I consider Somerset Maugham as one of my favorite authors. The Explorer was a nice diversion. The story was classic, in that it bordered on melodramatic and the outcomes were somewhat predictable. When something happened as a twist to the story, I generally nodded as if to say, "Yes, I could see tha

З усіх прочитаних мною книг Сомерсета Моема ця - найслабша. Якби я читала її років двадцять тому, певно критикувала б саме лінію він-вона-та інші, оцю досить штучну ритуальність навколо стосунків. Але з перспективи сьогоднішнього дня, до недоліків варто додати оцей колоніальний дискурс "підкорення"

Perfectly serviceable melodrama in which proud, beautiful Lucy is desperate to restore her family’s good name after her ne’er do well father loses their ancestral home and swindles a woman out of her fortune. Alec is a brave, handsome (and rich!) man who has been single-handedly trying to rid Africa

3.5 stars

Maugham admitted that he wrote this book strictly for the money and didn't really believe in it.

Knowing that the British public were tiring of realistic 'slum tale' novels, Maugham felt that the public were more in the mood for Kipling-esque 'patriotic' fiction, and with this book gave the

The Explorer felt more like Maugham the playwright rather than Maughham the novilist. By this I mean that playwrights have the ability to narrate the behaviors of the actors and rely upon the actors to communicate the emotions of the characters. The novilist, however, needs to place his readers insi

I was not expecting much from this novel. If it were any good I would have heard about it. I cannot remember Maugham talking about it in any of his autobiographical writings.
And indeed, it is rather weak. We have our heroine Alice who comes straight from the 18th century. She comes from a well respe

I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book. It's cut from the same cloth as Mrs Craddock and Maugham's other pre-Of Human Bondage novels in that the prose is a bit on the flowery side and the tone somewhat melodramatic compared to his later work. If anything it feels even more like a 19th Centur

‘The Explorer’ may not be Maugham’s most memorable work but you’ll still find his signature well-drawn characters and elegant prose in this novel he penned when he was a mere 25 years old. It’s hard to believe someone so young could write so well. And could anyone else make passive voice sound so st