṭhopaniṣad
The plot focuses on the story of Larry Durrell, an American pilot traumatized by experience in World War I, who goes in search of some meaning in his life. The story begins through the eyes of Larry's friends and acquaintances as they see how his personality changes after the war. His abandonment of the mundane and the search for meaningful experience allows him to develop, while more materialistic characters suffer from the vicissitudes of fate. The book was filmed twice, first in 1946 and then in 1984 with Bill Murray in the title role.
Maugham begins by characterizing his story not as a novel, but as a thinly veiled, truthful narrative. It includes itself as a minor character, a writer who drifts in the lives of the main characters. Larry Durrell's lifestyle throughout the book contrasts with that of his fiancée's uncle, Elliot Templeton, an American émigré living in Paris, a shallow and down-to-earth but generous snob. For example, while Templeton's Catholicism is all about adoration of the outside trappings of the church and ostentatious piety, Larry's leanings gravitate towards the 13th-century Flemish mystic John Ruysbrock.
Wounded and traumatized by the death of a comrade in the war, Larry returns to Chicago to live with his fiancée, Isabelle Bradley, only to announce that he has no plans to look for paid work and will instead "mess around" on his small inheritance. He wants to postpone their marriage and turns down an offer from Henry Maturin, the father of his friend Gray, to work as a stockbroker. Meanwhile, Larry's childhood friend, Sophie, enters into a happy marriage, later tragically losing her husband and child in a car accident.
Larry moves to Paris and immerses himself in his studies and bohemian life. After two years of this "idleness" Larry visits Isabelle and asks to join his life of wanderings and searches, life in Paris and travels with little money. She cannot accept his vision of life and breaks off their engagement to return to Chicago. There she marries millionaire Gray, who provides her with a rich family life. Meanwhile, Larry goes on a journey through Europe, taking a job at a coal mine in Lance, where he becomes close to a former Polish army officer named Kostya.
Bone's influence prompts Larry to look for answers to his questions in the spiritual life, not in books. Larry and Bones leave the coal mine and travel together for a while before parting ways. Then Larry meets a Benedictine monk named Father Ensheim in Bonn, who temporarily left his monastery to pursue academic research. After spending several months with the Benedictines and unable to reconcile their concept of God with his own, Larry is hired to work for an ocean liner and ends up in Bombay.
Larry goes through a serious spiritual quest in India and returns to Paris. What he really found in India, and what he finally concluded, is hidden from the reader for a long time, until, in a scene at the end of the book, Maugham discusses India and spirituality with Larry in a cafe until late at night. He begins the chapter with the words: “I consider it my duty to warn the reader that he can safely skip this chapter without losing the plot thread that I have yet to reach. This chapter is almost entirely a retelling of the conversation I had with Larry. However, I must add that if it were not for this conversation, I might not have started writing this book at all. " Maugham then introduces the reader to the philosophy of advaita and shows how, through deep meditation and contact with Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi, skillfully disguised as Shri Ganesha in the novel, Larry continues to realize God - in the process of gaining liberation from the cycle of human suffering, birth and death that others are subject to. earthly beings.
The stock market crash of 1929 ravaged Gray, and he and Isabelle are invited to live in her uncle Elliot Templeton's large Parisian home. Gray suffers from excruciating migraines - symptoms of a general nervous disorder. Larry is able to help him by using an Indian form of hypnotic suggestion. Sophie has also moved to the French capital, where friends find her addicted to alcohol, opium and a messy, empty and dangerous relationship that seems to help her numb the pain of losing her family. Larry first sets out to save her and then decides to marry her - a plan that Isabelle doesn't like, who still loves him.
Isabelle seduces Sophie with a bottle of bison, and she, unable to bear it, starts drinking again and disappears from Paris. Maugham deduces this after seeing Sophie in Toulon, where she reverted to opium smoking and promiscuous sex. The police later interrogate him after Sophie was found murdered in her room with a signed book and volumes of Baudelaire and Rimbaud.
Meanwhile, in Antibes, Elliot Templeton is on his deathbed. Despite the fact that throughout his life he obsessively sought an aristocratic society, none of his titled friends come to him, which makes him sullen and angry. But his view of death is nevertheless positive: "In Europe I have always moved in the best circles and I have no doubt that I will move in the best circles in the sky." Isabelle inherits his fortune, but sincerely grieves for her uncle. Maugham rebukes her for finding out Isabelle's role in Sophie's fall. Isabelle's only punishment will be that she will never see Larry again, who decided to return to America and live like an ordinary working person. He is not interested in the rich and glamorous life that Isabelle enters into. Maugham ends his story by assuming that all the characters got what they wanted at the end: “Elliot - access to the high realms; Isabelle - a strong position in the cultural and active social circle, backed up by solid capital; Gray is a permanently profitable business and also an office where he spends time from nine to six hours; Sophie is death and Larry is happiness. "
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This article was sponsored by Bart Lipiec.
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