Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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A novel of rebellions, large and small

The House of Doors: A Novel by Tan Twan Eng

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Cbr18bingo Justice: a murder trial is a key part of the story The House of Doors is a work of fiction that includes real people and a real murder trial that occurred in Kuala Lumpur in 1911. The murder trial of Edith Proudlock became the subject of a W. Somerset Maugham story, The Letter, which later became a play and film. In this novel, author Tan Twan Eng imagines how Maugham came to write that story. Set in Penang, Malaysia, it is a story of […]

Fake It ‘Til You Make It, Then Keep Faking It

Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham

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When your mayor declares a state of emergency, and you get a rare snow day, it’s time for an old-school reading aesthetic. Hot tea? Check. Cozy blanket? Check. Minor classic that’s been sitting on your TBR for the past three years? Check. “Stage Door Theatre Breaks in London” by AndyRobertsPhotos is licensed under CC BY 2.0 . I wasn’t terribly interested in Maugham until I read a fictionalized version of him in Tang Twan Eng’s The House of Doors, which had me idly googling to learn […]

Fools for Love

Up at the Villa by W. Somerset Maugham

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Mary Panton, a wealthy and beautiful widow who lives in an old villa in the hills overlooking Florence, is asked by a longtime friend to marry him. While he is away for a few days and she is considering his proposal, an encounter with a young refugee could destroy all her plans for the future. This is a short but intense novel that makes some poignant observations on the many facets of love, with Florence and the Tuscany region as a beautiful backdrop against which […]

It is one of the defects of my character that I cannot altogether dislike anyone who makes me laugh

The Moon and Sixpence by W Somerset Maugham

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This is the 1919 novel by W Somerset Maugham that is partially modeled on the life of Paul Gaughin, a figure I don’t know much about personally before this novel, but looked him up for this. In the novel, Charles Strickland is a near 40 year old business guy who leaves his wife and teen children after seventeen years of marriage to move to Paris and become an artist. After several years of working at it he moves to Tahiti and starts a new life […]

She had asked if he was good-looking. ‘No, I don’t think he is,’ answered Margaret, ‘but he’s very paintable.’

The Magician by W Somerset Maugham

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This is a curious novel by Somerset Maugham written and published in 1908. The lead character, or rather, the titular character is a literally largely than life man named Oscar Haddo, who is into parlor tricks, and other occultish type things. He’s based or at least figured on Alastair Crowley. The plot involves Haddo being introduced into a polite society who is confused and bemused as whether they love him or hate him, or love him because they hate him. He’s oafish but quite alluring. […]

The razor’s edge between satisfaction and disillusionment

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While I am procrastinating revising my first article from my dissertation (yes, after that productive burst, I’ve been wallowing in writerly laziness, I confess), I’ve been thinking about my second article. My second reader on my committee suggested I look at W. Somerset Maugham’s The Razor’s Edge as a possible starting point for one of the articles, because it might complement one of my books pretty well. I have never read anything by Maugham, though I’d heard of his more famous work, Of Human Bondage. […]



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