The Narrow Corner, W. Somerset Maugham
The Narrow Corner, W. Somerset Maugham
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The Narrow Corner

Author: W. Somerset Maugham

Narrator: Geoffrey Giuliano, The Ark

Unabridged: 1 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/01/2022

Categories: Fiction, Classic, Family Life


Synopsis

The Narrow Corner is a novel by the British writer W. Somerset Maugham, published by William Heinemann in 1932.

A quote from Meditations, iii 10, by Marcus Aurelius, introduces the work: "Short therefore, is man's life, and narrow is the corner of the earth wherein he dwells." In the story, set "a good many years ago" in what is now Indonesia, a young Australian, cruising the islands after his involvement in a murder in Sydney, has a passionate affair on an island which causes a further tragedy.

William Somerset Maugham was an English playwright, novelist, and short-story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest-paid author during the 1930s.

Both Maugham's parents died before he was 10, and the orphaned boy was raised in Whitstable, Kent by a paternal uncle, who was emotionally cold. He did not want to become a lawyer like other men in his family, so he trained and qualified as a physician. His first novel Liza of Lambeth (1897) sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full-time. In 1915 he wrote Of Human Bondage, widely considered his masterpiece.

During the First World War, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service. He worked for the service in Switzerland and Russia before the October Revolution of 1917 in the Russian Empire. During and after the war, he travelled in India, Southeast Asia and the Pacific. He drew from those experiences in his later short stories and novels.

About W. Somerset Maugham

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was an English playwright, novelist, and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and, reputedly, the highest paid author during the 1930s. His semiautobiographical Of Human Bondage is considered to be his masterpiece. Other notable works by Maugham include The Moon and Sixpence, The Razor's Edge, Cakes and Ale, and The Gentleman in the Parlour.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Sketchbook on October 20, 2015

Often a dinner invite by an old chum is the best : you know the host and probably the company. Food will be fine as well as the setting. Why rumble with unknowns, given your mood. Hence, I wanted to read the last unread MOM for me.....Underrated, unread today. MOM at his best. Inspired by Conrad...in......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth on March 31, 2008

It is wonderful, as is everything by maughum i've found so far. He seems to write with no regard for what a novel is supposed to look like, and yet at the same time he has the literary equivalent of an interior clock, or perfect pitch. The timing, pacing and scope always seem just right, even when t......more

Goodreads review by Nandakishore on May 15, 2021

*Warning: Mild Spoilers* Maugham is an elegant writer. There is no other way to describe him. His stories are not earth-shaking; his plots are ordinary; and his characters are extremely human and flawed. But when he mixes them together and seasons it with his magic prose, what we get is a tragic conc......more

Goodreads review by Gail on January 05, 2010

For me, one of life's pleasures is reading or rereading Somerset Maugham. The luster of his prose never dulls; his ability to capture a character vividly always intrigues. He never does this with anything as prosaic has a physical description or "He Said," but rather by revealing a telling thought......more