Classically Yours: Reading 'The Razor's Edge' by William Somerset Maugham

We're picking up the 1944 classic, 'The Razor's Edge' written by Somerset Maugham, for Classically Yours: PWG's Classic Books club.

Join us on Monday, April 6th 2026, at 8 pm, as we introduce the books and author and start our reading of the classic.

The first session is introductory, and we will read the books over the coming weeks, discussing it every week.

Link for the Session:
https://meet.google.com/tnt-fnkp-uhp

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ABOUT THE SESSION:

A classic is a book that is best explained as 'a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.' In 'Why Read the Classics?', Italo Calvino says, 'your classic author is the one you cannot feel indifferent to, who helps you define yourself in relation to him, even in dispute with him.'

So, if you read: why NOT the classics should be the question, not why. This initiative is for those patient folks who are willing to be engaged in dialogues with these sometimes daunting books. It is a load best shared, which is why this group has been created.

All are welcome, the only caveat being that you commit wholeheartedly. The group is designed for a small number people, small being the operative word here. Something will and does get diluted in large numbers, which we are looking to avoid. If you find one of our planned books not to be up your alley, you can just recuse yourself, and hopefully, we can meet up again later over another book that might catch your fancy.

THE BOOK:

The Razor's Edge
A young American returns from the First World War unable to go back to the life everyone expects of him — and spends the next twenty years trying to understand why. Maugham watches him do it, and watches the people around him choose differently, and declines to tell you who was right.

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THE AUTHOR:
Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)
Born in Paris, educated in England, trained as a doctor and never once practiced — Maugham decided early that life was better observed than administered. He became the most widely read English novelist of the twentieth century, and possibly the most underrated.

ABOUT THE HOST:

Shankar has been a lifelong reader and aspiring writer and is located in Pune currently.