"The Razor's Edge" review

“The Razor’s Edge,” by W. Somerset Maugham follows the spiritual quest of a disillusioned World War I veteran probing life’s deepest questions: Does God exist? Why is their evil in the world? Does life have meaning?

Laurence “Larry” Darrell, aviator in the Great War, returns from France to America, a changed person. While his friends’ lives are wrapped around material pursuits, those things are unimportant to him. He turns down a lucrative job offer, leaves behind a fiancée and walks away from his affluent social circle in Chicago, becoming part of the expatriate scene in Paris. He immerses himself in books, and his search for knowledge leads to a spiritual sojourn through London, Germany and India where he finds inner peace in Eastern religion.

The overriding theme of “The Razor’s Edge” is spirituality versus materialism with Larry representing the former and Elliott Templeton representing the latter. Elliott left America for France as a young man and made his fortune as an art dealer. He’s an aristocratic gentleman – a gadabout who lives to attend high society parties and dine with the socially eminent, using them as stepping stones to advance his own profile. Maugham describes Elliott as an “archsnob,” but also as “the kindest and most generous of men.” At the novel’s opening, Larry is engaged to Elliott’s niece, Isabel Bradley.

The book’s main characters are introduced during a dinner party at the Chicago home of Louisa Bradley, Isabel’s mother and Elliott’s sister. Gray Maturin, Larry’s best friend, is among the guests. He’s an ambitious young man being groomed for a position in his father’s security firm, the company Larry declines to work for. Larry is in love with Isabel. Louisa and Elliott view Larry as unfocused and lacking direction. They want Isabel to marry Gray. The name, Gray Maturin, symbolizes that the character is adult and stable in contrast to Larry’s perceived unsettledness and immature refusal to conform.

Maugham takes a unique approach, placing himself in the story. He’s an excellent listener, to whom other characters confide. As narrator, he shows their perspectives through relaying their conversations with him. He’s a friend of Elliott’s, yet also develops a friendship with Larry. Maugham’s success as a novelist and playwright grants him access to the upper class, yet he’s also familiar with the seamier, bohemian side of Paris culture.

“The Razor’s Edge” spans from 1919 to 1944. Maugham develops his characters over that period with realism and acumen, most notably Isabel. Initially she is portrayed as “sparkling and vivacious,” a 19-year-old-girl with an engaging naiveté and budding sexuality. Years later, married to Gray, she is worldly, cynical, possessive and lusty – as materialistic as her uncle Elliott and more manipulative, but without his kindheartedness. Her shallowness has hardened in inverse to Larry’s personal growth.

Maugham depicted the conflict between the material and examined lives – the quick pursuit of financial security and the deep journey toward introspection. His literary exploration of Hindu polytheism was a departure for Western audiences of the 1940s. He wrote in the book’s opening pages that the characters were inspired by actual people. It has been speculated that he modeled Larry on Guy Hague, an American who took up Eastern religion in the ‘30s. Shri Ganesha, the yogi, whom Larry becomes a disciple of in India, is said to be modeled after Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi, a guru Maugham met during a 1938 visit to an ashram in India.

There is a recurring ephemeral theme in “The Razor’s Edge.” Youth is fleeting, customs change and Europe, a decaying empire, is being supplanted by America, a burgeoning world power with inexhaustible wealth. (The Depression shows the country is not so immune.) Amid the uncertainty, Larry seeks permanence and transcendence.

The pivotal moment in his life plays out with a Christ-like allusion. In the WWI, his friend Patsy fends off German fighter pilots endangering Larry. In the melee, Patsy’s plane is shot down. Hence, he sacrifices his life so another can live. There are other parallels to Christ in the novel.

Maugham melds worldly affluence with spirituality and sexuality. Elliott, a devout Catholic, profits financially from advice acquired through his connections with the Vatican. His piety, notwithstanding, he subscribes to the bawdy customs of French society.

Maugham reveals the sexual underbelly of Paris – kept women, infidelity, prostitution and homosexuality. He subtly – some may say not so subtly – reveals his own homosexuality. An older character, he remains single, takes women on platonic dates and is familiar with the “tough joints” in Paris. At Isabel’s request, he takes her to a dive where “men danced with podgy boys with made-up eyes.” Maugham also gives Elliott’s character a punctilious, effete quality, which hints that he is gay.

The “Razor’s Edge” is multi-layered, written with brevity and precision. Its exploration of war induced existential questions reverberated in the writings of Camus. The disaffection of post-war young people who disengage from Western materialism and draw toward Eastern thought would be played out in the beat writings of the 1950s. As long as war takes the lives and innocence of all-too-young people, “The Razor’s Edge” will have resonance.

Gateway Literature: “Talks With Sri Ramana Maharshi.” This collection of conversations, recorded by Munagala Venkataramiah, of the famous yogi and his devotees includes a brief account of Maugham’s encounter with the man in the 1930s.

Also, I recommend reading Henry James. Early in the “The Razor’s Edge,” there is a Jamesian quality to Maugham’s contrasting of social classes and cultures from the two sides of the Atlantic. Therefore, I would suggest checking out “Daisy Miller” written in the 1870s by Henry James, which contrasts the traditional Old World British customs with those of the youthful, brash emerging power of America.
I suspect that the character of Elliott Templeton was somewhat inspired by T.S. Eliot. Eliott Templeton was an American-born Francophile who moved to France and converted from Methodism to Roman Catholicism, the predominant religion in France. T.S. Eliot was an Anglophile who left the America for England and converted from Unitarianism to Anglicism. Therefore, I would recommend Eliot’s poem “The Wasteland,” his masterpiece lamenting the degradation of culture in the aftermath of World War I.
Interestingly, Maugham mentions Henry James and T.S. Eliot in “The Razor’s Edge.”

Out of the box gateway: At one point in “The Razor’s Edge,” Larry describes a spiritual experience “of the same order as the mystics have had all over the world through the centuries Brahmins in India, Sufis in Persia, Catholics in Spain, Protestants in New England.” This intelligent demonstration of religious knowledge and experience calls to my mind the classic “The Varieties of Religious Experience.” It was written in 1902 by the philosopher-psychologist William James. Henry’s brother.

Best line: “Darling, when it came to the point I couldn’t see myself being Mary Magdalen to his Jesus Christ. No, Sir.”
This line is spoken by a side character, Sophie MacDonald, and it sums up perfectly her relationship with Larry. She’s in the background, but the quietly intellectual, yet rampageous, self-destructive Sophie is my favorite character in the novel.