P&O by Somerset Maugham – his Of Human Bondage https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/of-human-bondage-by-somerset-maugham.html is included on The Modern Library’s Best 100 Books in the English language - 10 out of 10

 

P&O by Somerset Maugham – his Of Human Bondage https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/06/of-human-bondage-by-somerset-maugham.html is included on The Modern Library’s Best 100 Books in the English language

 

10 out of 10

 

 

Somerset Maugham is one of my two favorite authors – the other is Marcel Proust https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/06/un-amour-de-swan-by-marcel-proust.html - and P&O proves that he can write about anything, propose any farfetched idea and I will not only buy it, but love it and start proselytizing

 

In this case, we have magic at the center of the tale, which belongs to Far Eastern Tales https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/06/a-casual-affair-by-somerset-maugham.html a collection that I have been enamored with, and I am now taking it again, the last time was some thirty five years ago or so, some of them in…hospital

I will not take the route of the illness, geology and the like, it will be enough said in one of the notes posted on this new blog, without much, if any traffic, which is for the best, it is not really as if people miss some extravagant, erudite, remarkable sagas, explanations, no, it is just a mental exercise for yours truly

 

Studies have shown that writing helps the mind, we use one side of it for talking, and something else for writing, ergo, we could put down something that has annoyed, distressed, and then we create a distance and may find closure, besides, when looking at the words, we may find explanations, excuses that we had missed

On the other hand, Sonja Lyubomirsky https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-how-of-happiness-by-sonja.html has a different opinion from Tal Ben Shahar, Harvard Professor, the latter maintains that the count your blessings exercise is to be made every single day, while the former expert would have us space this out

 

‘Happiness Activity No 1: Expressing Gratitude –counting your blessings for what you have either to a close other or privately, maybe in a journal, conveying gratitude to one or more individuals you haven’t properly thanked’ – this is a daily ritual for some, while for others, it would be done weekly, to avoid routine…

P&O takes place mostly (or exclusively) on a ship, where we have Mrs. Hamlin, the main character of the narrative, trying to get past her recent personal trauma, meeting new passengers, exploring their habits and character…one of the most important for the plot is Mister Gallagher, an Irish plantation manager, returning from The Far East

 

He has decided to go away for good from Malaya, at the time of the story a British colony, like about one third of the world, and retire in his home country – albeit, spoiler alert, they would find that he has no close relative, no friend to write a letter to – and he has taken along with him one of the employees at the planation

Mister Gallagher is a very heavy man, though he will lose a lot of weight – the spoiler alert is not just still on, it is enhanced by repeating the alarm here -and he attracts the attention of our principal lady, who is intrigued by him, and some of the things he says and does, the fact that he has taken this fellow, to travel at second class

 

Those in First class, Mrs. Hamlin, a young, inexperienced doctor, some pother couples, the consul, organize a dance and there is the question of whether to invite some of the ‘second class passengers’, how to limit that, Gallagher says about his own companion that he plans on getting him drunk on Christmas

Meanwhile, the heroine thinks about her misfortune – anticipating yet again, she will change her perspective on life, faced with morbid events – which makes me think of Fyodor Dostoevsky https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-brothers-karamazov-by-fyodor.html and his own confrontation with the grim reaper

 

The great Russian writer (saying great Russian can be painful, and to make a stupid blague, sounds like an oxymoron, when thinking Putin, Stalin and what those and other Cossacks and tyrants like them do) was sentenced to death, and he had only three minutes left, in front of the firing squad, which he divides in three, what else

One minute to say goodbye to friends, family, one other to pass his life in front of him and then the last for a ray of sunshine falling on a bell tower, only he is pardoned in the last moment (or that was a ruse of the czar all along) and then he lives to share with millions of euphoric readers his experience, through characters

 

Facing the end of life, one would rather live on a bare rock, in the middle of the ocean, and there is more you can read about in the magnum opera The Idiot, The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Demons, Notes From The Underground https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/06/notes-from-underground-by-fyodor.html

In P&O, the heroine’s husband falls in love, at the age of fifty-two, with a woman, Dorothy Lacombe, who is eight years older than Mrs. Hamlin, and the latter is aghast at this, she says she knew that ‘fifty is a difficult age for men’ (or did she say the most difficult) but to have this humiliation was more than she could take…

At least that had been before the huge Gallagher started having hiccups, to the point where he could not eat anymore and reached the edge of his life, because he was…cursed by the Malay woman he had lived with…

 

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.”