The Trembling of a Leaf - W. Somerset Maugham (week 2)

"Extreme happiness, only separated from extreme despair by the trembling of a leaf, isn't this life?" --Sainte-Beuve

W. Somerset Maugham first claimed fame as a novelist and dramatist. With The Trembling of a Leaf (1921), he also established his reputation as a preeminent short story and travel writer. His inspiration came from first-hand observations of the Pacific: "I had always had a romantic notion of the South Seas," he said. "I had read of those magic islands in the books of Herman Melville, Pierre Loti, and Robert Louis Stevenson, but what I saw was very different from what I had read."

His poignant collection of tales, pervaded by a sense of disillusionment and dark irony, explores the culture clash of colonialists, natives, and half-castes, set against the backdrop of tropical beauty. The tales offer a glimpse into the complexities of love and loss, the fragility of human emotions, and (for better or worse) the transformative power of the South Seas.

"There may be only the trembling of a leaf between extreme joy and extreme despair," said The Saturday Review, "but there is the whole crashing of a tree" between this and lesser works: "each separate tale is begun by inspiration and completed by artistic perfection." "Rain" is the most famous story among them--"a sheer masterpiece of sardonic horror"--having been adapted several times for both theater and film.

Schedule:

• Week 1 (April 27): Stories 1 through 4
• Week 2 (May 4): Stories 5 through 8

The Trembling of a Leaf:

• Kindle
• Google books
• Archive
• Gutenberg
• Librivox 7h44m

Supplemental:

• Rain 1932 movie trailer
• Somerset Maugham's review of Moby-Dick, from Ten Greatest Novels of All Time

Extracts:

• "But is life, indeed, a thing for all infidel levities... that what we take to be our strongest tower of delight, only stands at the caprice of the minutest event—the falling of a leaf, the hearing of a voice, or the receipt of one little bit of paper...?" (Pierre, 4.2)

This meetup is part of the series Fig Leaves and Fancy Pants.