Books: “The Merry-Go-Round” by W. Somerset Maugham

Originally published in 1905, “The Merry-Go-Round” is one of Maugham’s more earlier writings. Having read his later novels first, it was astonishingly easy to tell; burdened with Edwardian values, the story of characters’ facing moral dilemmas between integrity and happiness,  reads more like a Henry James novel. The humorous narrator, who is Maugham – both cynical and forgiving towards human folly, has yet to materialize fully. However, we see shades of him through his characters: the good-humoured rich spinster, Miss Ley, and her close friend, Frank, who appears to be Maugham himself in circumstance – the forever bachelor and working doctor, who wants to quit medicine and travel to the Far East. Miss Ley and Frank together, one in body one in voice, make fair poignant judgements on their social circle. It is a story of forgiveness, letting go of bitterness, accepting that perhaps the only thing worth living for is the beauty in life – full circle.

“The pleasures of life are illusion, but when pessimists complain that human delights are negligible because they are unreal, they talk absurdly; for reality none knows, and few care about: our only interest is with illusion. How foolish is it to say that the mirage in the desert is not beautiful merely because it is an atmospheric effect!”

“But when the virtuous slip from the narrow path they flounder hopelessly, committing one error after another in the effort to right themselves by the methods of virtue.”

“And go with a good heart, for she cared for you for your physical attractiveness rather than for your character. And that, I may tell you, whatever moralists say, is infinitely more reliable, since you may easily be mistaken in a person’s character, but his good looks are obvious and visible. You’re handsomer than ever you were.”