A Casual Affair by Somerset Maugham - one of my favorite writers, author of Jane https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/jane-by-somerset-maugham-author-of.html and other great works - 10 out of 10

 

A Casual Affair by Somerset Maugham - one of my favorite writers, author of Jane https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/jane-by-somerset-maugham-author-of.html and other great works

 

10 out of 10

 

I take exquisite pleasure in reading Somerset Maugham again, after so many years – he has soothed me while I was in hospital, for an ulcer, during the days of the Ceausescu regime, which I have helped to bring down, in December 1989 – at the end of this, and any other note of mine, there is a link to that heroic adventure

 

The narrator of A Casual Affair is traveling to Borneo – incidentally, I have just finished and noted on Far Eastern Tales https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-force-of-circumstance-by-somerset.html - where he has an agreeable host, Arthur Low, but they have met before at a party given by Lady Kastellan, perhaps the most important presence here

Or maybe it would be Jack Almond, in any case the two have The Casual Affair, nonetheless, the narrator and Mrs. Jean Low have met at that event, the latter thinks the host of that party ‘a bitch’ and we soon come to the reason for that, this aristocrat would have been the reason why a man self-destructs, arguably…

 

A spoiler alert might have been imperative above, but it is included here, this is a short story, and except for the version where there are just a couple of lines, stating yes, I think it was good, wonderful, or dreadful, I do not see how one could try to look at the tale without giving in some secrets, for whoever cares to learn them

Arthur Low is told that a white man has died – we have entered the story of the Affair and the protagonists – and he travels to see about it – highlighting the racism of the time, nationalism also, and a few other bad traits, many locals died, but the resident travels to see the one belonging to his race, due to his position…

 

The white had died in poverty, there is a strong smell in the shabby room, overcoming the other odorous vapors, and he had lived with a Chinese woman, who supported him from her meagre income, Arthur Low finds that there is a packet to be given to lady Kastellan, which includes letters, that he takes with him…

Jean Low insists on reading them – the reason would be curiosity, but the official explanation ‘you need to try and find the name of the man, the Chinese woman had not given it – and then they think of communicating with Countess Kastellan, about the package – what they have are his letters for the lady, and we see why

They have must have exchanged his missives for hers at one time- Jean Low says they ‘were the most wonderful letters she had read, you never wrote to me such letters’ said her, addressing her husband, who retorts ‘you would have thought me such a fool, if I did’ and then we get to the chronology and content…

 

A clerk in the Foreign Office had fallen in love with Lady Kastellan and she with him, and the first messages were passionate, happy, expecting their love to last forever, telling her how much he adored her – this makes me think of Thomas Mann  https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/06/little-herr-friedmann-by-thomas-mann.html

Catastrophe takes place, as Lord Kastellan not only finds about the affair, but he has proof, and furthermore, he says he wants a divorce, scandal would ensue, and we find this from the change in the tone of the letters, the lover is sorry for his responsibility, nothing matters but their love, according to the definition

 

Love is what one feels when one is ready to go to the end, he wants her to have courage and travel with him, but she does not want to leave London, go to a god forsaken place, and thus proves her feelings were not genuine, at least, not rising to the level of ‘love’, as Thomas Mann has defined it, you only find it in art, books

He is agonizing, because the husband wants him to resign and leave England, in order to take her back, and it seems (spoiler alert, remember, we have had one, and here is another, if needed, if anybody is still around) she is not willing to compromise privilege, position for this man, who would do anything for her, everything

 

This is why Jean Low appears to have such a low opinion of the countess who has asked the one she presumably had loved – surely, we could, we should think about this aspect – it could have been just desire, a sexual attraction, which in those days needed to have the cover of ‘deep emotion’, one could not just wish to have sex, like that

Lord Kastellan wants to this be over, the father of the countess has a position of importance, and they do not like the idea that the married aristocrat had had a connection with this lowly clerk, and they wanted to severe the tie somehow, and they bear down on the man to just leave and end up as we have seen at the start

 

It looks as if he was committed to his adoration and in this, he reminds me of my own story – back in 1990, I fell in love with Miss Romania, who was not a ‘lady’, we had just ended communism, where ‘some animals were more equal than others’, but you had no nobles and hoi polio, anyway, she was too much for ignoble me, and her mother made that plain, we had some ten months of ‘love’, or whatever we must call that…

Then she went to Las Vegas, for the Miss Universe pageant, saw the glamour, luxury of America, and when she returned, asked me to ’get lost’, if not in the manner of Lady Kastellan, still, with the assumption that I am not worthy of a queen, if only ‘a beauty queen’…in the end, she married a rich fellow, who had embezzled the wealth and would be sent to prison

 

 Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”