A lovely collection of stories set mostly in the old Federated Malay States and sometimes here in Singapore. Mentions of cool evenings laden with mosquitoes and gin slings hit home, along with its colonial history. As always, Maugham offers an analysis of the human character, its degradation of civil codes when ousted to the outposts; marriages that either thrive under the jungle or lead to murder and young men who drink themselves to death out of loneliness. My favourites are: “P&O” in which a humiliated wife sailing away from her husband’s affair comes across a death on her voyage, which leads her to let go of any bitterness, and wish her husband happy; “Before the Party,” where the true details of a husband’s suicide are revealed (right before a fancy dress party, no less); and “Neil MacAdam,” a story of a pure, sweet, handsome, insect enthusiast who is saving himself for love, gets horribly mixed up with an experienced Russian lady. I also loved the revelation in “Mr Know-All” – what a string of pearls can say, is unforgettable.
“The imagination lingers here gratefully, for in the Federated Malay States the only past is within the memory for the most part of the fathers of living men.” -Footprints in the Jungle
“…I’ve known far too many criminals to think that on the whole there’re worse than anybody else. A perfectly decent fellow may be driven by circumstances to commit a crime and if he’s found out he’s punished; but he may very well remain a perfectly decent fellow.” -Footprints in the Jungle
“‘Your Excellency does not read Schiller, I suppose. You are probably not acquainted with his celebrated line: mit der Dummheit kampfen die Gotter selbst vergebens.’
‘What does it mean?’
‘Roughly: against stupidity the gods themselves battle in vain.’
‘Good morning.’” -The Door of Opportunity
“They were tunes gathered among the peasantry of the Northern Highlands and arranged by a sensitive musician. She sang one and then another. They had the melancholy of primitive music and in that warm silent night these songs of women wailing for their men killed in battle and of maids mourning their faithless lovers had a grave plaintiveness that was deeply moving. They did not seem out of place in that distant country; you felt that this music born amid mists and barren mountains had a subtle relation with the land of palm trees and wide rivers. “ – The Buried Talent
Feb25- 27
JohannaAirth 