WS MAUGHAM 150 ⟩ Warns and understands, but does not choose a side or condemn

The collection of short stories “Casuariinpuu” contains six stories by W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965), set in the states of the former Federation of Malaya in the twenties of the last century, and as a colorful collection perfectly presents a picture of the glory now disappearance of the former British Empire.

Maugham traveled in the region with his companion Gerald Haxton for a total of six months in 1921 and four months in 1925, and it was from these travels that he received the obvious inspiration to write the short stories in the collection. He was fascinated by the Malay Archipelago, which people imagine as a gloomy land of great menacing rivers and a silent, impenetrable jungle, by the remote rubber plantations of the archipelago, where a white man does not meet another like him for months.

The first edition of the collection of short stories was published in 1926, one of the subsequent reprints was entitled among other things «Letter and other criminal stories». And indeed, all the stories included in the collection are related to a murder or at least a crime, so in this respect Maugham might as well be decorated with the insignia of a crime writer.

2024-01-25 21:22:00
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