Welcome to Litsy!

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Oddly I am not panning this even though it had me in fits of pique about his casual misogyny, racism, and classism. It certainly cannot be criticised for being dull. Maugham is a veritable storyteller and he paints a picture of the fading era of British colonialism in Malaysia and beyond and if nothing else it‘s a great travel narrative. It‘s just very dated and every single female is terribly maligned, so much so it is almost comedy.

Some more old school thinking by the sometimes indefensible short stories of Somerset Maugham. This is kind of interesting as a record of historical thinking ?

Old Maugham knows how to cheer a girl right up... between this and all the assaults to modern notions of class privilege, ageism, colonialism not to mention his hatred of anybody that is not lithe - it‘s a challenging read.

That happy coincidence when you realise your baking matches your book😀