W. Somerset Maugham
The Trembling of a Leaf: Little Stories of the South Sea Islands
Paperback
(CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform July 5, 2018)
The Trembling of a Leaf by W. Somerset Maugham is a collection of short stories set in the South Pacific. All deal with similar themes: the relationship between the islands’ native population and the foreigners (mostly British and American) who visit and live there. Most of the stories deal primarily with the foreigners, the natives playing supporting roles as wives, bystanders, store owners, petitioners, and so on. The stories also tend to feature two foreigners of different minds on a subject: the place of Christianity and missionaries on the islands, the proper way of relating to the indigenous population, the merits of the British vs. native way of life. In most of the stories there was at least one someone who was dreadfully unhappy, often because of cultural misunderstandings or incompatibilities. I found the tensions fascinating and well portrayed. Several of the stories also include a tale within a tale. Often a story’s main character spends most of the story relating something he heard about or that happened to him earlier. This structure gives the stories a depth I often find lacking in the form in general and allows Maugham to explore both tales as well as the narrator or main character’s feelings toward or the consequences of the innermost story.
- ISBN
- 1722283602 / 9781722283605
- Pages
- 178
- Weight
- 11.5 oz.
- Dimensions
- 6.0 x 0.4 in.
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