The Merry-Go-Round

By W. Somerset Maugham

Book Overview

ALL her life Miss Elizabeth Dwarris had been a sore trial to her relations. A woman of means, she ruled tyrannously over a large number of impecunious cousins, using her bank-balance like the scorpions of Rehoboam to chastise them, and, like many another pious creature, for their soul's good making all and sundry excessively miserable. Nurtured in the evangelical ways current in her youth, she insisted that her connections should seek salvation according to her own lights; and, with harsh tongue and with bitter gibe, made it her constant business to persuade them of their extreme unworthiness. She arranged lives as she thought fit, and ventured not only to order the costume and habits, but even the inner thought of those about her: the Last Judgment could have no terrors for any that had faced her searching examination. She invited to stay with her in succession various poor ladies who presumed on a distant tie to call her Aunt Eliza, and they accepted her summons, more imperious than a royal command, with gratitude by no means unmixed with fear, bearing the servitude meekly as a cross which in the future would meet due testamentary reward.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1519415753
• ISBN13: 9781519415752
• Release Date: November 2015
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 36 Pages
• Weight: 0.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Another great Maugham story

This book again earns Mangham's default 5 star rating. While not as significant as "Razors Edge" or The Moon and Sixpence", it is far better then "Catalina" or "Up the Villa." In this period piece set in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century Maugham iterates and conceives story elements from "Cakes and Ale," "Sanitarium" and Lisa of Lambeth" in telling the story of an incestuous cabal of Bourgeoisie English; exposing their spiritual hypocrisy, internecine conflicts, and narrow minded classicism.The numerous characters involved and developed is more reminiscent of Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" or then the authors previous works with the exception of "Cakes and Ale." However Maugham never gets overly involved with the irrelevant details, rather as master of mood he sets each character up in the first half of the book for a harsh realization of reality in the second half of the book (ala the Merry Go Round). This book demonstrates plausibly the vicissitudes of life. Readers with concrete notions of the way things should be may find this book reflective and/or disturbing. The virtuous sin, the dogmatic get a reality check, and the mighty fall. Classic Maugham. This book is delightful in its revelation of the scope and ambit of frail human beliefs and values.If you like Maugham books you will like the Merry-Go-Round. There is nothing new here for the Muagham reader as far as themes and characters but it is another wonderful read and another telling statement on the human condition.

Another great Maugham story

This book again earns Mangham's default 5 star rating. While not as significant as "Razors Edge" or The Moon and Sixpence", it is far better then "Catalina" or "Up the Villa." In this period piece set in the late nineteenth/early twentieth century Maugham borrow plots from "Cakes and Ale," "Sanitarium" and Lisa of Lambeth" in telling the story of an incestuous cabal of bourgeoisie English; exposing their spiritual hypocrisy, irrelavant internecine conflicts, and narrow minded classicism.The numerous characters involved and developed is more reminiscent of Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina" or then the authors previous works with the exception of "Cakes and Ale." However Maugham never gets overly involved with the irrelevant details, rather as master of mood he sets each character up in the first half of the book for a harsh realization of reality in the second half of the book (ala the Merry Go Round). This book demonstrates plausibly the vicissitudes of life. Readers with concrete notions of the way things should be may be shook. The virtuous sin, the dogmatic get a reality check, and the mighty fall. Classic Maugham. This book is delightful in its revelation of the scope and ambit of frail human beliefs and values.If you like Maugham books you will like the Merry-Go-Round. There is nothing new here for the Muagham reader as far as themes and characters but it is another wonderful read and another telling statement on the human condition.