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    The Trembling of a Leaf Little Stories of the South Sea Islands
    The Trembling of a Leaf Little Stories of the South Sea Islands
    The Trembling of a Leaf Little Stories of the South Sea Islands
    Ebook335 pages6 hours

    The Trembling of a Leaf Little Stories of the South Sea Islands

    By W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham

    4.5/5

    ()

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateMar 1, 1977
    The Trembling of a Leaf Little Stories of the South Sea Islands

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    Reviews for The Trembling of a Leaf Little Stories of the South Sea Islands

    4.5/5

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    • 4/5
      Indeholder "Stillehavet", "Mackintosh", "Edward Barnards fald", "Red", "Dammen", "Honolulu", "Regn", "Epilog"."Stillehavet" handler om ???"Mackintosh" handler om ???"Edward Barnards fald" handler om ???"Red" handler om ???"Dammen" handler om ???"Honolulu" handler om ???"Regn" handler om ???"Epilog" handler om ??????
    • 5/5
      Very good short stories, mostly set in Samoa. They vary in length from long (almost the length of a novella) to one less than a page.
    • 5/5
      This collection of short stories, mainly set in Samoa, was my introduction to the works of W. Somerset Maugham. If this is representative of the quality of his writing, I have much to look forward to. Although the stories are almost a century old, the issues and emotions they explore are timeless. They explore clashes of culture, social conventions, religion, and race. Maugham's descriptive prose is refreshingly original, as a couple of my favorite passages illustrate:Self-sacrifice appealed so keenly to his imagination that the inability to exercise it gave him a sense of disillusion. He was like the philanthropist who with altruistic motives builds model dwellings for the poor and finds that he has made a lucrative investment. He cannot prevent the satisfaction he feels in the ten per cent which rewards the bread he had cast upon the waters, but he has an awkward feeling that it detracts somewhat from the savour of his virtue. (From “The Fall of Edward Barnard”)The place seemed to belong not to the modern, bustling world that I had left in the bright street outside, but to one that was dying. It had the savour of the day before yesterday. Dingy and dimly lit, it had a vaguely mysterious air and you could imagine that it would be a fit scene for shady transactions. It suggested a more lurid time, when ruthless men carried their lives in their hands, and violent deeds diapered the monotony of life. (From “Honolulu”)Highly recommended.
    • 5/5
      My third audio book, and I really enjoyed it. It differed from the other two by being a truly awful, unprofessional recording: words stumbled over, words mispronounced, strange falsetto voices for the women. However the story was written by a master, and that made a huge difference.

      Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain was the first audio book I listened to. She's a writer strictly for the times; I can't see her books being read fifty years from now. Tom DeBaggio's Losing My Mind, his memoir of his deteriorating life with Alzheimer's had the benefit of all his years as a journalist, he really could write. But W. Somerset Maugham, is a modern master of the short story and novella, and the full virtues of his ability to situate in time and place the characters, making that time and place an integral part of the story overcame any shortcoming that the audio recording had.

      The story is simply about the hypocrisy, snobbishness and frailty of people, and how they justify it. The characters are strongly drawn and speak for themselves, no characteristion by the narrator is necessary (or desirable). The ending is quite shocking, but on reflection, not unexpected. A work of genius.
    • 5/5
      Wonderful stories written with W.S.M's wry humor and incredible sense of observation. It is kind of a "behind the scenes" on the life of white settlers in the South Pacific, with the good and the bad.
    • 3/5
      The first story, about an administrator who rules "his" island with an iron hand but who, nevertheless, "loves" his people, is by far the best. Rather than being a simple villain, as the story progresses he becomes increasingly complex. The other stories are not as interesting. Didactic and predictable, for the most part, but I finished them all--so that says something.

    Book preview

    The Trembling of a Leaf Little Stories of the South Sea Islands - W. Somerset (William Somerset) Maugham

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