Being the first novelist, I was introduced to, I have a passion for Maugham’s works.Here’s a review on his ’’Cakes and Ale’’.
Maugham narrates the discords in human relationships, mistakes in love and the writer’s dull world of longing and eternal yearning.Maughm’s writings are always half-truth.His works , are usually in third person, having some autobiographical note .The novel begins by Ashenden recieving some letter.Then the course of events takes him many years back in his life.He meditates on his adolescence, where he develops an admiration for a woman , Rosie , elder than him.She interests him, quite interestingly.He happens to see her with different men, at first with a writer called Driffield , then with George kemp, a respected man, in the place.Having identified her as Driffeild’s wife, Ashenden is puzzled to see her in kemp’s arms, and then with a diamond merchant.Having had strange acquaintances with her, and knowing her completely, he is unable to brand her as bad.Later, she elopes with George Kemp.
These memories still, remain in the subtle vision of his mind.Maugham gives an incomparable definition of womanhood and feminine attitudes.He defends Rosie, as a woman who respects her conscience.She is in search of money and love; immediately submits to the temptations of her senses, ignoring thevirtues binding a woman.He portrays her as a woman pure, though impure.He gives an exceptional record of a writer’s life and ponders on their authority to give life to characters, their imaginations, power and reach.