The Happy Couple by William Somerset Maugham, one of my favorite novelists, author of The Pool https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-pool-by-william-somerset-maugham.html and other fabulous short stories - 10 out of 10

 

The Happy Couple by William Somerset Maugham, one of my favorite novelists, author of The Pool https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/07/the-pool-by-william-somerset-maugham.html and other fabulous short stories

 

10 out of 10

 

The Happy Couple is just one of the many stupendous short stories by Somerset Maugham, which you could read at https://mmccl.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-happy-couple-1943.html a startling combination of tragedy and extasy, from the first lines, we are facing the problem of the death penalty, which is out in many countries

 

Indeed, in all civilized places, with the exception of America (but then that place is falling part, what with Orange Jesus, a majority in the supreme court that is loathsome, just gave the con man immunity, but I will probably get started again on this later, so there’s your spoiler alert right here) and Japan, there may be a few others left though

It is true that the discussion in the tale takes place one hundred years ago or more, when the background was different, there were few lands that banned the death penalty, maybe a handful, but the man who is so adamant he feels no remorse is a judge, and appears to be quite cruel, however much he thinks he is just

 

The Happy Couple in the title are the Craigs and the narrator says I thought he looked commonplace and she looked disagreeable, and I thought Miss Gray was lucky that they were so obviously disposed to keep themselves to themselves…’ Miss Gray is the unmarried woman that makes up a story about The Happy Couple…

"There's something rather charming about them," she told me…"What? They love one another. And they adore the baby." So, Miss Gray calls them Edwin and Angelina, because she does not know their names, and thinks, imagines actually that they fell in love some twenty years ago, but they could not make ends meet

 

Thus, he plans to travel to Malaya or South America and make a fortune – let me remind you, if you are still around for some reason, that this happens more than one century back, when Great Britain had what, not quite one third, but a fifth of the land, the sun never set on the empire, and there were opportunities far and away

Nonetheless, Edwin from this story within the story does not manage to get that wealth, while Angelina is waiting for him, back home, and she becomes desolate, what if he forgot, and it looks as if they will not be together again…it looks though as if Thomas Mann was correct in his assessment, the one I have read some forty years ago

Thomas Mann https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-magic-mountain-by-thomas-mann.html said, through one of his characters, that humans have this appalling habit, to vaunt ‘I love you so much, there are no words to express this’, when this is absolutely false, just like that phony Orange Jesus, the idol for seventy million American fools

 

In that short story of Thomas Mann, the personage explains that you can find love only in literature, art, not in real life, that is if we look at the definitions, not what people have come to believe ‘loving’ is, to love somebody is to be ready for sacrifice, not to feel something, until it is tested, and you are asked to do something

Magister Ludi Kingsley Amis https://realini.blogspot.com/2022/06/take-girl-like-you-by-kingsley-amis-one.html has explained how words have changed meaning, some are not useable anymore, like infamous, which comes from infamy, but it had started to signify famous, at least when Amis wrote his brilliant The King’s English

 

Returning to The Happy Couple for a moment, in what Miss Gray envisaged, there comes a moment when Edwin finally gets the fortune he craved – writing this I remember the definition of Nirvana, the state you reach when you covet nothing, like in the anecdote with the Dalai Lama in the hypermarket ‘wow, so many things I don’t need’

So, he comes back, but now they have another problem, because he is so handsome, aging has only made him ever more attractive, distinguished, while Angelina feels old and decrepit, when standing alongside, so we have proof of adoration in literature, if we look for it, because she is ready to abandon her happiness

 

She says she would free him of the promise, but in that scenario, they will live together, until they move next door to this creative Miss Gray…nevertheless, this is not what happened to the couple, as we find from the judge, Sir Edward Landon, who is present when the host makes the introductions, as the Craigs arrive

They are shocked to see their former foe, albeit they deny meeting him before, when he asks about that, and then we get the other version, the real one (or made up by glorious Somerset Maugham, as an alternative) from the judge who had had to take on their case, when a murder case came to trial, that of Miss Wingford

 

The latter died, and her fortune was inherited by her companion, the death certificate was signed by her physician, doctor Brandon, who had also been a witness when the testament was signed…a maid had been promised a good sum of money, and when she saw that was absent in the will, she informed the relatives that Miss Wingford has been poisoned

After some time, the police took up the case, it was found that an overdose of veronal was the cause of death, and doctor Brandon stated that he prescribed it, and warned the woman to be cautious, and only take one pill…eventually, this will be tried, with aspects that surprise, the doctor and companion had a relationship together, which was used by the accusation, only it was also proved that the woman was Virgo intacta…

 

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.”