The Door of Opportunity by Somerset Maugham – author of The Razor’s Edge https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-razors-edge-by-somerset-maugham.html and other magnum opera - 10 out of 10

 

The Door of Opportunity by Somerset Maugham – author of The Razor’s Edge https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-razors-edge-by-somerset-maugham.html and other magnum opera

 

10 out of 10

 

 

It is exhilarating to read Somerset Maugham, after about ten years, for some of his works, while others have enchanted my stays in hospitals, during the Ceausescu regime, an awful time, but I had an (less than) important contribution to the downfall of that vile tyrant, and there is a link at the end of this note, where you get more about it

 

The Door of Opportunity is mainly a story about courage, or lack thereof, and it takes place mostly near Singapore, in what was one hundred years aga a British colony, part of the biggest empire the world has seen, covering about a third of the land, and it was said about it that the sun never sets on this vast domain…

We meet the couple at the center of the plot, while they sail back to Britain, the plan is for them to stay in London – however, that may not happen, and this is where a spoiler alert should be, hey, it is inserted, for we never know what foolishness overcomes me, and I give everything up, or I just wonder ‘lonely as a cloud’ and abandon the topic

 

Anne Torel is the main character, and we feel empathy for her, admire her resolution, character, strength, just like the community in the Far East appreciated this woman, who was not so handsome (maybe much less than that) but so pleasant, in contrast to her husband, Alban Torel, good looking, polished, erudite, sophisticated

The man has everything needed to climb the ladder and become the governor of this remote place, only there are a few aspects that work against him, he is not just kept outside the hearts of the people, he is outright unpleasant, he is mocked and nicknamed Powder Puff, they will even send him the thing, in contempt…

 

Somerset Maugham is a divine writer, and he gives readers the exquisite, fabulous pleasure of portraying complex personages, such as Alban Torel, who reads and plays classical music, has gathered an impressive library, and not just that, but he reads the books, he is far above the level of the men sent to these remote colonies…

On some levels, for on others, he proves lamentable, deficient, a liability – the governor would say at one point that ‘if everyone acted in your manner, there would be no empire to speak of’, something along these lines, and the disappointment is enormous, though Torel has not been considered human, he was arrogant

 

Yet, there were some good reasons, he appreciated art, beauty, was not keen on the sports that are popular, and vulgar, he was also open minded, and we could look at this evidence – they have a neighbor, Prynne, who lives with a native woman, and they have children, something disapproved of by the pompous British

However, Alban and Anne Torel do not take that racist, haughty, superior venue, and they visit the family, if others would want the woman and the half caste children to be kept away, Anne plays with them, and there seems to be a bond created, at least until tragedy strikes and we have the climax of the narrative, for which we could quote Aristotle

 

The great thinker https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/aristotle-in-ninety-minutes-by-paul.html referred to the ingredients needed in a play, and two would be revelation and reversal, such as the calamity in Oedipus Rex, wherein the king finds that he has killed his father, learning that the one he presumed to be his parent was in fact a stranger

The Chinese men working on the plantations have been infected by Communist ideas, they revolt, take over the place and kill Prynne, throwing his body out of the offices which they set on fire – his assistant, Oakley, came to the house just as this revolt was at its peak, he tries to escape and can barely get to the river…

 

Oakley tells Alban Torel what had happened, the latter is the man in charge and he says that he could not possibly take action, seeing as he only has eight policemen, thus he needs to send for reinforcements, which will take at least two days to arrive, and his wife is aghast at this – she will tell him later that she saw his fear…

Ergo, some support arrives, and they try to maneuver, and surprise the rebels, at dawn, when they come from a side, not the river, to use the element of surprise, which could have added another calamity, to the one they already have on their hands…oh, I forgot that Anne insists on the peril in which the lover and her children were

 

In insisting that her spouse needs to go immediately, she tells him that the Chinese could kill the half cast children and their mother, and the revolting Torel says he does not really care about some ‘kept woman’, and her half-cast children…a really loathsome behavior, which will have consequences, beyond expectations…

When they attack the camp, Van Hasseldt, a Dutch planter, comes screaming and showing his anger ‘are you mad, you could have killed me, a bullet came this close to my head…what is wrong with you’ and the like, then he tells them what happened, how he had learned about the murder, and he decided he cannot let this go

Hence, he only took three other men (so he had half the force available for Torel) came to burned house, shot dead one of the rebels and then had the few hundred surrender…this makes the governor ask for Torel’s resignation, and when the latter refuses, he is fired

 

 

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.”