(又译：无所不知先生 )
一
我在见到凯兰达之前就有点不喜欢他。
第一次世界大战刚刚结束，横渡太平洋的航线非常繁忙，客舱是很难预订到的。我很高兴，弄到一个双人客舱，但当听到同伴的名字时，我就有点灰心了。“凯兰达”，这使我有一种在空气窒息不流通的房间里的感觉。想起在这14天的旅途中（我从圣弗兰西斯科到横滨），将和这个凯兰达共用一间房，我就感到不舒服。我讨厌他的名字，要是他叫史密斯或者布朗什么的也好一点。
上船后，我来到客舱，发现凯兰达已经来过。一只又大又难看的衣箱和一个贴满标签的手提箱放在他的床下，脸盆架上摆着他的香水，洗发精和润发油，檀木做的牙刷上镀金印着他的名字缩写。
我不喜欢凯兰达。
在吸烟室里，我要了一副单人玩的纸牌，正准备开始玩的时候，一个人走了过来向我问好。
“我是凯兰达。”他在我面前坐下，笑着露出一排雪白的牙齿。
“哦，我们好像住在一个房间。”
“听说你是英国人，我感到很高兴。在海外遇到自己的同胞，确实让人激动。”
“你是英国人？”
“当然，我是一个地地道道的英国人。”说着他拿出他的护照递给我。
“想喝点什么吗？”他问道。
我疑惑起来。美国正在实行禁酒令，船上是找不到一滴酒的，但是凯兰达狡黠地朝我笑了笑。
“威士忌，苏打还是鸡尾酒，你只要说一声就可以。”说着，他从后裤袋里摸出两个瓶子，放在我面前的桌子上，我兴奋起来，找服务员要了两个玻璃杯和一些冰块。
“嗯，不错”我说。
“是的，我这里还有好多这样的酒，船上如果还有你的朋友的话，你可以把他们都叫来。”我没有说什么。
接着他跟我讲起纽约、圣弗兰西斯科，谈到戏剧、给画和。他很健谈，好长时间都是他一个人在那里滔滔不绝地说着。
我有点厌烦了，重新拿起我的牌。
“你喜欢纸牌魔术吗？”
“不喜欢。”我又开始讨厌他了。
“我来给你表演一个。”他抽出三张牌递给我。但我没有理他，说我要去餐厅找个座位。
“哦，很好，我已经为我们俩订了座位，我想我们应该坐在一块儿。”
我不喜欢凯兰达。
他不但和我住在一个房间，而且一天三餐都非要和我挤在一张桌子上吃饭。不论我在什么地方，都无法摆脱他。要是在我家里的话，我一定会在他面前“砰”的把门关上，让他明白自己是一个不受欢迎的人。
凯兰达擅长交际，在船上的第三天，就差不多认识了所有的人。他什么事都干：主持拍卖，筹集体育资金，组织高尔夫球赛，安排音乐会，举办化装舞会。我想大家一定有点讨厌他。我们都叫他“万事通”先生，甚至在他面前也是这样。他对此并不在乎，把这当作我们对他的恭维。
二
凯兰达非常健谈，并且喜好同别人争论，特别是在吃饭的时候。我们简直难以忍受，但又无法让他停下来。他好像比谁都懂得多，错误似乎也不会发生在他身上。在他讲话时，若有人反对他，他就会同他争个没完。在说服你之前，他绝不会放弃一个话题，不管它是多么的不重要。
一天晚上，我们坐在医生的桌旁，凯兰达仍像以往一样在滔滔不绝地说着。在座的还有在神户的美国领事馆工作的拉姆齐和他的夫人。
拉姆齐是一个很结实的家伙，皮肤绷得紧紧的，略显肥胖的肚子使衣服凸起。这次他是带着妻子重返神户的。他的妻子已独自一人在纽约呆了一年。拉姆齐夫人的样子十分可爱。虽然她丈夫的工资不怎么高，她穿得也很简朴，但她知道怎样穿她的衣服，使她具有超过一般女人的迷人之处。这是一种端庄淑静的美。
看得出拉姆齐很讨厌凯兰达。他们时时争论一番，这种争论是长时间的，激烈的。
这时，话题谈到精明的日本人正在进行的人工养殖珍珠。凯兰达给我们讲了许多关于珍珠的事。我相信拉姆齐对此知道的不会很多，但他绝不会放过任何反驳凯兰达的机会。不一会儿，我们就被卷入了一场充满火药味的争吵。刚开始，凯兰达还是情绪激昂，滔滔不绝，但不久，他自己也有点厌烦了。最后，他显然是被拉姆齐的一句话刺痛了，敲着桌子叫道：
“我可以告诉你，在这方面我是最有发言权的。我这次到日本就是去洽谈珍珠生意的。没有哪一个懂这一行的人不会认为我刚才所说的都是千真万确的。”他得意洋洋地看着周围的人。“我知道所有珍珠的行情，没有哪一种珍珠我不能马上辨认出。”他指着拉姆齐夫人戴的项链，“夫人，你的这串珍珠项链就非常值钱，并且它的价格还在上涨。”
拉姆齐夫人的脸红了，她把那项链轻轻塞进她的衣服。
“你说这是天然珍珠吗？”拉姆齐好像已经抓住了凯兰达的什么把柄。
“是的，这种珍珠非常精致。”凯兰达答道。
“好。虽然这不是我买的，但我想知道，你认为它值多少钱？”
“在一般的市场要1．5万美元，但在美国最繁华的第五街，1．3万美元也能买得到。”拉姆齐冷笑起来。
“这是我夫人离开纽约前在一家百货商店里买的，只花了18美元。”
凯兰达的脸一下子涨得通红。
“胡说，这珍珠不但是真的，而且是我所知道的几种中最好的一种。”
“你敢打赌吗？我要用100美元和你打赌这是仿制品。”拉姆齐怂恿道。
“可以。”
“不，拉姆齐，你怎么能拿一件事实和人打赌呢？”拉姆齐夫人劝阻道。
“为什么不呢？如果放弃这样一个轻易能弄到钱的机会，那才是一个傻瓜。”
“但你也不能证明它是仿制品呀？”
“把它拿给我看一看，我就知道它的真假。”凯兰达说道。
“亲爱的，把它拿给这位先生看看。”
拉姆齐夫人犹豫着，她的两手紧握在一起，好像还在考虑着什么。
拉姆齐等得不耐烦了，他走过来亲手把项链解了下来，递给了凯兰达。
我预感到一件不幸的事要发生了。
凯兰达拿出一个放大镜，仔细地观察起来。不一会，一丝胜利的微笑闪现在他的脸上。当他把项链递给拉姆齐正准备开口说话时，忽然看见拉姆齐夫人的脸是那样的白，好像她马上就会晕过去。她的眼睛看着凯兰达，那是一种绝望的哀求。我很奇怪，拉姆齐没有看到这些。
凯兰达半张着嘴，半天都没有说出话。我看得出他在努力改变着什么。
“我错了，”最后他说道，“这是一个非常好的仿制品，18美元正合适。”
他从钱包里拿出100美元递给拉姆齐，没有再说一句话。
“也许这能教会你以后不要太自以为是了。”拉姆齐得意洋洋。
我注意到凯兰达的手在发抖。
这件事很快在全船传开了，凯兰达不得不忍受着别人的戏弄和嘲笑。对“万事通”先生来说，这确实是一个笑话。但是，拉姆齐夫人再也没有出来过，据说她有点头痛。
三
第二天早上，我起来正在刮脸，凯兰达躺在床上抽雪茄。忽然一阵嘟嘟嘟嘟的声音，一封信从门下塞了进来。我打开门，外面没有任何人。我捡起信封，上面用印刷字体写着“给凯兰达”。
我把信递给了他：
“哪里来的？”
他打开信封。“哦？”拿出的不是信，而是一张100美元的钞票。
他看了我一眼，然后把信封撕成碎片从舱口扔了出去。
“没有谁愿意被别人看成是一个傻瓜。”他说。
“那珍珠是真的吗？”我问道。
“如果我有一个漂亮的妻子的话，我绝不会让她一个人在纽约呆一年。”他拿出钱包，把100美元放了进去。
这时，我觉得我不是那么不喜欢凯兰达了。
一
我在见到凯兰达之前就有点不喜欢他。
第一次世界大战刚刚结束，横渡太平洋的航线非常繁忙，客舱是很难预订到的。我很高兴，弄到一个双人客舱，但当听到同伴的名字时，我就有点灰心了。“凯兰达”，这使我有一种在空气窒息不流通的房间里的感觉。想起在这14天的旅途中（我从圣弗兰西斯科到横滨），将和这个凯兰达共用一间房，我就感到不舒服。我讨厌他的名字，要是他叫史密斯或者布朗什么的也好一点。
上船后，我来到客舱，发现凯兰达已经来过。一只又大又难看的衣箱和一个贴满标签的手提箱放在他的床下，脸盆架上摆着他的香水，洗发精和润发油，檀木做的牙刷上镀金印着他的名字缩写。
我不喜欢凯兰达。
在吸烟室里，我要了一副单人玩的纸牌，正准备开始玩的时候，一个人走了过来向我问好。
“我是凯兰达。”他在我面前坐下，笑着露出一排雪白的牙齿。
“哦，我们好像住在一个房间。”
“听说你是英国人，我感到很高兴。在海外遇到自己的同胞，确实让人激动。”
“你是英国人？”
“当然，我是一个地地道道的英国人。”说着他拿出他的护照递给我。
“想喝点什么吗？”他问道。
我疑惑起来。美国正在实行禁酒令，船上是找不到一滴酒的，但是凯兰达狡黠地朝我笑了笑。
“威士忌，苏打还是鸡尾酒，你只要说一声就可以。”说着，他从后裤袋里摸出两个瓶子，放在我面前的桌子上，我兴奋起来，找服务员要了两个玻璃杯和一些冰块。
“嗯，不错”我说。
“是的，我这里还有好多这样的酒，船上如果还有你的朋友的话，你可以把他们都叫来。”我没有说什么。
接着他跟我讲起纽约、圣弗兰西斯科，谈到戏剧、给画和。他很健谈，好长时间都是他一个人在那里滔滔不绝地说着。
我有点厌烦了，重新拿起我的牌。
“你喜欢纸牌魔术吗？”
“不喜欢。”我又开始讨厌他了。
“我来给你表演一个。”他抽出三张牌递给我。但我没有理他，说我要去餐厅找个座位。
“哦，很好，我已经为我们俩订了座位，我想我们应该坐在一块儿。”
我不喜欢凯兰达。
他不但和我住在一个房间，而且一天三餐都非要和我挤在一张桌子上吃饭。不论我在什么地方，都无法摆脱他。要是在我家里的话，我一定会在他面前“砰”的把门关上，让他明白自己是一个不受欢迎的人。
凯兰达擅长交际，在船上的第三天，就差不多认识了所有的人。他什么事都干：主持拍卖，筹集体育资金，组织高尔夫球赛，安排音乐会，举办化装舞会。我想大家一定有点讨厌他。我们都叫他“万事通”先生，甚至在他面前也是这样。他对此并不在乎，把这当作我们对他的恭维。
二
凯兰达非常健谈，并且喜好同别人争论，特别是在吃饭的时候。我们简直难以忍受，但又无法让他停下来。他好像比谁都懂得多，错误似乎也不会发生在他身上。在他讲话时，若有人反对他，他就会同他争个没完。在说服你之前，他绝不会放弃一个话题，不管它是多么的不重要。
一天晚上，我们坐在医生的桌旁，凯兰达仍像以往一样在滔滔不绝地说着。在座的还有在神户的美国领事馆工作的拉姆齐和他的夫人。
拉姆齐是一个很结实的家伙，皮肤绷得紧紧的，略显肥胖的肚子使衣服凸起。这次他是带着妻子重返神户的。他的妻子已独自一人在纽约呆了一年。拉姆齐夫人的样子十分可爱。虽然她丈夫的工资不怎么高，她穿得也很简朴，但她知道怎样穿她的衣服，使她具有超过一般女人的迷人之处。这是一种端庄淑静的美。
看得出拉姆齐很讨厌凯兰达。他们时时争论一番，这种争论是长时间的，激烈的。
这时，话题谈到精明的日本人正在进行的人工养殖珍珠。凯兰达给我们讲了许多关于珍珠的事。我相信拉姆齐对此知道的不会很多，但他绝不会放过任何反驳凯兰达的机会。不一会儿，我们就被卷入了一场充满火药味的争吵。刚开始，凯兰达还是情绪激昂，滔滔不绝，但不久，他自己也有点厌烦了。最后，他显然是被拉姆齐的一句话刺痛了，敲着桌子叫道：
“我可以告诉你，在这方面我是最有发言权的。我这次到日本就是去洽谈珍珠生意的。没有哪一个懂这一行的人不会认为我刚才所说的都是千真万确的。”他得意洋洋地看着周围的人。“我知道所有珍珠的行情，没有哪一种珍珠我不能马上辨认出。”他指着拉姆齐夫人戴的项链，“夫人，你的这串珍珠项链就非常值钱，并且它的价格还在上涨。”
拉姆齐夫人的脸红了，她把那项链轻轻塞进她的衣服。
“你说这是天然珍珠吗？”拉姆齐好像已经抓住了凯兰达的什么把柄。
“是的，这种珍珠非常精致。”凯兰达答道。
“好。虽然这不是我买的，但我想知道，你认为它值多少钱？”
“在一般的市场要1．5万美元，但在美国最繁华的第五街，1．3万美元也能买得到。”拉姆齐冷笑起来。
“这是我夫人离开纽约前在一家百货商店里买的，只花了18美元。”
凯兰达的脸一下子涨得通红。
“胡说，这珍珠不但是真的，而且是我所知道的几种中最好的一种。”
“你敢打赌吗？我要用100美元和你打赌这是仿制品。”拉姆齐怂恿道。
“可以。”
“不，拉姆齐，你怎么能拿一件事实和人打赌呢？”拉姆齐夫人劝阻道。
“为什么不呢？如果放弃这样一个轻易能弄到钱的机会，那才是一个傻瓜。”
“但你也不能证明它是仿制品呀？”
“把它拿给我看一看，我就知道它的真假。”凯兰达说道。
“亲爱的，把它拿给这位先生看看。”
拉姆齐夫人犹豫着，她的两手紧握在一起，好像还在考虑着什么。
拉姆齐等得不耐烦了，他走过来亲手把项链解了下来，递给了凯兰达。
我预感到一件不幸的事要发生了。
凯兰达拿出一个放大镜，仔细地观察起来。不一会，一丝胜利的微笑闪现在他的脸上。当他把项链递给拉姆齐正准备开口说话时，忽然看见拉姆齐夫人的脸是那样的白，好像她马上就会晕过去。她的眼睛看着凯兰达，那是一种绝望的哀求。我很奇怪，拉姆齐没有看到这些。
凯兰达半张着嘴，半天都没有说出话。我看得出他在努力改变着什么。
“我错了，”最后他说道，“这是一个非常好的仿制品，18美元正合适。”
他从钱包里拿出100美元递给拉姆齐，没有再说一句话。
“也许这能教会你以后不要太自以为是了。”拉姆齐得意洋洋。
我注意到凯兰达的手在发抖。
这件事很快在全船传开了，凯兰达不得不忍受着别人的戏弄和嘲笑。对“万事通”先生来说，这确实是一个笑话。但是，拉姆齐夫人再也没有出来过，据说她有点头痛。
三
第二天早上，我起来正在刮脸，凯兰达躺在床上抽雪茄。忽然一阵嘟嘟嘟嘟的声音，一封信从门下塞了进来。我打开门，外面没有任何人。我捡起信封，上面用印刷字体写着“给凯兰达”。
我把信递给了他：
“哪里来的？”
他打开信封。“哦？”拿出的不是信，而是一张100美元的钞票。
他看了我一眼，然后把信封撕成碎片从舱口扔了出去。
“没有谁愿意被别人看成是一个傻瓜。”他说。
“那珍珠是真的吗？”我问道。
“如果我有一个漂亮的妻子的话，我绝不会让她一个人在纽约呆一年。”他拿出钱包，把100美元放了进去。
这时，我觉得我不是那么不喜欢凯兰达了。
《书与你》 （1940年）随笔
毛姆的作品容易读,每一行文字都无比清晰.创意独具,善造趋势却冷漠旁观的天才.他无意成为道德领袖或预言专家,仅自许为提供高尚娱乐的职业作家.「人性的枷锁」关照青年的启蒙,人生意义的探寻,作者采自传型式,似有意以写这本书作为心灵救赎的仪式,因此行文间盈溢著作者不能自己的情绪.他也十分善於把自己的形象分植在角色上,化作他本人的精神力量化身.但在人生的追求上,它始终保持著坚贞的统一,人性的弱点才没有形成太大的阻碍.它还有一个性格特徵:鄙视金钱,鄙视浮华,并把纯朴至於至高无上.是值得一读的好书.
菲利浦患有先天性跛足,更不幸的是在他九岁的时候父母相继去世,使得他只好到伯父家住,这些灾难无情的夺走了他享受正常生活的权利.由於先天性的跛脚,使他从小就被周遭的朋友嘲笑,排斥,他只好在深夜或旁边没有人的时候默默哭泣.但是偶尔的温存顿使他觉得那些与他不相干的外界还有一些魅力,他在极端的痛苦与微弱的光芒间踌躇.於是他虔诚的向上帝祈祷,真挚的祷告,却没有得到任何的帮助,於是他决定放弃信仰.由於母亲的早逝,他始终缺乏关爱,忧郁使他变的敏感,沉默,终日与阴暗的角落为伴,甚至绝望到觉得生命是毫无意义的.后来,他终於得到善良人的救助,心理才豁然有了一线光明,伯父的恰好病故也使他理所当然的继承了一笔财产.在生命辗转至三十岁的时候,菲力浦走出了谷底.他已温柔的心与态度去对待每一个人,无论是病人或是女人,他都付出关怀,甚至是梅露德蕾,他无条件的摇尾乞怜,卑躬屈膝,最后,他不再对她有所依恋,摆脱不堪的前尘往事.故事的最后,他遇见了健康,自然,沉静的女孩——莎利,和病态,浅俗的梅露德蕾有著强烈的对比,虽然他不是菲利浦的最爱,却抚慰菲利浦长久以来受伤的心灵.
菲力浦的伯父在书中教育脚色上的扮演,其实是有所缺失的,尤其是在宗教观念上,最后静导致菲力浦对上帝的不信任,对宗教的不虔诚.
菲力浦的学习路上,因为肢体残障导致内心自卑,这样特殊的孩子,应该要多给予爱与关怀,而不是瞧不起他获心存讽刺.其实他们跟一般的孩子依样,都需要别人的关怀,我们何不妨真诚坦然面对不足,以更包容的爱心帮助身心障碍的儿童走入人群.
菲力浦的爱情故事为何如此丰富 ?我想它在寻求一份爱,一份慰藉感.出场爱情的菲力浦是如此的矛盾与不安,这种复杂的心境,他自己也无法解释,直到脱离梅露德蕾,宛如挣脱锁链般自由.人类由於先天遗传的不同,再加上后天生活与教育环境的差异,形成种种不同的个性.所谓人性的不同,各如其面,严格来说,没有两个人的个性是完全一样的,男女关系表现更为深刻,爱的过程中,往往会使人盲目的烫上一副枷锁而不自知,人不但不以为苦,反而认为是一种快乐.难怪有人说:「爱情事盲目的」,「爱会让你无法自拔」!
菲力浦在质疑,面对生命的存在与苦闷,探索「人生的意义为何」时,我有很大的启示,书中的一段话:「如果没有烦恼,人生活著就没有意思.」人时时刻刻要去反省,探寻自己心中高层次的成长,藉以洞悉人性的各种盲点和弱点,并因了解而醒悟,从充满错觉与幻象的人性枷锁中挣脱出来,我深信每个人都将找到属於他自己的天地与理想.
现毛姆的书谈到了人性的枷锁,诚如婚姻有人想进去也有人想出来,枷锁的进出只有自己去思锁了.所以:「一粒米养百样人,一枝草一点露.」其实每个人基本上都主观的多.以为世界似乎只有人类,而忘了与人类共存的,有无数种的其他生物.它们正和人类竞争生存.人活著就有竞争,就有问题.人为什麼活著,答案很简单,就是『探索未知』.人世间有沧海桑田,海枯石烂的诺言,却没有人等到那一天.
人的一生中,往往身负许多的枷锁,无论是精神上,生理上或心灵上.从出生,成长,谋生,恋爱,疾病等,我们都有所想不透,看不开的事务,遭遇许许多多不如己愿的事,有时甚至身陷痛苦的深渊,无法自拔；为了寻求一条解脱的途径,有的人选择轻生,有的人继续堕落,有人却从中得到成长.总是到了白发苍苍时,才发现过去种种坚持是多麼的无谓；历经了风花雪月之后,才恍然大悟,一切都是虚幻空无,才了解沧海桑田的道理.
人应该把握当下,坚持自己的目标,自己所想要的璀璨人生.但一定要衡量清楚,怎样的人生才是自己所追求的.如果你懂得放下,懂得珍惜,一切苦难惠顿如梦幻泡影,过眼云烟.痛苦的当下,你懂得了幻,学会了觉,悟出了人生的真理,学习如何去做,便能让自己逐渐地从痛苦忠解开枷锁与束缚,我们才能获得真正的快乐.这样说,听起来很容易,要实行却有一定的困难度,毕竟不是每个人都能掌握自己的人生,摆脱一切的枷锁和险阻,更要具备勇往直前,冒险犯难的力量.
Plot summary
The book begins with the death of the mother of the nine-year-old protagonist, Philip Carey. Philip's father had already died a few months before, and the orphan Philip is sent to live with his aunt and uncle. His uncle is vicar of Blackstable, a small village in East Anglia. Philip inherits a small fortune but the money is held in custody by his uncle until he is twenty-one, giving his uncle a great deal of power over him until he reaches his maturity.
Early chapters relate Philip's experience at the vicarage. His aunt tries to be a mother to Philip, but she is herself childless and unsure of how to behave, whereas his uncle takes a cold disposition towards him. Philip's uncle has an eclectic collection of books, and in reading Philip finds a way to escape his mundane existence and experience fascinating worlds of fiction.
Less than a year later, Philip is sent to a boarding school. His uncle and aunt would like for him to eventually go to Oxford to study to become a clergyman. Philip's shyness and his club foot make it difficult for him to fit in with the boys at the school, and he does not make many friends. Philip goes through an episode of deep religious belief, and believes that through true faith he can get God to heal his club foot; but as this does not happen, his belief falters. He becomes close friends with one boy; but the friendship breaks up, and he becomes miserable. Philip shows considerable academic talent and could have gotten himself a scholarship for Oxford, but instead he wishes to leave the school and go to Germany. Philip's uncle and the school's headmaster oppose Philip's desire to go to Germany, but eventually they give in and they allow him to go to Heidelberg for a year.
In Heidelberg, Philip lives at a boarding house with other foreigners and studies German, among other subjects. Philip enjoys his stay in Germany. At the boarding house he acquaints a fellow Englishman, Hayward, who has an interest in literature and who considers himself a poet. Philip also meets an unorthodox American named Weeks, who has a mutual dislike for Hayward and who thinks the man is superficial. Philip is intrigued by his long discourses with Hayward and Weeks and eventually becomes convinced that he need not believe in the Church of England. This is a heretofore unheard of idea to him as he has been brought up with staunch Christian values.
Philip returns to his uncle's house and meets a middle-aged family friend of his aunt and uncle named Miss Wilkinson, who is very flirtatious toward Philip. He is not particularly attracted to her and is uncomfortable about her age; but he likes the idea of having an affair with someone, so he pursues her. She says that she is in love with Philip and becomes very attached to him, and he pretends to be passionate about her; but he is relieved when she must return to Berlin. Miss Wilkinson writes letters to Philip from Berlin, to which he eventually stops responding.
Philip's guardians decide to take his matters into their own hands and convince him to move to London and take up an apprenticeship to become a chartered accountant. He does not fare well there as his coworkers resent him because they believe he is above them and is a "gentleman." Philip is desperately lonely in London and is humiliated by his lack of aptitude for the work. He begins thinking about studying art in Paris. He goes on a business trip with one of his managers to Paris and is inspired by this trip. Miss Wilkinson convinces Philip that he draws well enough to become a professional, and he moves to Paris to study art.
In Paris Philip attends art classes, makes a few friends among fellow art students and meets Miss Price, a poor talentless art student who does not get along well with people. Miss Price falls in love with Philip, but he does not return her feelings. After her funds run out, she commits suicide, leaving Philip to tend after her affairs.
Davis and Howard in the 1934 film version
Philip realizes that he will never be more than a mediocre artist; at the same time, he receives word that his aunt has died. He returns to his uncle's house, and eventually decides to go to London to pursue medicine, his late father's field. He struggles at medical school and comes across Mildred, a tawdry waitress at a local café. He falls desperately in love with her, although she does not show any emotion for him. Mildred tells Philip she is getting married, leaving him heartbroken; he subsequently enters into an affair with Norah Nesbitt, a kind and sensitive author of penny romance novels. Later, Mildred returns, pregnant, and confesses that the man for whom she had abandoned Philip had never married her. Philip breaks off his relationship with Norah and supports Mildred financially though he can ill afford to do so, but later she falls in love with a friend of Philip's and disappears.
Philip runs into Mildred again when she is so poor she has resorted to prostitution and, feeling sympathy for her, takes her in to do his housework, though he no longer loves her. When he rejects her advances, she becomes angry at him, leaves, and destroys his possessions, causing Philip to abandon that residence and move into cheaper housing. When Philip meets Mildred next, she is ill and prostituting herself again, and the baby has died.
While working at the hospital, Philip befriends family man Thorpe Athelny and is invited to his house every Sunday. Meanwhile, a stockbroker acquaintance of Philip advises him to invest in South African mines, and Philip is left with no money when the stock market crashes due to the vicissitudes of the Boer War. He wanders the streets aimlessly for a few days before the Athelnys take him in and find him a job at a retail store, which he hates. Eventually, his uncle's death leaves him enough money to go back to medical school, and he finishes his studies and becomes qualified. He takes on a temporary placement at a Dorsetshire fishing village with Dr South, an old, rancorous physician whose wife is dead and whose daughter has broken off contact with him. However, he takes a shine to Philip's humour and personableness, eventually making him an outstanding offer of a stake in his medical practice. Although flattered, Philip refuses as he is still eager to travel and returns to London.
He soon goes on a small summer vacation with the Athelnys at a village in the Kent countryside. There he finds that one of Athelny's daughters, Sally, likes him. They have an affair, and when she thinks she is pregnant, Philip decides to give up his long-cherished plans to travel to exotic lands, to accept Dr South's offer, and to propose to Sally instead. On learning that it was a false alarm, Philip is disappointed but proposes to her anyway; she accepts. Philip puts aside his lofty, complex artistic and philosophical ideals, coming to the conclusion that "the simplest pattern, that in which a man was born, worked, married, had children, and died, was likewise the most perfect".
Film versions
* Of Human Bondage (1934) – Leslie Howard as Philip, and Bette Davis as Mildred, the role that established her as a star.
* Of Human Bondage (1946) – Directed by Edmund Goulding, with Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker in the lead roles.
* Of Human Bondage (1964) – Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak in the lead roles.
菲利浦患有先天性跛足,更不幸的是在他九岁的时候父母相继去世,使得他只好到伯父家住,这些灾难无情的夺走了他享受正常生活的权利.由於先天性的跛脚,使他从小就被周遭的朋友嘲笑,排斥,他只好在深夜或旁边没有人的时候默默哭泣.但是偶尔的温存顿使他觉得那些与他不相干的外界还有一些魅力,他在极端的痛苦与微弱的光芒间踌躇.於是他虔诚的向上帝祈祷,真挚的祷告,却没有得到任何的帮助,於是他决定放弃信仰.由於母亲的早逝,他始终缺乏关爱,忧郁使他变的敏感,沉默,终日与阴暗的角落为伴,甚至绝望到觉得生命是毫无意义的.后来,他终於得到善良人的救助,心理才豁然有了一线光明,伯父的恰好病故也使他理所当然的继承了一笔财产.在生命辗转至三十岁的时候,菲力浦走出了谷底.他已温柔的心与态度去对待每一个人,无论是病人或是女人,他都付出关怀,甚至是梅露德蕾,他无条件的摇尾乞怜,卑躬屈膝,最后,他不再对她有所依恋,摆脱不堪的前尘往事.故事的最后,他遇见了健康,自然,沉静的女孩——莎利,和病态,浅俗的梅露德蕾有著强烈的对比,虽然他不是菲利浦的最爱,却抚慰菲利浦长久以来受伤的心灵.
菲力浦的伯父在书中教育脚色上的扮演,其实是有所缺失的,尤其是在宗教观念上,最后静导致菲力浦对上帝的不信任,对宗教的不虔诚.
菲力浦的学习路上,因为肢体残障导致内心自卑,这样特殊的孩子,应该要多给予爱与关怀,而不是瞧不起他获心存讽刺.其实他们跟一般的孩子依样,都需要别人的关怀,我们何不妨真诚坦然面对不足,以更包容的爱心帮助身心障碍的儿童走入人群.
菲力浦的爱情故事为何如此丰富 ?我想它在寻求一份爱,一份慰藉感.出场爱情的菲力浦是如此的矛盾与不安,这种复杂的心境,他自己也无法解释,直到脱离梅露德蕾,宛如挣脱锁链般自由.人类由於先天遗传的不同,再加上后天生活与教育环境的差异,形成种种不同的个性.所谓人性的不同,各如其面,严格来说,没有两个人的个性是完全一样的,男女关系表现更为深刻,爱的过程中,往往会使人盲目的烫上一副枷锁而不自知,人不但不以为苦,反而认为是一种快乐.难怪有人说:「爱情事盲目的」,「爱会让你无法自拔」!
菲力浦在质疑,面对生命的存在与苦闷,探索「人生的意义为何」时,我有很大的启示,书中的一段话:「如果没有烦恼,人生活著就没有意思.」人时时刻刻要去反省,探寻自己心中高层次的成长,藉以洞悉人性的各种盲点和弱点,并因了解而醒悟,从充满错觉与幻象的人性枷锁中挣脱出来,我深信每个人都将找到属於他自己的天地与理想.
现毛姆的书谈到了人性的枷锁,诚如婚姻有人想进去也有人想出来,枷锁的进出只有自己去思锁了.所以:「一粒米养百样人,一枝草一点露.」其实每个人基本上都主观的多.以为世界似乎只有人类,而忘了与人类共存的,有无数种的其他生物.它们正和人类竞争生存.人活著就有竞争,就有问题.人为什麼活著,答案很简单,就是『探索未知』.人世间有沧海桑田,海枯石烂的诺言,却没有人等到那一天.
人的一生中,往往身负许多的枷锁,无论是精神上,生理上或心灵上.从出生,成长,谋生,恋爱,疾病等,我们都有所想不透,看不开的事务,遭遇许许多多不如己愿的事,有时甚至身陷痛苦的深渊,无法自拔；为了寻求一条解脱的途径,有的人选择轻生,有的人继续堕落,有人却从中得到成长.总是到了白发苍苍时,才发现过去种种坚持是多麼的无谓；历经了风花雪月之后,才恍然大悟,一切都是虚幻空无,才了解沧海桑田的道理.
人应该把握当下,坚持自己的目标,自己所想要的璀璨人生.但一定要衡量清楚,怎样的人生才是自己所追求的.如果你懂得放下,懂得珍惜,一切苦难惠顿如梦幻泡影,过眼云烟.痛苦的当下,你懂得了幻,学会了觉,悟出了人生的真理,学习如何去做,便能让自己逐渐地从痛苦忠解开枷锁与束缚,我们才能获得真正的快乐.这样说,听起来很容易,要实行却有一定的困难度,毕竟不是每个人都能掌握自己的人生,摆脱一切的枷锁和险阻,更要具备勇往直前,冒险犯难的力量.
Plot summary
The book begins with the death of the mother of the nine-year-old protagonist, Philip Carey. Philip's father had already died a few months before, and the orphan Philip is sent to live with his aunt and uncle. His uncle is vicar of Blackstable, a small village in East Anglia. Philip inherits a small fortune but the money is held in custody by his uncle until he is twenty-one, giving his uncle a great deal of power over him until he reaches his maturity.
Early chapters relate Philip's experience at the vicarage. His aunt tries to be a mother to Philip, but she is herself childless and unsure of how to behave, whereas his uncle takes a cold disposition towards him. Philip's uncle has an eclectic collection of books, and in reading Philip finds a way to escape his mundane existence and experience fascinating worlds of fiction.
Less than a year later, Philip is sent to a boarding school. His uncle and aunt would like for him to eventually go to Oxford to study to become a clergyman. Philip's shyness and his club foot make it difficult for him to fit in with the boys at the school, and he does not make many friends. Philip goes through an episode of deep religious belief, and believes that through true faith he can get God to heal his club foot; but as this does not happen, his belief falters. He becomes close friends with one boy; but the friendship breaks up, and he becomes miserable. Philip shows considerable academic talent and could have gotten himself a scholarship for Oxford, but instead he wishes to leave the school and go to Germany. Philip's uncle and the school's headmaster oppose Philip's desire to go to Germany, but eventually they give in and they allow him to go to Heidelberg for a year.
In Heidelberg, Philip lives at a boarding house with other foreigners and studies German, among other subjects. Philip enjoys his stay in Germany. At the boarding house he acquaints a fellow Englishman, Hayward, who has an interest in literature and who considers himself a poet. Philip also meets an unorthodox American named Weeks, who has a mutual dislike for Hayward and who thinks the man is superficial. Philip is intrigued by his long discourses with Hayward and Weeks and eventually becomes convinced that he need not believe in the Church of England. This is a heretofore unheard of idea to him as he has been brought up with staunch Christian values.
Philip returns to his uncle's house and meets a middle-aged family friend of his aunt and uncle named Miss Wilkinson, who is very flirtatious toward Philip. He is not particularly attracted to her and is uncomfortable about her age; but he likes the idea of having an affair with someone, so he pursues her. She says that she is in love with Philip and becomes very attached to him, and he pretends to be passionate about her; but he is relieved when she must return to Berlin. Miss Wilkinson writes letters to Philip from Berlin, to which he eventually stops responding.
Philip's guardians decide to take his matters into their own hands and convince him to move to London and take up an apprenticeship to become a chartered accountant. He does not fare well there as his coworkers resent him because they believe he is above them and is a "gentleman." Philip is desperately lonely in London and is humiliated by his lack of aptitude for the work. He begins thinking about studying art in Paris. He goes on a business trip with one of his managers to Paris and is inspired by this trip. Miss Wilkinson convinces Philip that he draws well enough to become a professional, and he moves to Paris to study art.
In Paris Philip attends art classes, makes a few friends among fellow art students and meets Miss Price, a poor talentless art student who does not get along well with people. Miss Price falls in love with Philip, but he does not return her feelings. After her funds run out, she commits suicide, leaving Philip to tend after her affairs.
Davis and Howard in the 1934 film version
Philip realizes that he will never be more than a mediocre artist; at the same time, he receives word that his aunt has died. He returns to his uncle's house, and eventually decides to go to London to pursue medicine, his late father's field. He struggles at medical school and comes across Mildred, a tawdry waitress at a local café. He falls desperately in love with her, although she does not show any emotion for him. Mildred tells Philip she is getting married, leaving him heartbroken; he subsequently enters into an affair with Norah Nesbitt, a kind and sensitive author of penny romance novels. Later, Mildred returns, pregnant, and confesses that the man for whom she had abandoned Philip had never married her. Philip breaks off his relationship with Norah and supports Mildred financially though he can ill afford to do so, but later she falls in love with a friend of Philip's and disappears.
Philip runs into Mildred again when she is so poor she has resorted to prostitution and, feeling sympathy for her, takes her in to do his housework, though he no longer loves her. When he rejects her advances, she becomes angry at him, leaves, and destroys his possessions, causing Philip to abandon that residence and move into cheaper housing. When Philip meets Mildred next, she is ill and prostituting herself again, and the baby has died.
While working at the hospital, Philip befriends family man Thorpe Athelny and is invited to his house every Sunday. Meanwhile, a stockbroker acquaintance of Philip advises him to invest in South African mines, and Philip is left with no money when the stock market crashes due to the vicissitudes of the Boer War. He wanders the streets aimlessly for a few days before the Athelnys take him in and find him a job at a retail store, which he hates. Eventually, his uncle's death leaves him enough money to go back to medical school, and he finishes his studies and becomes qualified. He takes on a temporary placement at a Dorsetshire fishing village with Dr South, an old, rancorous physician whose wife is dead and whose daughter has broken off contact with him. However, he takes a shine to Philip's humour and personableness, eventually making him an outstanding offer of a stake in his medical practice. Although flattered, Philip refuses as he is still eager to travel and returns to London.
He soon goes on a small summer vacation with the Athelnys at a village in the Kent countryside. There he finds that one of Athelny's daughters, Sally, likes him. They have an affair, and when she thinks she is pregnant, Philip decides to give up his long-cherished plans to travel to exotic lands, to accept Dr South's offer, and to propose to Sally instead. On learning that it was a false alarm, Philip is disappointed but proposes to her anyway; she accepts. Philip puts aside his lofty, complex artistic and philosophical ideals, coming to the conclusion that "the simplest pattern, that in which a man was born, worked, married, had children, and died, was likewise the most perfect".
Film versions
* Of Human Bondage (1934) – Leslie Howard as Philip, and Bette Davis as Mildred, the role that established her as a star.
* Of Human Bondage (1946) – Directed by Edmund Goulding, with Paul Henreid and Eleanor Parker in the lead roles.
* Of Human Bondage (1964) – Laurence Harvey and Kim Novak in the lead roles.
中学毕业后在德国海德堡大学肄业。1892年至1897年在伦敦学医，并取得外科医师资格。学医期间，曾赴伦敦兰贝斯贫民窟当了三个星期的助产士，这段经历使他动了写作的念头。他的第一部长篇小说《兰贝斯的丽莎》 （1897）即根据他作为贝可医生在贫民区为产妇接生时的见闻用自由主义写法写成。一八九七年，他因染上肺疾，被送往法国南方里维埃拉疗养，开始接触法国文学，特别是莫泊桑的作品。1892年初，他去德国海德堡大学学习了一年。在那儿，他接触到德国哲学史家昆诺·费希尔的哲学思想和以易卜生为代表的新戏剧潮流。同年返回英国，在伦敦一家会计师事务所当了六个星期的练习生，随后，在接受了坎特伯雷的国王中学和德国海德堡大学的教育之后，毛姆成为伦敦圣托马斯医院的实习医生(1892-1897)。为期五年的习医生涯，不仅使他有机会了解到底层人民的生活状况，而且使他学会用解剖刀一样冷峻、犀利的目光来剖视人生和社会。他的第一部小说《兰贝斯的丽莎》，正是根据他从医实习期间的所见所闻写成的。
这本书出版后销路很好，这使得毛姆下定了弃医从文的决心。从1903年起，毛姆开始戏剧创作。
Plot summary
The action covers a period of roughly four months—from August to November—around the time of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. Liza Kemp is an 18-year-old factory worker and the youngest of 13 children, now living alone with her ageing and incompetent mother. Very popular with all the residents—both young and old—of Vere Street, Lambeth, she cannot really make up her mind as far as her love life is concerned. She very much likes Tom, a boy her age, but when he proposes to her she rejects him ("I don't love yer so as ter marry yer"). Nevertheless she is persuaded to join a party of 32 who make a coach trip (in a horse-drawn coach, of course) to a nearby village on the August Bank Holiday Monday. Some of the other members of the party are Tom; Liza's friend Sally and her boyfriend Harry; and Jim Blakeston, a 40-year-old father of nine who has recently moved to Vere Street with his large family, and his wife (while their eldest daughter, Polly, is taking care of her siblings). The outing is a lot of fun, and they all get more or less drunk on beer. On their way back, in the dark, Liza realizes that Jim Blakeston is making a pass at her by holding her hand. After their arrival back home, Jim manages to speak to her alone and to steal a kiss from her.
Seemingly without considering either the moral implications or the consequences of her actions, Liza feels attracted to Jim. They never appear together in public because they do not want the other residents of Vere Street or their workmates to start talking about them. One of Jim Blakeston's first steps to win Liza's heart is to go to a melodramatic play with her on Saturday night. Afterwards, he succeeds in seducing her (although we never learn where they do it—obviously in the open):
'Liza,' he said a whisper, 'will yer?'
'Will I wot?' she said, looking down.
'You know, Liza. Sy, will yer?'
'Na,' she said.
But in the end they do "slide down into the darkness of the passage". (The reader never learns whether at that time Liza is still a virgin or not.) Liza is overwhelmed by love. ("Thus began a time of love and joy.")
When autumn arrives and the nights get chillier, Liza's secret meetings with Jim become less comfortable and more trying. Lacking an indoor meeting place, they even spend their evenings together in the third class waiting room of Waterloo station. Also, to Liza's dismay, it turns out that people do start talking about them, in spite of the precautions they have taken. Only Liza's mother, who is a drunkard and a very simple sort of person, has no idea what is going on.
Liza's friend Sally gets married, has to stop working at the factory because her husband would not let his wife earn her own money, and soon becomes pregnant. Liza feels increasingly isolated, with Sally being married now and even Tom seemingly shunning her, but her love for Jim keeps her going. They do talk about their love affair though: about the possibility of Jim leaving his wife and children ("I dunno if I could get on without the kids"), about Liza not being able to leave her mother because the latter needs her help, about living somewhere else "as if we was married", about bigamy -- but, strangely, not about adultery.
The novel builds up to a sad climax when it gradually turns out that all men—maybe with the exception of Tom—are alike: They invariably beat their wives, especially when they have been drinking. Soon after their wedding Harry beats up Sally just because she has been away from home chatting with a female neighbour of theirs. What is more, he even hits Mrs Cooper, his mother-in-law. Liza, who happens to drop by and stays a little longer to comfort Sally is late for her meeting with Jim in front of a nearby pub. When she finally gets there Jim himself is aggressive towards her for being late. Without really intending to, he hits her across the face ("It wasn't the blow that 'urt me much; it was the wy you was talkin'"). Nevertheless on the following morning she has a black eye.
Soon the situation deteriorates completely. Mrs Blakeston, who is pregnant again, stops talking to her husband at home—this is her way of opposing his affair with Liza. Then she goes on to indirectly threaten Liza: She tells other people what she would do to Liza if she got hold of her, and the other people tell Liza. Liza, a "coward" according to the third person narrator, is frightened because Mrs Blakeston is strong whereas she herself is weak. One Saturday afternoon in November, when Liza is going home from work, she is confronted with an angry Mrs Blakeston. In the ensuing fight between the two women, Mrs Blakeston first spits in Liza's face and then attacks her physically. Quickly a group of spectators gather round the two women—none of them even tries to separate the fighting women ("The audience shouted and cheered and clapped their hands."). Eventually, both Tom and Jim stop the fight, and Tom walks Liza home. Liza is now publicly stigmatized as a "wrong one", a fact she herself admits to Tom ("Oh, but I 'ave treated yer bad. I'm a regular wrong 'un, I am"). Despite all her misbehaviour ("I couldn't 'elp it! [...] I did love 'im so!"), Tom still wants to marry Liza, but she tells him that "it's too lite now" because she thinks she is pregnant. Tom would even tolerate her condition if only she could decide to marry him, but she refuses again.
Meanwhile, at the Blakestones', Jim beats up his wife. Again people nearby—this time those who live in the same house and who are alarmed by Polly Blakeston—choose not to interfere in other people's domestic problems ("She'll git over it; an' p'raps she deserves it, for all you know").
When Mrs Kemp comes home and sees her daughter's injuries all she can contribute to mitigating the situation is to offer her daughter some alcohol (whisky or gin). In the course of the evening they both get drunk, in spite of Liza's pregnancy. During the following night, however, Liza has a miscarriage. Mr Hodges, who lives upstairs, fetches a doctor from the nearby hospital, who soon pronounces the hopelessness of Liza's condition. While her daughter is dying, Mrs Kemp has a long talk with Mrs Hodges, a midwife and sick-nurse. Liza's last visitor is Jim, but Liza is already in a coma. Mrs Kemp and Mrs Hodges have switched the subject and are talking about the funeral arrangements (!) when Liza's death rattle can be heard and the doctor, who is still present, declares that she is dead.
Major themes
Living conditions
Liza of Lambeth is clearly not a muckraking novel. People seem to be content with what they have; their poverty is not depicted as unbearable, and it does not prevent them from being fervent patriots ("Every man's fust duty is ter get as many children as 'e bloomin'well can") or from enjoying their spare time (which is often spent in pubs; also Liza drinks a lot). The scene at the theatre where Liza shouts out loud during the performance to warn one of the characters on stage is reminiscent of the Elizabethan theatre.
At one point the narrator deplores the "newish, three-storied buildings" of Vere Street which are "perfectly flat, without a bow window [...] to break the straightness of the line from one end of the street to the other". As the lodgings are rather crowded with people, the residents of Vere Street spend as much time as possible outside, in the street—something which has changed completely in the course of the last hundred years.
Working conditions and working hours
It is not mentioned what the factory Liza and Sally work at is producing. What we do learn though is that work at the factory starts at 8 a.m. If you are late you are shut out, do not get a token and, accordingly, do not get any pay for that day. On Saturdays, work is over around 2 p.m. The August Bank Holiday—the day of the excursion—enables the workers to have two days off in a row, something which is quite unusual for them.
The relationship between men and women
There is not even an allusion to the women's or at least the suffragette movement. Every character in the novel—both men and women—knows their place, and the traditional stereotypes of gender roles are repeated over and over again. For example, Sally is absolutely submissive and blames herself when she is beaten up by her husband Harry. Beating your wife seems like a national pastime.
Apart from Jim Blakeston's illicit affair with Liza Kemp, which is about to lead to an unwanted pregnancy, there is just one quick mention of illegitimate children, and no mention at all of abortions. The question of morality is not really pursued, neither by the characters in the novel nor by the third person narrator.
The value of human life
From an early 21st century point of view, the way the characters regard death could almost be called fatalistic. People do not believe there is anything they can do about sudden or premature deaths. Infant mortality is very high.
The use of language
The language used by the characters (i.e. everything in direct speech) is probably the most difficult aspect of the novel. This concerns both (a) the phonetic spelling (the typical Cockney phenomenon of "dropping the aitches" - and vice versa) and (b) the innumerable slang expressions.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
A musical based - albeit loosely - on the novel was written by Willie Rushton and Berny Stringle, with music by Cliff Adams. It opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London in June 1976, and ran for 110 performances. It was produced by Ben Arbeid, directed by Berny Stringle, musically directed by John Burrows, and starred Angela Richards (best known as a regular in the BBC's Secret Army) in the title role, Patricia Hayes, Ron Pember, Michael Robbins and Eric Shilling, among others.
The musical style is predominantly music hall, but the show includes a parody of Gilbert and Sullivan, a church choir arrangement with some completely incongruous lyrics (A Little Bit On The Side), and some touching ballads.
The Tart With A Heart of Gold was cut from the West End production, and is also missing from the original London cast recording (Thames THA 100), despite it describing the entire raison d'être of one of the main female characters.
The musical has not been officially published for amateur performance, but it is occasionally licensed for amateurs. The world amateur premiere was performed at the Erith Playhouse in Erith, Kent, in June 1977, and was attended by members of the London production team. The rights to this musical are currently held by Thames Music in London.
这本书出版后销路很好，这使得毛姆下定了弃医从文的决心。从1903年起，毛姆开始戏剧创作。
Plot summary
The action covers a period of roughly four months—from August to November—around the time of Queen Victoria's Jubilee. Liza Kemp is an 18-year-old factory worker and the youngest of 13 children, now living alone with her ageing and incompetent mother. Very popular with all the residents—both young and old—of Vere Street, Lambeth, she cannot really make up her mind as far as her love life is concerned. She very much likes Tom, a boy her age, but when he proposes to her she rejects him ("I don't love yer so as ter marry yer"). Nevertheless she is persuaded to join a party of 32 who make a coach trip (in a horse-drawn coach, of course) to a nearby village on the August Bank Holiday Monday. Some of the other members of the party are Tom; Liza's friend Sally and her boyfriend Harry; and Jim Blakeston, a 40-year-old father of nine who has recently moved to Vere Street with his large family, and his wife (while their eldest daughter, Polly, is taking care of her siblings). The outing is a lot of fun, and they all get more or less drunk on beer. On their way back, in the dark, Liza realizes that Jim Blakeston is making a pass at her by holding her hand. After their arrival back home, Jim manages to speak to her alone and to steal a kiss from her.
Seemingly without considering either the moral implications or the consequences of her actions, Liza feels attracted to Jim. They never appear together in public because they do not want the other residents of Vere Street or their workmates to start talking about them. One of Jim Blakeston's first steps to win Liza's heart is to go to a melodramatic play with her on Saturday night. Afterwards, he succeeds in seducing her (although we never learn where they do it—obviously in the open):
'Liza,' he said a whisper, 'will yer?'
'Will I wot?' she said, looking down.
'You know, Liza. Sy, will yer?'
'Na,' she said.
But in the end they do "slide down into the darkness of the passage". (The reader never learns whether at that time Liza is still a virgin or not.) Liza is overwhelmed by love. ("Thus began a time of love and joy.")
When autumn arrives and the nights get chillier, Liza's secret meetings with Jim become less comfortable and more trying. Lacking an indoor meeting place, they even spend their evenings together in the third class waiting room of Waterloo station. Also, to Liza's dismay, it turns out that people do start talking about them, in spite of the precautions they have taken. Only Liza's mother, who is a drunkard and a very simple sort of person, has no idea what is going on.
Liza's friend Sally gets married, has to stop working at the factory because her husband would not let his wife earn her own money, and soon becomes pregnant. Liza feels increasingly isolated, with Sally being married now and even Tom seemingly shunning her, but her love for Jim keeps her going. They do talk about their love affair though: about the possibility of Jim leaving his wife and children ("I dunno if I could get on without the kids"), about Liza not being able to leave her mother because the latter needs her help, about living somewhere else "as if we was married", about bigamy -- but, strangely, not about adultery.
The novel builds up to a sad climax when it gradually turns out that all men—maybe with the exception of Tom—are alike: They invariably beat their wives, especially when they have been drinking. Soon after their wedding Harry beats up Sally just because she has been away from home chatting with a female neighbour of theirs. What is more, he even hits Mrs Cooper, his mother-in-law. Liza, who happens to drop by and stays a little longer to comfort Sally is late for her meeting with Jim in front of a nearby pub. When she finally gets there Jim himself is aggressive towards her for being late. Without really intending to, he hits her across the face ("It wasn't the blow that 'urt me much; it was the wy you was talkin'"). Nevertheless on the following morning she has a black eye.
Soon the situation deteriorates completely. Mrs Blakeston, who is pregnant again, stops talking to her husband at home—this is her way of opposing his affair with Liza. Then she goes on to indirectly threaten Liza: She tells other people what she would do to Liza if she got hold of her, and the other people tell Liza. Liza, a "coward" according to the third person narrator, is frightened because Mrs Blakeston is strong whereas she herself is weak. One Saturday afternoon in November, when Liza is going home from work, she is confronted with an angry Mrs Blakeston. In the ensuing fight between the two women, Mrs Blakeston first spits in Liza's face and then attacks her physically. Quickly a group of spectators gather round the two women—none of them even tries to separate the fighting women ("The audience shouted and cheered and clapped their hands."). Eventually, both Tom and Jim stop the fight, and Tom walks Liza home. Liza is now publicly stigmatized as a "wrong one", a fact she herself admits to Tom ("Oh, but I 'ave treated yer bad. I'm a regular wrong 'un, I am"). Despite all her misbehaviour ("I couldn't 'elp it! [...] I did love 'im so!"), Tom still wants to marry Liza, but she tells him that "it's too lite now" because she thinks she is pregnant. Tom would even tolerate her condition if only she could decide to marry him, but she refuses again.
Meanwhile, at the Blakestones', Jim beats up his wife. Again people nearby—this time those who live in the same house and who are alarmed by Polly Blakeston—choose not to interfere in other people's domestic problems ("She'll git over it; an' p'raps she deserves it, for all you know").
When Mrs Kemp comes home and sees her daughter's injuries all she can contribute to mitigating the situation is to offer her daughter some alcohol (whisky or gin). In the course of the evening they both get drunk, in spite of Liza's pregnancy. During the following night, however, Liza has a miscarriage. Mr Hodges, who lives upstairs, fetches a doctor from the nearby hospital, who soon pronounces the hopelessness of Liza's condition. While her daughter is dying, Mrs Kemp has a long talk with Mrs Hodges, a midwife and sick-nurse. Liza's last visitor is Jim, but Liza is already in a coma. Mrs Kemp and Mrs Hodges have switched the subject and are talking about the funeral arrangements (!) when Liza's death rattle can be heard and the doctor, who is still present, declares that she is dead.
Major themes
Living conditions
Liza of Lambeth is clearly not a muckraking novel. People seem to be content with what they have; their poverty is not depicted as unbearable, and it does not prevent them from being fervent patriots ("Every man's fust duty is ter get as many children as 'e bloomin'well can") or from enjoying their spare time (which is often spent in pubs; also Liza drinks a lot). The scene at the theatre where Liza shouts out loud during the performance to warn one of the characters on stage is reminiscent of the Elizabethan theatre.
At one point the narrator deplores the "newish, three-storied buildings" of Vere Street which are "perfectly flat, without a bow window [...] to break the straightness of the line from one end of the street to the other". As the lodgings are rather crowded with people, the residents of Vere Street spend as much time as possible outside, in the street—something which has changed completely in the course of the last hundred years.
Working conditions and working hours
It is not mentioned what the factory Liza and Sally work at is producing. What we do learn though is that work at the factory starts at 8 a.m. If you are late you are shut out, do not get a token and, accordingly, do not get any pay for that day. On Saturdays, work is over around 2 p.m. The August Bank Holiday—the day of the excursion—enables the workers to have two days off in a row, something which is quite unusual for them.
The relationship between men and women
There is not even an allusion to the women's or at least the suffragette movement. Every character in the novel—both men and women—knows their place, and the traditional stereotypes of gender roles are repeated over and over again. For example, Sally is absolutely submissive and blames herself when she is beaten up by her husband Harry. Beating your wife seems like a national pastime.
Apart from Jim Blakeston's illicit affair with Liza Kemp, which is about to lead to an unwanted pregnancy, there is just one quick mention of illegitimate children, and no mention at all of abortions. The question of morality is not really pursued, neither by the characters in the novel nor by the third person narrator.
The value of human life
From an early 21st century point of view, the way the characters regard death could almost be called fatalistic. People do not believe there is anything they can do about sudden or premature deaths. Infant mortality is very high.
The use of language
The language used by the characters (i.e. everything in direct speech) is probably the most difficult aspect of the novel. This concerns both (a) the phonetic spelling (the typical Cockney phenomenon of "dropping the aitches" - and vice versa) and (b) the innumerable slang expressions.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
A musical based - albeit loosely - on the novel was written by Willie Rushton and Berny Stringle, with music by Cliff Adams. It opened at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London in June 1976, and ran for 110 performances. It was produced by Ben Arbeid, directed by Berny Stringle, musically directed by John Burrows, and starred Angela Richards (best known as a regular in the BBC's Secret Army) in the title role, Patricia Hayes, Ron Pember, Michael Robbins and Eric Shilling, among others.
The musical style is predominantly music hall, but the show includes a parody of Gilbert and Sullivan, a church choir arrangement with some completely incongruous lyrics (A Little Bit On The Side), and some touching ballads.
The Tart With A Heart of Gold was cut from the West End production, and is also missing from the original London cast recording (Thames THA 100), despite it describing the entire raison d'être of one of the main female characters.
The musical has not been officially published for amateur performance, but it is occasionally licensed for amateurs. The world amateur premiere was performed at the Erith Playhouse in Erith, Kent, in June 1977, and was attended by members of the London production team. The rights to this musical are currently held by Thames Music in London.
《刀锋》（Therazor’sedge）（1944年）长篇小说
作品描述了美国青年飞行员拉里·达雷尔在部队结识了一位爱尔兰战友，在一次战斗中，这位战友为救他牺牲了。为此他丢下一切遍游世界，最后到了印度，终于对人生大彻大悟，返回美国，当上一个出租车司机，打算隐身人海，经终天年。
二次大战爆发后，毛姆由尼斯避难到英国，继而赴美国居住，直到战争结束后才返回里维埃拉的故居。在美国期间，他出版了《刀锋》（一九四四年四月，英国版晚三个月）；这是一部杰作，出版后不但受到广大读者欢迎，而且受到弗吉妮亚·伍尔芙夫人那个严峻的批评家的称许。《总结》（一九三八）虽然带有自传性质，但主要是叙述他的相当实事求是但不随流俗的文学见解和人生哲学；这部书应和《一个作家的笔记本》（一九四四）作姊妹篇读。他死时九十一岁，造有一女。他的戏剧、小说和短篇小说有许多于他在世时都拍成电影；这在当代作家中也是少见的。
《刀锋》是用第一人称写的，而且这个人乾脆不再是作者惯用的阿辛登笔名，而是直接用了自己的真名实姓。小说写一个参加第一次大战的美国青年飞行员拉里·达雷尔。在军队中，拉里结识了一个爱尔兰好友：这人平时是那样一个生龙活虎般的置生死于度外的飞行员，但在一次遭遇战中，因趋救拉里而中弹牺牲。拉里因此对人生感到迷惘，弄不懂世界上为什么有恶和不幸（这也是毛姆在《总结》中提出过的）。复员后，拉里既不肯进大学，也不肯就业，一心想探求人生的终极。为此，他丢下未婚妻来到巴黎；两年后，和未婚妻解约，又从巴黎遍游世界各地，最后到了印度，找到了印度的吠陀经哲学。于是了悟人生，把自己的一点薄产分散给亲友，自己返回美国，当一个自食其力的出租汽车司机，打算隐身人海，以终天年。小说以拉里为中心，描绘了许多美国男女，有拉里的未婚妻，贪图物质享受的伊莎贝儿；有以买卖古董起家，一心想钻进上流交际社会的艾略特·谈波登；有头脑简单但心地忠厚的格雷·马图林，他原是百万富翁的独生子，但是一九二九年的经济大崩溃使他破了产，他是个只知道做生意发财的典型美国社会产物；有伊莎贝儿的同学，索菲·麦唐纳，因丈夫和儿子在车祸中丧命，被夫家放逐到巴黎来过着堕落的生活，终于被不逞之徒杀害；还有一个模特儿兼妓女的法国女子苏姗·鲁维埃，和拉里与作者都相识，最后和法国一个外地厂商结婚而得到生活保障。作者本人在书中也担任了一个重要角色；他既是演员，又是观众。背景多半是在法国，特别是巴黎。由于毛姆大半生是在法国度过的，而写作本书时，正因战争避地美国，所以写到巴黎时，特别流露出怀乡情绪，如写他在赴拉里约会之前，穿过卢森堡博物馆的公园时，描写园中游人的那一段回忆自己青年时期的描述，完全属于自叙性质，和小说毫无关系。又如第六章论述莱辛的《贝蕾妮丝》，都是离开主题发挥自己的文学见解。书中的主要角色除掉苏姗·鲁维埃外，全都是美国人，使人想起一句调侃美国人的谚语：“人死后进天堂，美国人死后去巴黎。”但是，他们最后都死的死了，回国的回国了，连苏姗·鲁维埃也嫁到外地去，如作者所说，“在我的生命中也消失了。”当然，这个小圈子里的人只占据作者生活的很少一部分，但我们仍不免兴一种落寞之感，仿佛作者是“珠箔飘灯独自归”。
正如作者在小说中交代的，他这本书并不想“阐述所谓《奥义书》的哲学体系。”“我懂得太少了，但即使懂得很多，这也不是阐述《奥义书》的地方……我想的只是拉里。”在本书结尾时，他又说，“我是个俗人，是尘世中人；我只能对这类人中麟凤的光辉形象表示景慕，没法步他的后尘。”因此，他和克里斯朵夫·衣修午德不同，并不打算向西方推荐吠陀经哲学，或者提倡人人都学拉里；单拿一点来说，不近女色，如果人人都象拉里那样奉行，岂不会造成灭种的灾祸！毛姆的道德观是如我国嵇康在《绝交书》中所主张的“四民有务，各得志为乐”。他把拉里捧得很高，但并不把艾略特·谈波登那个“大大的势利鬼”贬得很低。他对放浪形骸的索菲·麦唐纳只有同情，对当模特儿兼妓女的苏姗·鲁维埃能够有一个归宿感到欣幸，对头脑简单的格雷·马图林，在他的笔下绝少挖苦，而往往突出他的忠厚和慈爱，但对伊莎贝儿则毫不徇情地揭露她蓄意破坏索菲和拉里婚事的阴谋，尽管他很欣赏她的美，并且是她多年来的“知心”朋友。但他接着也写伊莎贝儿获悉拉里分散自己财产，并且返回美国预备当司机的消息后，伤心啜泣的情景，从而让读者自己对伊莎贝儿作出结论。不妨说，伊莎贝儿的用心是狠毒的，但是，她破坏的是一个本来不可能有好结果的婚姻，因为如果索菲连伊莎贝儿布置那点诱惑都抵御不了，拉里即使学会了瑜伽修道士的那点法力，能把她从自甘堕落的道路上拉得回转吗？
尽管作者在本书开头声称，他几乎没有什么故事可述，但是，他仍旧充分运用了叙事的技巧，从而抓住读者的注意力。在翻译本书的过程中，我时常碰到这样的情形，即一面译，一面盘算着不知他对这种铺开的局面怎样收拾法。但是，使我佩服的是他笔头一转，很快就结束掉；例如在第二章末尾，当伊莎贝儿告诉作者自己和拉里解约的经过，以及作者给了伊莎贝儿忠告之后，他只用两三行文字就结束了他们精心策划的汉普顿宫之游：
雨仍旧下个不停，我们认为不去看汉普顿宫那些华贵建筑，甚至伊丽莎白女王的床，伊莎贝儿也可以活下去，所以就坐车子回到伦敦。
我想如果有个金圣叹的话，很可能在这一段后面插进一些双行批语：“随手收拾掉汉普顿宫，妙。盖汉普顿官之游不过是为了找个场合让伊莎贝儿能向作者倾吐胸臆，现在目的已达，再叙述作者领她游览汉普顿宫便是呆鸟矣。”
但是，本书最成功的还是人物的塑造；不但几个主要人物写得非常成功，连些次要人物，如布雷德利太太，矿工考斯第，甚至土伦的警察局长，也都是有血有肉的人。小说从一九一九年开始，一直写到三十年代中期，人物的性格当然不可能没有发展和变化。索菲·麦唐纳和作者在芝加哥初次见到的腼腆少女判若两人，这不难做到；她自己的身世便是解释。伊莎贝儿经过嫁格雷后的纸醉金迷生活，继之以破产和二次来巴黎后依舅父艾略特居住，锻炼成她那样的尤物，作者是煞费了一番苦心的。艾略特·谈波登的变化基本上不大，只是一九二九年之后，排场变得阔绰了，但是，一直写到他临终前拿到爱德娜·诺维马里的请帖，亲自写那封口信之后，作者方才完成这幅社会名流的画像，真可以说是达到笔酣墨饱的地步。只有拉里·达雷尔自始至终好象变化不大，永远是那样一个闲云野鹤似的人物，使人疑心是不是取材自真实生活。可是，一九五九年，却被我无意中发现了拉里的蓝本，原来是剑桥大学新近逝世的哲学教授维特根斯坦。这位教授是奥地利人，在剑桥大学学工程学，偶然也研究一点哲学，听过罗素和摩尔的课，但颇能发挥自己的独特见解。第一次大战开始，维特根斯坦担任军官并论为俘虏；战后隐居奥国，当小学教师和修道院园丁。他的剑桥大学同学兰姆赛和布里斯威特在奥地利访求到他，力劝他重新把哲学抓起来，维特根斯坦于是跟当时的维也纳学派石里克等人稍稍往还；一九三○年，受聘为剑桥大学研究员。后来摩尔退休，维特根斯坦却继摩尔被任命为哲学教授。以一个外国人在英国的学术首府担当这个职务，可以说是殊荣，但维特根斯坦却引以为苦，经常劝他的学生不要在大学教书，尤其不能教哲学。一九四七年年纪不到六十就退职，一九五一年逝世。毛姆在一九四四年出版《刀锋》时，维特根斯坦还活着，所以作者在小说开头时说“书中角色的姓氏全都改过，并且务必写得使人认不出是谁，免得那些还活在世上的人看了不安。”但是，不管作者怎样改动，总有些蛛丝马迹可寻；举例说，小说开头叙述拉里在俱乐部图书室里死啃威廉·詹姆斯的《心理学原理》，而维特根斯坦讲课时绝不引用别的哲学家的话，但却时常提到威廉·詹姆斯；有一天，甚至告诉学生詹姆斯的《心理学原理》第××页讲的什么，使学生们听了都感觉诧异，这是一。其次，小说写拉里最后把自己的一点财产分散给人，维特根斯坦的父亲死后，留给他一笔很优渥的财产，维特根斯坦全拿来分给富有的亲朋，他的怪理由是富人得到才可以免受金钱的腐蚀，而小说中也没有提到拉里散金的对象是些什么人，这是二。还有，维特根斯坦平日绝少与人交往，凡是大学社交生活和哲学界各种活动都绝迹不参加，这和拉里不喜欢社交活动也有相似之处。根据这几方面的对照，再加上两人性格上的转变，都是因参加一次大战后开始的，可以断言小说中的拉里就是写的维特根斯坦。当然也有不尽相同之处，如拉里告诉伊莎贝儿他读希腊原文的《奥德修纪》所感到的兴奋，但是，维特根斯坦却是什么文学作品都不读，只看侦探小说。但是，毛姆在《总结》中曾讲过这样的话：“喜欢听故事和喜欢看跳舞和摹拟表演……同样是人性的自然倾向。从侦探小说的流行可以看出这种爱好至今不衰，连第一流的知识分子也看它们，当然并不当回事，可是的确看它们；为什么？还不是因为他们唯一放在眼里的那些心理的，教育的，精神分析的小说不能满足他们的这种特殊需要吗！”毛姆这段话里面的“第一流知识分子”原文是the most intellectual persons，所以不仅包括文学权威，也应包括其他学术权威在内。可以揣想，维特根斯坦喜欢看侦探小说，毛姆并不是不知道；而小说第五章作者从爱德娜·诺维马里的女秘书那里为艾略特偷得请帖后，问女秘书她在化装跳舞会上预备穿什么服装时，她的回答是，“我亲爱的先生，我是个牧师的女儿，这种愚蠢的事，我留给上层阶级去做。当我看见《先驱报》和《邮报》的那些代表吃了一顿好宵夜并且喝了一瓶我们的第二等最好的香槟酒之后，我的责任就结束了。我将回到我的卧室关起门来看一本侦探小说。”这一点描绘，我认为也是从维特根斯坦身上移植过来的。最后，还有维特根斯坦在战后当的小学教师与修道院园丁工作，和拉里回美国后预备当的卡车司机和开出租汽车同样都是不求闻达的表现，毛姆只是把他的蓝本首尾倒置一下而已。
毛姆从不讳言他小说中的人物是从真实生活取材的，所以我的这点考证——如果并没有被别人发现的话——并不足奇；问题倒是为什么毛姆挑中维特根斯坦这样一个人作为他小说的主角。《刀锋》出版于一九四四年，是他一九四○年来美国后的第一部小说。人们可以想象得出在他流寓美国期间，盘算和估量——特别是从大西洋彼岸——他所经历的两次大战之间这段时期，以他阅历之深，接触面之广，而选择了维特根斯坦，一定是经过反复考虑的。现在，我们可以看出，拉里这个人确是一次大战的产物，而他反映的时代 ——两次大战之间的时代——则是欧洲中心主义的黄昏时代。在这个时期，世界文化中心虽则仍在欧洲，而欧洲的文化中心，在毛姆看来，无疑在法国，但它已经不能给来此寻求人生真谛的人以满意的回答了。拉里在巴黎博览群书，学会了几种语言，但是，巴黎和法国只成为他的中途岛；他最后带回去的，既不是恩夏姆神甫要把他当迷途羔羊圈回去的天主教，也不是他想从波兰矿工考斯第口中探听的神秘主义，而是印度的吠陀经哲学。小说中无一语涉及纳粹的兴起，但是，小说反映的欧洲的精神空虚，已足够说明为什么纳粹主义能够乘虚而入了。
小说不是历史，不需要反映一个时代的全貌，但它反映的那一部分，特别是其中的人物，必须给人以真实感，不能只是影子。有时候，由于文学修养差，欣赏不了作家所创造的人物，这情形是有的。我当学生时，对莎士比亚的黎耶王形象就不能欣赏，后来读了A．C．布雷德利的《莎士比亚悲剧》才发现自己的文学修养不足。但是，有些名家笔下的人物，如最近我读到的狄更斯的《小杜丽》，就只能说是概念的产物了。毛姆的《刀锋》之所以可贵，就在于为我们提供了两次大战之间那个时期的一个人物画廊。
The Razor’s Edge tells the story of an American fighter pilot (Larry Darrell) traumatized by his experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. The novel is supposed to be based on the life of Guy Hague, an American mining engineer.
The story begins through the eyes of Larry’s friends and acquaintances as they witness his personality change after the War. His rejection of conventional life and search for meaningful experience allows him to thrive while the more materialistic characters suffer reversals of fortune. The book was twice adapted into film, first in 1946 starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, and Herbert Marshall as Maugham, and then a 1984 adaptation starring Bill Murray, with Tibet replacing India as the place of Larry’s enlightenment (the monastery to which Larry travels in the 1984 movie adaptation is in Ladakh, an Indian-ruled region sometimes called "Little Tibet").
Plot
Maugham begins by characterizing his story as not really a novel but a thinly veiled true account. He includes himself as a minor character, a writer who drifts in and out of the lives of the major players. Larry Darrell’s lifestyle is contrasted throughout the book with that of his fiancée’s uncle, Elliott Templeton, an American expatriate living in Paris and a shallow and unrepentant yet generous snob. For example, while Templeton's Catholicism embraces the hierarchical trappings of the Church, Larry's proclivities tend towards the 13th century Flemish mystic and saint John of Ruysbroeck.
Wounded and traumatized by the death of a comrade in the War, Larry returns to Chicago, Illinois and his fiancée, Isabel Bradley, only to announce that he does not plan to work and instead will "loaf" on his small inheritance. He wants to delay their marriage and refuses to take up a job as a stockbroker offered to him by the father of his friend Gray, Henry Maturin. Meanwhile, Larry’s childhood friend, Sophie, settles into a happy marriage, only later tragically losing her husband and baby in a car accident.
Larry moves to Paris and immerses himself in study and bohemian life. After two years of this "loafing," Isabel visits and Larry asks her to join his life of wandering and searching, living in Paris and traveling with little money. She cannot accept his vision of life and breaks their engagement to go back to Chicago. There she marries the millionaire Gray, who provides her a rich family life. Meanwhile, Larry begins a sojourn through Europe, taking a job at a coal mine in Lens, France, where he befriends a former Polish army officer named Kosti. Kosti's influence encourages Larry to look toward things spiritual for his answers rather than in books. Larry and Kosti leave the coal mine and travel together for a time before parting ways. Larry then meets a Benedictine monk named Father Ensheim in Bonn, Germany while Father Ensheim is on leave from his monastery doing academic research. After spending several months with the Benedictines and being unable to reconcile their conception of God with his own reason, Larry takes a job on an ocean liner and finds himself in Bombay.
Larry has significant spiritual adventures in India and comes back to Paris. What he actually found in India and what he finally concluded are held back from the reader for a considerable time until, in a scene late in the book, Maugham discusses India and spirituality with Larry in a café long into the evening.
The 1929 stock market crash has ruined Gray, and he and Isabel are invited to live in her uncle Elliott Templeton’s grand Parisian house. Gray is often incapacitated with agonizing migraines due to a general nervous collapse. Larry is able to help him using an Indian form of hypnotic suggestion. Sophie has also drifted to the French capital, where her friends find her reduced to alcohol, opium, and promiscuity — empty and dangerous liaisons that seem to help her to bury her pain. Larry first sets out to save her and then decides to marry her, a plan that displeases Isabel, who is still in love with him.
Isabel tempts Sophie off the wagon with a bottle of Żubrówka, and she disappears from Paris. Maugham deduces this after seeing Sophie in Toulon, where she has returned to smoking opium and promiscuity. He is drawn back into the tale when police interrogate him after Sophie has been found murdered with an inscribed book from him in her room (along with volumes by Baudelaire and Rimbaud).
Meanwhile in Antibes, Elliott Templeton, who has compulsively throughout his life sought out aristocratic society, is on his deathbed. None of his titled friends come to see him, which makes him alternately morose and irate, though his outlook on death is somewhat positive: "I have always moved in the best society in Europe, and I have no doubt that I shall move in the best society in heaven."
Isabel inherits his fortune, but genuinely grieves for her uncle. Maugham confronts her about Sophie, having figured out Isabel’s role in Sophie’s downfall. Isabel’s only punishment will be that she will never get Larry, who has decided to return to America and live as a common working man. He is uninterested in the rich and glamorous world that Isabel will move in. Maugham ends his narrative by suggesting that all the characters got what they wanted in the end: "Elliott social eminence; Isabel an assured position; ... Sophie death; and Larry happiness."
Influences and critical reception
Maugham, like Hermann Hesse, was remarkably prescient, anticipating an embrace of Eastern culture by Americans and Europeans almost a decade before the Beats were to popularize it. Maugham himself visited Sri Ramana Ashram, where he had a direct interaction with Ramana Maharshi in Tamil Nadu, India in 1938.. Maugham’s suggestion that he "invented nothing" was a source of annoyance for Christopher Isherwood, who helped him translate a verse from the Upanishads for the novel’s epigraph.[citation needed] Many thought Isherwood, who had built his own literary reputation by then and was studying Indian philosophy, was the basis for the book’s hero. Isherwood went so far as to write Time magazine denying this speculation. A more likely inspiration for the Larry Darrell charater was American mining engineer Guy Hague, who'd spent time in Sri Ramana Maharshi's ashram.
作品描述了美国青年飞行员拉里·达雷尔在部队结识了一位爱尔兰战友，在一次战斗中，这位战友为救他牺牲了。为此他丢下一切遍游世界，最后到了印度，终于对人生大彻大悟，返回美国，当上一个出租车司机，打算隐身人海，经终天年。
二次大战爆发后，毛姆由尼斯避难到英国，继而赴美国居住，直到战争结束后才返回里维埃拉的故居。在美国期间，他出版了《刀锋》（一九四四年四月，英国版晚三个月）；这是一部杰作，出版后不但受到广大读者欢迎，而且受到弗吉妮亚·伍尔芙夫人那个严峻的批评家的称许。《总结》（一九三八）虽然带有自传性质，但主要是叙述他的相当实事求是但不随流俗的文学见解和人生哲学；这部书应和《一个作家的笔记本》（一九四四）作姊妹篇读。他死时九十一岁，造有一女。他的戏剧、小说和短篇小说有许多于他在世时都拍成电影；这在当代作家中也是少见的。
《刀锋》是用第一人称写的，而且这个人乾脆不再是作者惯用的阿辛登笔名，而是直接用了自己的真名实姓。小说写一个参加第一次大战的美国青年飞行员拉里·达雷尔。在军队中，拉里结识了一个爱尔兰好友：这人平时是那样一个生龙活虎般的置生死于度外的飞行员，但在一次遭遇战中，因趋救拉里而中弹牺牲。拉里因此对人生感到迷惘，弄不懂世界上为什么有恶和不幸（这也是毛姆在《总结》中提出过的）。复员后，拉里既不肯进大学，也不肯就业，一心想探求人生的终极。为此，他丢下未婚妻来到巴黎；两年后，和未婚妻解约，又从巴黎遍游世界各地，最后到了印度，找到了印度的吠陀经哲学。于是了悟人生，把自己的一点薄产分散给亲友，自己返回美国，当一个自食其力的出租汽车司机，打算隐身人海，以终天年。小说以拉里为中心，描绘了许多美国男女，有拉里的未婚妻，贪图物质享受的伊莎贝儿；有以买卖古董起家，一心想钻进上流交际社会的艾略特·谈波登；有头脑简单但心地忠厚的格雷·马图林，他原是百万富翁的独生子，但是一九二九年的经济大崩溃使他破了产，他是个只知道做生意发财的典型美国社会产物；有伊莎贝儿的同学，索菲·麦唐纳，因丈夫和儿子在车祸中丧命，被夫家放逐到巴黎来过着堕落的生活，终于被不逞之徒杀害；还有一个模特儿兼妓女的法国女子苏姗·鲁维埃，和拉里与作者都相识，最后和法国一个外地厂商结婚而得到生活保障。作者本人在书中也担任了一个重要角色；他既是演员，又是观众。背景多半是在法国，特别是巴黎。由于毛姆大半生是在法国度过的，而写作本书时，正因战争避地美国，所以写到巴黎时，特别流露出怀乡情绪，如写他在赴拉里约会之前，穿过卢森堡博物馆的公园时，描写园中游人的那一段回忆自己青年时期的描述，完全属于自叙性质，和小说毫无关系。又如第六章论述莱辛的《贝蕾妮丝》，都是离开主题发挥自己的文学见解。书中的主要角色除掉苏姗·鲁维埃外，全都是美国人，使人想起一句调侃美国人的谚语：“人死后进天堂，美国人死后去巴黎。”但是，他们最后都死的死了，回国的回国了，连苏姗·鲁维埃也嫁到外地去，如作者所说，“在我的生命中也消失了。”当然，这个小圈子里的人只占据作者生活的很少一部分，但我们仍不免兴一种落寞之感，仿佛作者是“珠箔飘灯独自归”。
正如作者在小说中交代的，他这本书并不想“阐述所谓《奥义书》的哲学体系。”“我懂得太少了，但即使懂得很多，这也不是阐述《奥义书》的地方……我想的只是拉里。”在本书结尾时，他又说，“我是个俗人，是尘世中人；我只能对这类人中麟凤的光辉形象表示景慕，没法步他的后尘。”因此，他和克里斯朵夫·衣修午德不同，并不打算向西方推荐吠陀经哲学，或者提倡人人都学拉里；单拿一点来说，不近女色，如果人人都象拉里那样奉行，岂不会造成灭种的灾祸！毛姆的道德观是如我国嵇康在《绝交书》中所主张的“四民有务，各得志为乐”。他把拉里捧得很高，但并不把艾略特·谈波登那个“大大的势利鬼”贬得很低。他对放浪形骸的索菲·麦唐纳只有同情，对当模特儿兼妓女的苏姗·鲁维埃能够有一个归宿感到欣幸，对头脑简单的格雷·马图林，在他的笔下绝少挖苦，而往往突出他的忠厚和慈爱，但对伊莎贝儿则毫不徇情地揭露她蓄意破坏索菲和拉里婚事的阴谋，尽管他很欣赏她的美，并且是她多年来的“知心”朋友。但他接着也写伊莎贝儿获悉拉里分散自己财产，并且返回美国预备当司机的消息后，伤心啜泣的情景，从而让读者自己对伊莎贝儿作出结论。不妨说，伊莎贝儿的用心是狠毒的，但是，她破坏的是一个本来不可能有好结果的婚姻，因为如果索菲连伊莎贝儿布置那点诱惑都抵御不了，拉里即使学会了瑜伽修道士的那点法力，能把她从自甘堕落的道路上拉得回转吗？
尽管作者在本书开头声称，他几乎没有什么故事可述，但是，他仍旧充分运用了叙事的技巧，从而抓住读者的注意力。在翻译本书的过程中，我时常碰到这样的情形，即一面译，一面盘算着不知他对这种铺开的局面怎样收拾法。但是，使我佩服的是他笔头一转，很快就结束掉；例如在第二章末尾，当伊莎贝儿告诉作者自己和拉里解约的经过，以及作者给了伊莎贝儿忠告之后，他只用两三行文字就结束了他们精心策划的汉普顿宫之游：
雨仍旧下个不停，我们认为不去看汉普顿宫那些华贵建筑，甚至伊丽莎白女王的床，伊莎贝儿也可以活下去，所以就坐车子回到伦敦。
我想如果有个金圣叹的话，很可能在这一段后面插进一些双行批语：“随手收拾掉汉普顿宫，妙。盖汉普顿官之游不过是为了找个场合让伊莎贝儿能向作者倾吐胸臆，现在目的已达，再叙述作者领她游览汉普顿宫便是呆鸟矣。”
但是，本书最成功的还是人物的塑造；不但几个主要人物写得非常成功，连些次要人物，如布雷德利太太，矿工考斯第，甚至土伦的警察局长，也都是有血有肉的人。小说从一九一九年开始，一直写到三十年代中期，人物的性格当然不可能没有发展和变化。索菲·麦唐纳和作者在芝加哥初次见到的腼腆少女判若两人，这不难做到；她自己的身世便是解释。伊莎贝儿经过嫁格雷后的纸醉金迷生活，继之以破产和二次来巴黎后依舅父艾略特居住，锻炼成她那样的尤物，作者是煞费了一番苦心的。艾略特·谈波登的变化基本上不大，只是一九二九年之后，排场变得阔绰了，但是，一直写到他临终前拿到爱德娜·诺维马里的请帖，亲自写那封口信之后，作者方才完成这幅社会名流的画像，真可以说是达到笔酣墨饱的地步。只有拉里·达雷尔自始至终好象变化不大，永远是那样一个闲云野鹤似的人物，使人疑心是不是取材自真实生活。可是，一九五九年，却被我无意中发现了拉里的蓝本，原来是剑桥大学新近逝世的哲学教授维特根斯坦。这位教授是奥地利人，在剑桥大学学工程学，偶然也研究一点哲学，听过罗素和摩尔的课，但颇能发挥自己的独特见解。第一次大战开始，维特根斯坦担任军官并论为俘虏；战后隐居奥国，当小学教师和修道院园丁。他的剑桥大学同学兰姆赛和布里斯威特在奥地利访求到他，力劝他重新把哲学抓起来，维特根斯坦于是跟当时的维也纳学派石里克等人稍稍往还；一九三○年，受聘为剑桥大学研究员。后来摩尔退休，维特根斯坦却继摩尔被任命为哲学教授。以一个外国人在英国的学术首府担当这个职务，可以说是殊荣，但维特根斯坦却引以为苦，经常劝他的学生不要在大学教书，尤其不能教哲学。一九四七年年纪不到六十就退职，一九五一年逝世。毛姆在一九四四年出版《刀锋》时，维特根斯坦还活着，所以作者在小说开头时说“书中角色的姓氏全都改过，并且务必写得使人认不出是谁，免得那些还活在世上的人看了不安。”但是，不管作者怎样改动，总有些蛛丝马迹可寻；举例说，小说开头叙述拉里在俱乐部图书室里死啃威廉·詹姆斯的《心理学原理》，而维特根斯坦讲课时绝不引用别的哲学家的话，但却时常提到威廉·詹姆斯；有一天，甚至告诉学生詹姆斯的《心理学原理》第××页讲的什么，使学生们听了都感觉诧异，这是一。其次，小说写拉里最后把自己的一点财产分散给人，维特根斯坦的父亲死后，留给他一笔很优渥的财产，维特根斯坦全拿来分给富有的亲朋，他的怪理由是富人得到才可以免受金钱的腐蚀，而小说中也没有提到拉里散金的对象是些什么人，这是二。还有，维特根斯坦平日绝少与人交往，凡是大学社交生活和哲学界各种活动都绝迹不参加，这和拉里不喜欢社交活动也有相似之处。根据这几方面的对照，再加上两人性格上的转变，都是因参加一次大战后开始的，可以断言小说中的拉里就是写的维特根斯坦。当然也有不尽相同之处，如拉里告诉伊莎贝儿他读希腊原文的《奥德修纪》所感到的兴奋，但是，维特根斯坦却是什么文学作品都不读，只看侦探小说。但是，毛姆在《总结》中曾讲过这样的话：“喜欢听故事和喜欢看跳舞和摹拟表演……同样是人性的自然倾向。从侦探小说的流行可以看出这种爱好至今不衰，连第一流的知识分子也看它们，当然并不当回事，可是的确看它们；为什么？还不是因为他们唯一放在眼里的那些心理的，教育的，精神分析的小说不能满足他们的这种特殊需要吗！”毛姆这段话里面的“第一流知识分子”原文是the most intellectual persons，所以不仅包括文学权威，也应包括其他学术权威在内。可以揣想，维特根斯坦喜欢看侦探小说，毛姆并不是不知道；而小说第五章作者从爱德娜·诺维马里的女秘书那里为艾略特偷得请帖后，问女秘书她在化装跳舞会上预备穿什么服装时，她的回答是，“我亲爱的先生，我是个牧师的女儿，这种愚蠢的事，我留给上层阶级去做。当我看见《先驱报》和《邮报》的那些代表吃了一顿好宵夜并且喝了一瓶我们的第二等最好的香槟酒之后，我的责任就结束了。我将回到我的卧室关起门来看一本侦探小说。”这一点描绘，我认为也是从维特根斯坦身上移植过来的。最后，还有维特根斯坦在战后当的小学教师与修道院园丁工作，和拉里回美国后预备当的卡车司机和开出租汽车同样都是不求闻达的表现，毛姆只是把他的蓝本首尾倒置一下而已。
毛姆从不讳言他小说中的人物是从真实生活取材的，所以我的这点考证——如果并没有被别人发现的话——并不足奇；问题倒是为什么毛姆挑中维特根斯坦这样一个人作为他小说的主角。《刀锋》出版于一九四四年，是他一九四○年来美国后的第一部小说。人们可以想象得出在他流寓美国期间，盘算和估量——特别是从大西洋彼岸——他所经历的两次大战之间这段时期，以他阅历之深，接触面之广，而选择了维特根斯坦，一定是经过反复考虑的。现在，我们可以看出，拉里这个人确是一次大战的产物，而他反映的时代 ——两次大战之间的时代——则是欧洲中心主义的黄昏时代。在这个时期，世界文化中心虽则仍在欧洲，而欧洲的文化中心，在毛姆看来，无疑在法国，但它已经不能给来此寻求人生真谛的人以满意的回答了。拉里在巴黎博览群书，学会了几种语言，但是，巴黎和法国只成为他的中途岛；他最后带回去的，既不是恩夏姆神甫要把他当迷途羔羊圈回去的天主教，也不是他想从波兰矿工考斯第口中探听的神秘主义，而是印度的吠陀经哲学。小说中无一语涉及纳粹的兴起，但是，小说反映的欧洲的精神空虚，已足够说明为什么纳粹主义能够乘虚而入了。
小说不是历史，不需要反映一个时代的全貌，但它反映的那一部分，特别是其中的人物，必须给人以真实感，不能只是影子。有时候，由于文学修养差，欣赏不了作家所创造的人物，这情形是有的。我当学生时，对莎士比亚的黎耶王形象就不能欣赏，后来读了A．C．布雷德利的《莎士比亚悲剧》才发现自己的文学修养不足。但是，有些名家笔下的人物，如最近我读到的狄更斯的《小杜丽》，就只能说是概念的产物了。毛姆的《刀锋》之所以可贵，就在于为我们提供了两次大战之间那个时期的一个人物画廊。
The Razor’s Edge tells the story of an American fighter pilot (Larry Darrell) traumatized by his experiences in World War I, who sets off in search of some transcendent meaning in his life. The novel is supposed to be based on the life of Guy Hague, an American mining engineer.
The story begins through the eyes of Larry’s friends and acquaintances as they witness his personality change after the War. His rejection of conventional life and search for meaningful experience allows him to thrive while the more materialistic characters suffer reversals of fortune. The book was twice adapted into film, first in 1946 starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, and Herbert Marshall as Maugham, and then a 1984 adaptation starring Bill Murray, with Tibet replacing India as the place of Larry’s enlightenment (the monastery to which Larry travels in the 1984 movie adaptation is in Ladakh, an Indian-ruled region sometimes called "Little Tibet").
Plot
Maugham begins by characterizing his story as not really a novel but a thinly veiled true account. He includes himself as a minor character, a writer who drifts in and out of the lives of the major players. Larry Darrell’s lifestyle is contrasted throughout the book with that of his fiancée’s uncle, Elliott Templeton, an American expatriate living in Paris and a shallow and unrepentant yet generous snob. For example, while Templeton's Catholicism embraces the hierarchical trappings of the Church, Larry's proclivities tend towards the 13th century Flemish mystic and saint John of Ruysbroeck.
Wounded and traumatized by the death of a comrade in the War, Larry returns to Chicago, Illinois and his fiancée, Isabel Bradley, only to announce that he does not plan to work and instead will "loaf" on his small inheritance. He wants to delay their marriage and refuses to take up a job as a stockbroker offered to him by the father of his friend Gray, Henry Maturin. Meanwhile, Larry’s childhood friend, Sophie, settles into a happy marriage, only later tragically losing her husband and baby in a car accident.
Larry moves to Paris and immerses himself in study and bohemian life. After two years of this "loafing," Isabel visits and Larry asks her to join his life of wandering and searching, living in Paris and traveling with little money. She cannot accept his vision of life and breaks their engagement to go back to Chicago. There she marries the millionaire Gray, who provides her a rich family life. Meanwhile, Larry begins a sojourn through Europe, taking a job at a coal mine in Lens, France, where he befriends a former Polish army officer named Kosti. Kosti's influence encourages Larry to look toward things spiritual for his answers rather than in books. Larry and Kosti leave the coal mine and travel together for a time before parting ways. Larry then meets a Benedictine monk named Father Ensheim in Bonn, Germany while Father Ensheim is on leave from his monastery doing academic research. After spending several months with the Benedictines and being unable to reconcile their conception of God with his own reason, Larry takes a job on an ocean liner and finds himself in Bombay.
Larry has significant spiritual adventures in India and comes back to Paris. What he actually found in India and what he finally concluded are held back from the reader for a considerable time until, in a scene late in the book, Maugham discusses India and spirituality with Larry in a café long into the evening.
The 1929 stock market crash has ruined Gray, and he and Isabel are invited to live in her uncle Elliott Templeton’s grand Parisian house. Gray is often incapacitated with agonizing migraines due to a general nervous collapse. Larry is able to help him using an Indian form of hypnotic suggestion. Sophie has also drifted to the French capital, where her friends find her reduced to alcohol, opium, and promiscuity — empty and dangerous liaisons that seem to help her to bury her pain. Larry first sets out to save her and then decides to marry her, a plan that displeases Isabel, who is still in love with him.
Isabel tempts Sophie off the wagon with a bottle of Żubrówka, and she disappears from Paris. Maugham deduces this after seeing Sophie in Toulon, where she has returned to smoking opium and promiscuity. He is drawn back into the tale when police interrogate him after Sophie has been found murdered with an inscribed book from him in her room (along with volumes by Baudelaire and Rimbaud).
Meanwhile in Antibes, Elliott Templeton, who has compulsively throughout his life sought out aristocratic society, is on his deathbed. None of his titled friends come to see him, which makes him alternately morose and irate, though his outlook on death is somewhat positive: "I have always moved in the best society in Europe, and I have no doubt that I shall move in the best society in heaven."
Isabel inherits his fortune, but genuinely grieves for her uncle. Maugham confronts her about Sophie, having figured out Isabel’s role in Sophie’s downfall. Isabel’s only punishment will be that she will never get Larry, who has decided to return to America and live as a common working man. He is uninterested in the rich and glamorous world that Isabel will move in. Maugham ends his narrative by suggesting that all the characters got what they wanted in the end: "Elliott social eminence; Isabel an assured position; ... Sophie death; and Larry happiness."
Influences and critical reception
Maugham, like Hermann Hesse, was remarkably prescient, anticipating an embrace of Eastern culture by Americans and Europeans almost a decade before the Beats were to popularize it. Maugham himself visited Sri Ramana Ashram, where he had a direct interaction with Ramana Maharshi in Tamil Nadu, India in 1938.. Maugham’s suggestion that he "invented nothing" was a source of annoyance for Christopher Isherwood, who helped him translate a verse from the Upanishads for the novel’s epigraph.[citation needed] Many thought Isherwood, who had built his own literary reputation by then and was studying Indian philosophy, was the basis for the book’s hero. Isherwood went so far as to write Time magazine denying this speculation. A more likely inspiration for the Larry Darrell charater was American mining engineer Guy Hague, who'd spent time in Sri Ramana Maharshi's ashram.
《戏院》 （Theatre）（1937年）长篇小说
朱莉娅·兰伯特正值盛年，英格兰一代红伶。台上，她是拿捏情感的行家里手，台下，她却厌倦了她的丈夫，不复克制她的行为。她先是为一个羞涩又野心勃勃的年轻戏迷的殷勤而欢欣，又因其执著而激颤，最终狂热而危险地陷入爱河。
这部小说是毛姆自称在十分欢畅的心情下写下的自己特别心爱的一部作品，1937年在美国和英国同时出版，轰动一时。著名评论家伯纳德·德·沃托在《星期六文学评论》上赞誉它“精美绝伦，是当代优秀小说的范本”。
毛姆用戏谑和嘲讽，“无情地解剖感情，不加怜悯地描述他所看到的这个没有怜悯的世界”。英国小说家伊丽莎白·鲍恩称他的《剧院风情》是一部“尖刻的悲喜剧”。
虽然毛姆多以其小说家的身份而蜚声文坛，但最初却是以其剧作而司名。《剧院风情》既是毛姆向他从中隐退的那个世界的致敬，也是他的戏剧与舞台热情最具说服力的明证。
朱莉娅·兰伯特正值盛年，英格兰一代红伶。台上，她是拿捏情感的行家里手，台下，她却厌倦了她的丈夫，不复克制她的行为。她先是为一个羞涩又野心勃勃的年轻戏迷的殷勤而欢欣，又因其执著而激颤，最终狂热而危险地陷入爱河。
这部小说是毛姆自称在十分欢畅的心情下写下的自己特别心爱的一部作品，1937年在美国和英国同时出版，轰动一时。著名评论家伯纳德·德·沃托在《星期六文学评论》上赞誉它“精美绝伦，是当代优秀小说的范本”。
毛姆用戏谑和嘲讽，“无情地解剖感情，不加怜悯地描述他所看到的这个没有怜悯的世界”。英国小说家伊丽莎白·鲍恩称他的《剧院风情》是一部“尖刻的悲喜剧”。
虽然毛姆多以其小说家的身份而蜚声文坛，但最初却是以其剧作而司名。《剧院风情》既是毛姆向他从中隐退的那个世界的致敬，也是他的戏剧与舞台热情最具说服力的明证。
圣彼得教堂下午有一场洗礼，所以奥伯特·爱德瓦还穿着他的司事长袍。他总是把新袍子放在做丧礼或婚礼的时候才穿（哪些讲究时髦的人总是选圣彼得教堂来举行这些典礼），所以，现在他所穿的只是稍微次一等的。穿这袍子，他感到自傲，因为这是他职位尊严的标志。这位子来之不易。折叠和熨烫袍子的事情他总是要亲手干。在这家教堂当了十六年的司事，这样的袍子，已经有过好多件，但他从来都不肯将穿旧的袍子扔掉，所有的袍子都用牛皮纸整齐地包好，存放在卧室衣橱下面的抽屉里。
司事现在是在小礼堂等着牧师结束他的仪式，这样他就能将这里收拾整齐，然后回家。
“他还在那里磨蹭什么呀？”司事自言自语地说。“他难道不知道我也该回去喝杯茶了。”
这位牧师是最近才任命的，四十来岁，红光满面，是个精力充沛的人。而奥伯特·爱德瓦还是为先前的牧师感到遗憾，那是一个旧派的教士，从不大惊小怪，不像现在这位，样样事情都要插上一手。
不久，他看到牧师走了过来。
“佛曼，您能到小教堂里来一会儿吗，我有些事情要同你说说。”
“好的，阁下。”
他们一起沿着教堂走去，牧师将奥伯特·爱德瓦领进了小教堂。奥伯特·爱德瓦看到这里还有两位教堂执事，有一点儿惊讶，他并没有看到他们进来。他们对他和善地点了点头。
“下午好，我的大人。下午好，阁下。”他一个一个地同他们打招呼。
两位都是长者，他们当教堂执事几乎和奥伯特·爱德瓦当司事一样长。他们现在坐在原先的牧师许多年前从意大利弄来的精致的桌子旁边，牧师坐到他们中间空出的椅子上。奥伯特面对着他们，桌子在他与他们之间，心里有些不自在地猜想着这是怎么一回事。他还记得弹风琴的人惹出的麻烦，后来费了不少力才把事情平息了。在圣彼得教堂这样的地方是不允许有丑闻的。牧师的脸上是一团和气，而另外两位却表现出些微的慌乱。
“他是想要他们做某件事，但是他们却不太愿意。”司事对自己说。“准是如此，你可以记住我的话。”
但是奥伯特并没有将他的想法显露在脸上。他以一种谦恭而又尊严的姿态站着。在当司事之前他当过仆人，但是都是在非常体面的人家。开始是在一个富商家当跟班，在一位寡居的贵夫人家他升到了管家的职位，在圣彼得教堂司事职位出现空缺时他已经在一位退职的大使家里当总管，手下有了两个人。他高大，瘦削，沉稳而自尊。看起来，不说是个公爵，但至少也是老派戏班里专门扮演公爵的演员。他老成，坚定，自信。
牧师神彩奕奕地开口了。
“佛曼，有些事情我们实在有些不太愿意对你开口。你已经在这里干了这么多年了，而且令人满意地履行了你的责任。”
两位执事点着头。
“但是有一天我了解到一件非同寻常的事情，我觉得有责任要将这事情告知我们的执事。我不胜惊讶地发觉你竟然既不能读也不能写。”
司事的脸上没有显露出任何窘困的神色。
“以前的牧师知道这事，阁下。”他回答说。“他说这无关紧要，他经常说，以他的品味，有时候这个世界教育得也太过分了。”
“这是我生以来听到的最令人惊讶的事情了，”执事们喊叫了起来。“你的意思是说，你当了这个教堂的司事十六年，却从来不会读也不会写？”
“阁下，我从十二岁起就当了差。开头那家厨师曾经想要教我，但我好像在这方面实在不开窍。此后我再也没有时间，我也从来没有真的想着要学。”
“但是，你就不想了解外界的事情？”另一位执事说。“你从来都没有写过信？”
“没有，阁下，没有这些，好像也很好呀。现在报纸上有的是图片，所以我对一切情况都很了解呀。如果我想要写信，我可以让我妻子帮我写嘛。”
“两位执事无可奈何地瞧了一眼牧师，然后就低头看着桌子。
“好吧，佛曼，我同两位先生讨论过这事，他们同我一样，认为这实在是匪夷所思。像圣彼得这样的教堂里不能有一个既不能读又不能写的司事。”
奥伯特·爱德瓦瘦削而苍白的脸涨红了，他不自在地跺动着脚，但却没有答话。
“不过，佛曼，你不是可以去学习么？”执事中的一位问道。
“不，阁下。事到如今，我恐怕不行了。你看我已经不再年轻，既然我不能在孩童的时候将这些文字塞进我的头脑里去的话，我想，到如今也不会有这样的机会。”
“佛曼，不是我们要苛求于你，”牧师说，“但是我同执事们已经拿定了主意。我们给你三个月时间，到那时你要是还不能读、不能写，那恐怕就得叫你走人。”
奥伯特从来就不喜欢这个牧师，一开始他就说，他们把圣彼得交给他是一个错误。他知道他的价值，现在他觉得自己放松了一点。
“我感到非常抱歉，阁下，我恐怕要说，这对我没有任何好处。我是一条再也不能学新花招的老狗了。不会读不会写，好多年来我也活得很好，就算我还能学会，我也不会说我想要去学了。”
“这么说，佛曼，我只好说你得走人。”
“好的，阁下，我懂， 只要一找到能顶替我的人，我就会乐意递上我的辞职书的。”
但是，当奥伯特·爱德瓦以他通常的礼貌在牧师和执事们离开后关上了教堂的门以后，他再也无法保持住那种庄重的气氛了，他的嘴唇颤抖着。他回到小礼堂将司事的袍子挂到了木砧上。想起他在这里看到的那么多葬礼和婚礼的场面，他叹息着。他把一切都整理好，穿上了他的夹克，帽子拿在手里，走出了教堂。他把身后教堂的门锁上，漫步穿过广场，在深深的忧伤中，他没有走向那条往家走的路，家里有又浓又好的茶在等待着他，他却转错了方向。他走得很缓慢。他的心情非常沉重。他不知道自己究竟该怎么做。重新去做人家的仆人的念头他是不愿意去想的。已经自主了这么多年，他不再能伺候人。他积攒下了一笔钱，但还不足以坐享终生，生活的费用每年都在增加。他从来没有想到会遭遇这样的麻烦。圣彼得教堂的司事，就如同罗马的教皇，是终其一生的呀。奥伯特不抽烟，也不饮酒，但稍有通融，就是说，在正餐时也可以喝杯啤酒，在觉得劳累的时候也可以抽根把烟。就在此刻，他觉得要是有支烟抽，或许会给他一点安慰。既然他从不带烟，他就四下里寻找着，看哪里可以买一盒。他没有看到卖烟的店铺，于是就往下走去。这是一条长长的道路，有各式各样的店铺，可就没有能买到香烟的店铺。
“这真有点儿怪，”奥伯特·爱德瓦说。
为了确信，他又重新在街上走了一遍。没有，确实不用怀疑。他停观察，翻来覆去思索。
“我不会是唯一一位在这条街上走过而想到要抽烟的人的，”他说。“如果哪个家伙在这里开爿小店，我是说，烟草，糖果之类的，准能赚钱。”
他为此遽然一震。
“这就是念头，”他说，“真是奇怪，事情就是在你最没有想的时候这样来了。”
他转过身，走回家，喝了他的茶。
“奥伯特，你今天下午怎么这么一声不吭？”他的妻子说。
“我在思索。”他说。
他将这件事情左思右想了一番，第二天他去了那条街，而且很幸运地找到了一家出租的店铺。二十四小时后，他将这家店铺拿了下来，一个月以后，一爿卖香烟和书报的店铺就开张了。他的妻子称这件事是他自从当上圣彼得教堂司事以后最糟糕的失落，但是他回答说，人必须跟着时代变，再说，教堂也不再是以前的样子了。
奥伯特干得很不差。他干得的确不错，因为过了一年左右，他突然开窍，他想，为何不再开第二家商店，找个人来经管。于是他又去寻找长长的，还没有香烟店的街道，果然找到这样的街道，还有可以出租的店铺，他又拿了下来。这次他又成功了。这么说，既然能开两家，就能开五六家。他开始走遍全伦敦，只要找到一条长长的，还没有香烟店但有店铺出租的街道，他就拿下来。这样，在十年时间里，他一连开了不下十家店铺，赚到了大笔钱财。每个星期一，他自己就到各家店铺去，将一个星期收到的钱统统收拢起来存到银行去。
有一天早晨，正当他在将一扎扎钞票和一大口袋银币交进银行的时候，一位银行出纳告诉他说，他们的经理想要见他。他被引进一间办公室，经理同他握手。
“佛曼先生，我想同你谈谈你存进我们银行的这些钱。你知道他们到底有多少吗？”
“虽然不能准确到一磅二磅，但也大体不离十，阁下。”
“除了今天早上你所存进来的，已经稍微超过三万磅了。这是很大一笔钱存款了，最好是用它来投资。”
“我可不想冒任何的风险，阁下。我知道，放在银行里很保险。”
“你无须有丝毫的担心，我们会帮你转换成绝对可靠的证券的。这样会比银行所付的利息高得多。”
佛曼先生富态的脸上出现了疑虑。“我从来没有接触过股票和分红，我只是想要把这些钱存放在你的手里就行了。”
经理笑了。“所有的一切我们都会帮你做的。你以后只要在传票上签名就行了。”
“这我倒能做，”奥伯特不无疑虑地说。“不过，我怎么知道到底签的是什么呀？”
“我想你总应该会阅读吧，”经理以玩笑的口吻激烈地说。
佛曼先生给了他一个解除疑虑的微笑。
“哦，阁下，事情正是如此。我知道这听起来很好笑，但是我真的不能读也不能写，我只会签自己的名字，而这也是我在经营了生意以后才学会的。”
经理大吃一惊，从他的椅子上跳了起来。
“这是我平生所听说的最不寻常的事情。”经理呆呆地盯着他，仿佛他是一个史前的怪物。
“你是说，你建立了这么重要的生意，赚了三万磅的财富，却不会读也不会写？我的天呐，我的好人，如果你要会读会写，那你现在还会成什么样啊？”
“我可以告诉你，阁下，”佛曼先生说，一丝笑容浮上了他依然高贵的面庞。“那我就还是内维尔广场圣彼得教堂的司事。”
司事现在是在小礼堂等着牧师结束他的仪式，这样他就能将这里收拾整齐，然后回家。
“他还在那里磨蹭什么呀？”司事自言自语地说。“他难道不知道我也该回去喝杯茶了。”
这位牧师是最近才任命的，四十来岁，红光满面，是个精力充沛的人。而奥伯特·爱德瓦还是为先前的牧师感到遗憾，那是一个旧派的教士，从不大惊小怪，不像现在这位，样样事情都要插上一手。
不久，他看到牧师走了过来。
“佛曼，您能到小教堂里来一会儿吗，我有些事情要同你说说。”
“好的，阁下。”
他们一起沿着教堂走去，牧师将奥伯特·爱德瓦领进了小教堂。奥伯特·爱德瓦看到这里还有两位教堂执事，有一点儿惊讶，他并没有看到他们进来。他们对他和善地点了点头。
“下午好，我的大人。下午好，阁下。”他一个一个地同他们打招呼。
两位都是长者，他们当教堂执事几乎和奥伯特·爱德瓦当司事一样长。他们现在坐在原先的牧师许多年前从意大利弄来的精致的桌子旁边，牧师坐到他们中间空出的椅子上。奥伯特面对着他们，桌子在他与他们之间，心里有些不自在地猜想着这是怎么一回事。他还记得弹风琴的人惹出的麻烦，后来费了不少力才把事情平息了。在圣彼得教堂这样的地方是不允许有丑闻的。牧师的脸上是一团和气，而另外两位却表现出些微的慌乱。
“他是想要他们做某件事，但是他们却不太愿意。”司事对自己说。“准是如此，你可以记住我的话。”
但是奥伯特并没有将他的想法显露在脸上。他以一种谦恭而又尊严的姿态站着。在当司事之前他当过仆人，但是都是在非常体面的人家。开始是在一个富商家当跟班，在一位寡居的贵夫人家他升到了管家的职位，在圣彼得教堂司事职位出现空缺时他已经在一位退职的大使家里当总管，手下有了两个人。他高大，瘦削，沉稳而自尊。看起来，不说是个公爵，但至少也是老派戏班里专门扮演公爵的演员。他老成，坚定，自信。
牧师神彩奕奕地开口了。
“佛曼，有些事情我们实在有些不太愿意对你开口。你已经在这里干了这么多年了，而且令人满意地履行了你的责任。”
两位执事点着头。
“但是有一天我了解到一件非同寻常的事情，我觉得有责任要将这事情告知我们的执事。我不胜惊讶地发觉你竟然既不能读也不能写。”
司事的脸上没有显露出任何窘困的神色。
“以前的牧师知道这事，阁下。”他回答说。“他说这无关紧要，他经常说，以他的品味，有时候这个世界教育得也太过分了。”
“这是我生以来听到的最令人惊讶的事情了，”执事们喊叫了起来。“你的意思是说，你当了这个教堂的司事十六年，却从来不会读也不会写？”
“阁下，我从十二岁起就当了差。开头那家厨师曾经想要教我，但我好像在这方面实在不开窍。此后我再也没有时间，我也从来没有真的想着要学。”
“但是，你就不想了解外界的事情？”另一位执事说。“你从来都没有写过信？”
“没有，阁下，没有这些，好像也很好呀。现在报纸上有的是图片，所以我对一切情况都很了解呀。如果我想要写信，我可以让我妻子帮我写嘛。”
“两位执事无可奈何地瞧了一眼牧师，然后就低头看着桌子。
“好吧，佛曼，我同两位先生讨论过这事，他们同我一样，认为这实在是匪夷所思。像圣彼得这样的教堂里不能有一个既不能读又不能写的司事。”
奥伯特·爱德瓦瘦削而苍白的脸涨红了，他不自在地跺动着脚，但却没有答话。
“不过，佛曼，你不是可以去学习么？”执事中的一位问道。
“不，阁下。事到如今，我恐怕不行了。你看我已经不再年轻，既然我不能在孩童的时候将这些文字塞进我的头脑里去的话，我想，到如今也不会有这样的机会。”
“佛曼，不是我们要苛求于你，”牧师说，“但是我同执事们已经拿定了主意。我们给你三个月时间，到那时你要是还不能读、不能写，那恐怕就得叫你走人。”
奥伯特从来就不喜欢这个牧师，一开始他就说，他们把圣彼得交给他是一个错误。他知道他的价值，现在他觉得自己放松了一点。
“我感到非常抱歉，阁下，我恐怕要说，这对我没有任何好处。我是一条再也不能学新花招的老狗了。不会读不会写，好多年来我也活得很好，就算我还能学会，我也不会说我想要去学了。”
“这么说，佛曼，我只好说你得走人。”
“好的，阁下，我懂， 只要一找到能顶替我的人，我就会乐意递上我的辞职书的。”
但是，当奥伯特·爱德瓦以他通常的礼貌在牧师和执事们离开后关上了教堂的门以后，他再也无法保持住那种庄重的气氛了，他的嘴唇颤抖着。他回到小礼堂将司事的袍子挂到了木砧上。想起他在这里看到的那么多葬礼和婚礼的场面，他叹息着。他把一切都整理好，穿上了他的夹克，帽子拿在手里，走出了教堂。他把身后教堂的门锁上，漫步穿过广场，在深深的忧伤中，他没有走向那条往家走的路，家里有又浓又好的茶在等待着他，他却转错了方向。他走得很缓慢。他的心情非常沉重。他不知道自己究竟该怎么做。重新去做人家的仆人的念头他是不愿意去想的。已经自主了这么多年，他不再能伺候人。他积攒下了一笔钱，但还不足以坐享终生，生活的费用每年都在增加。他从来没有想到会遭遇这样的麻烦。圣彼得教堂的司事，就如同罗马的教皇，是终其一生的呀。奥伯特不抽烟，也不饮酒，但稍有通融，就是说，在正餐时也可以喝杯啤酒，在觉得劳累的时候也可以抽根把烟。就在此刻，他觉得要是有支烟抽，或许会给他一点安慰。既然他从不带烟，他就四下里寻找着，看哪里可以买一盒。他没有看到卖烟的店铺，于是就往下走去。这是一条长长的道路，有各式各样的店铺，可就没有能买到香烟的店铺。
“这真有点儿怪，”奥伯特·爱德瓦说。
为了确信，他又重新在街上走了一遍。没有，确实不用怀疑。他停观察，翻来覆去思索。
“我不会是唯一一位在这条街上走过而想到要抽烟的人的，”他说。“如果哪个家伙在这里开爿小店，我是说，烟草，糖果之类的，准能赚钱。”
他为此遽然一震。
“这就是念头，”他说，“真是奇怪，事情就是在你最没有想的时候这样来了。”
他转过身，走回家，喝了他的茶。
“奥伯特，你今天下午怎么这么一声不吭？”他的妻子说。
“我在思索。”他说。
他将这件事情左思右想了一番，第二天他去了那条街，而且很幸运地找到了一家出租的店铺。二十四小时后，他将这家店铺拿了下来，一个月以后，一爿卖香烟和书报的店铺就开张了。他的妻子称这件事是他自从当上圣彼得教堂司事以后最糟糕的失落，但是他回答说，人必须跟着时代变，再说，教堂也不再是以前的样子了。
奥伯特干得很不差。他干得的确不错，因为过了一年左右，他突然开窍，他想，为何不再开第二家商店，找个人来经管。于是他又去寻找长长的，还没有香烟店的街道，果然找到这样的街道，还有可以出租的店铺，他又拿了下来。这次他又成功了。这么说，既然能开两家，就能开五六家。他开始走遍全伦敦，只要找到一条长长的，还没有香烟店但有店铺出租的街道，他就拿下来。这样，在十年时间里，他一连开了不下十家店铺，赚到了大笔钱财。每个星期一，他自己就到各家店铺去，将一个星期收到的钱统统收拢起来存到银行去。
有一天早晨，正当他在将一扎扎钞票和一大口袋银币交进银行的时候，一位银行出纳告诉他说，他们的经理想要见他。他被引进一间办公室，经理同他握手。
“佛曼先生，我想同你谈谈你存进我们银行的这些钱。你知道他们到底有多少吗？”
“虽然不能准确到一磅二磅，但也大体不离十，阁下。”
“除了今天早上你所存进来的，已经稍微超过三万磅了。这是很大一笔钱存款了，最好是用它来投资。”
“我可不想冒任何的风险，阁下。我知道，放在银行里很保险。”
“你无须有丝毫的担心，我们会帮你转换成绝对可靠的证券的。这样会比银行所付的利息高得多。”
佛曼先生富态的脸上出现了疑虑。“我从来没有接触过股票和分红，我只是想要把这些钱存放在你的手里就行了。”
经理笑了。“所有的一切我们都会帮你做的。你以后只要在传票上签名就行了。”
“这我倒能做，”奥伯特不无疑虑地说。“不过，我怎么知道到底签的是什么呀？”
“我想你总应该会阅读吧，”经理以玩笑的口吻激烈地说。
佛曼先生给了他一个解除疑虑的微笑。
“哦，阁下，事情正是如此。我知道这听起来很好笑，但是我真的不能读也不能写，我只会签自己的名字，而这也是我在经营了生意以后才学会的。”
经理大吃一惊，从他的椅子上跳了起来。
“这是我平生所听说的最不寻常的事情。”经理呆呆地盯着他，仿佛他是一个史前的怪物。
“你是说，你建立了这么重要的生意，赚了三万磅的财富，却不会读也不会写？我的天呐，我的好人，如果你要会读会写，那你现在还会成什么样啊？”
“我可以告诉你，阁下，”佛曼先生说，一丝笑容浮上了他依然高贵的面庞。“那我就还是内维尔广场圣彼得教堂的司事。”
『译者按：英国近代著名小说家毛姆于１９２０年游历中国，并乘舢板千里迢迢逆长江而上，到重庆拜访当时中国最大的儒家辜鸿铭。在１９２２年所著的＜＜中国游记＞＞一书中，毛姆以“哲学家”为题记载了他和这位哲学家的会面。』
真想象不出这么大的一座城市会出现在这么偏远的一个地方。当夕阳西下的时侯，登上城门上远远望去，你可以看到喜马拉亚那白雪皑皑的山脉。这是一座人口众多的城市，你只有走在城墙上才不会觉得拥挤；这是一座占地广阔的城市，你就是走得再快，绕城走上一圈也要花上三个小时。距这座城市方园一千公里以内见不到一条铁路，顺城而下的河流很浅，只有载重很轻的船只才可以通行。坐舢板从杨子江下游到达这里要花上五天的时间。在这种环境里有时你难免会扪心自问：我们日常生活中所依赖的火车和蒸气船是不是生存所必不可少的？在这里，数以百万计的人们生于斯，长于斯，老死于斯；在这里，数以百万计的人们创造著财富，创造著艺术，创造著思想。
而且在这里还住著一位著名的哲学家，前去拜会这位哲学家是我这次可算是艰苦跋涉的旅途的目的之一。他是中国最大的儒学权威。据说他的英文和德文说得都很流利。他曾做过皇太后著名总督之一的秘书多年，但是现在已经退休。然而，在一年四季，每周固定的日子里，他的门总是向那些渴求知识的人们打开著。他有一群，但人数并不是很多。他的学生们大都喜欢他那简朴的住宅和他对外国大学奢侈的建筑及野蛮人实用科学的深刻批判：同他谈论这些题目只会遭到嘲讽。通过这些传闻我断定他是一位满有个性的人。
当我表示想去拜会这位著名的绅士时，我的主人马上答应这我安排这次会面；可是很多天过去了，我还没有得到一点消息。我终于忍不住向主人询问，他耸了耸肩，说道：“我早就派人送了张便条给他，让他到这里来一趟。我不知道他为什么到现在还没有来。他这个人很不通情理。”
我不认为用如此傲慢的态度去接近一个哲学家是合适的；他不理会这样随随便便的呼召丝毫没有使我感到意外。我用我能够找到的最谦卑的言辞写了封信给他，向他询问是否可以允许我拜访他。信送出还不到两个小时，我就接到了他的回信，约好第二天上午十点见面。
我是坐著轿子去的。前去拜访他的路似乎很长。我们穿过的街道有的拥挤不堪，有的却不见人影。最后我们来到了一条寂静、空旷的街道，在一面长长的白色墙壁上有一扇小门，轿夫在那里把我放了下来。一个轿夫前去叩门，过了很长的一段时间，门上的监视孔打开了，我们看到一双黑色的眼睛在向外张望。经过简短的交涉，我得到了进去的许可。一位衣著破旧、面色苍白而又乾枯的年轻人示意我跟著他进去。我不知道这个年轻人是一个仆人还是这位哲学家的第子。我穿过一个破旧的院子，被领著进入了一个又低又长的房间。房间里仅有几件简单的家具：一张美国式的带盖的桌子，几把黑檀木做的椅子和两张茶几。靠墙摆著的是书架，书架上摆满子各种各样的书籍：毫无疑问，最多的是中国书籍，但也有许多英文、法文和德文的哲学与科学书籍。此外还有数以百计尚未装订的学术书籍杂志。在书架与书架的空格处，挂满了各种各样的书法条幅，我猜想条幅上写的定是孔子的语录。地上没有地毯。这是一间阴冷、没有装饰、十分不舒服的房间。桌子上一只长长的花瓶里所插的黄色菊花是这个毫无格调的房间里的唯一点缀。
我坐在这个房间里等了一会儿，那位领我进来的年轻人摆上来一壶茶、两只茶杯和一包弗吉尼亚产的香烟。他刚出去，那位哲学家跟著就进来了。我马上站起来对他给我这个机会拜访他表示感谢。他指给我一把椅子，给我倒上了一杯茶。
“你想来见我真使我感到三生有幸，”他说，“你们英国人只与苦力和买办打交道；所以你们认为中国人只有两种：不是苦力定是买办。”
我想表示。但是我还没有弄明白他讲这番话的真正意图。他靠在椅子里，用嘲弄的目光看著我。
“你们认为只要随便召唤我们就得随叫随到。”
这时我才弄明白他对我朋友以那种方式与他联络仍耿耿与怀。我不知道该怎样回答。只得随口说了几句恭维的话。
他是一位老人，个子很高，留著一条灰色的细长辨子，大而明亮的眼睛下面已长出很重的眼袋。他的牙齿已参差不齐，也不再洁白。他出奇的瘦，两只手又细又小，苍白没有血色，看起来象鹰爪。我听说他抽大烟。他身穿一件破旧的黑色长袍，头戴一顶黑色的帽子，长袍和帽子都是穿了很多年，业已褪色。一条长裤在脚裸处扎了起来。他在观察我。他还没有搞清楚应该用什么方式待我，你可以看出他保持著一种警戒的态度。而我则可以说是有备而来的，我清楚地知道应该如何同哲学家打交道。在那些关心灵界诸事的人们心目中，哲学家拥有至荣的地位。我们自己的哲学家本杰明。迪斯累里早就讲过应该把哲人奉为神明。我说了很多恭维的话。我注意到他开始有些放松下来。他坐在那里象准备好让人家拍照一样摆好了姿式，等到听到快门的响声后立即放松下来恢复了原本的样子。他指给我看他的著作。
“你知道我是在柏林拿的哲学博士，”他说，“那儿以后我又在牛津大学做过一段时间的研究。但是英国人对哲学实在是没有很大的胃口，如果你不介意我这样说的话。”
虽然他是用略表歉意的语调来发表这些评论的，但是很明显一点点不同的表示都会引起他的不悦。
“可是我们也有过对人类社会思想界多少产生过影响的哲学家呀，”我提醒道。
“你是说休谟和柏克莱？可是我在牛津的时侯那里的哲学家们更为关心的并不是哲学问题，而是如何才能不冒犯他们的神学同事。如果他们思考所得出的逻辑结果可能会危及他们在大学社会里的地位的话，他们宁愿放弃。”
“您研究过当代哲学在美国的发展吗？”我问道。
“你是说实用主义？实用主义是那些相信不可信之物的人们的最后避难所。比起美国的哲学来，我还是更喜欢他们的石油。”
他的评论很是尖酸刻薄。我们又坐了下来喝了一杯茶。他开始滔滔不绝地讲了起来。他说著一口多少有些拘泥形式但却是道地的英语，时不时地夹杂著一些德文。如些看来，他这个性格顽固，难以被影响的人还是被德国影响了。德国人的行为方式以及德国人的勤奋刻苦在他心中留下很深的印象。当一位勤奋的德国教授在一份著名的杂志上发表了一篇关于这位哲学家的著作的论文时，他也看到了德国人哲学的敏锐。
“我发表过二十本著作，”他说，“而这是整个欧洲出版界对我的成果所施予的唯一关注。”
但是他研究西方哲学的唯一目地就是为了佐证他的一贯观点：即儒家学说已经囊括了所有的智慧。他对儒家哲学深信不疑。儒家哲学已经满足了他所有的精神需求，这就使得所有的西方学问变得毫无价值可言。我对这一点十分感兴趣，因为它证明了我的一个观点：哲学与其说是关于逻辑的学说还不如说是关于性情的学说：哲学家所信仰的并不是证据，而是他们自己的性情；他们相信自己的本能，本能认为是对的就是正确的，他们的哲学思考不过就是使已经确定下来的“真理”合理化而已。孔子学说所以能够深深地植根于中国人当中，不过是因为它解释并表达了中国人的性情而已。其它学派则没有做到这一点。
我的主人点燃了一支烟。开始时他讲话的声音很细，也显得很疲惫无力；可是随著他对所讲的题目性趣增大，他的声音也变得宏亮起来。他满有地讲著。此时的哲学家已不再有那哲人特有的宁静。他成了一个善辩者和斗士。他对当代关于自由主义的呼声深恶痛决。对他来讲社会是一个团体，而家庭则是这个团体的根基。他捍卫古老的中国，古老的学说，传统的帝制，和孔教严格的教条。当他谈到那些刚刚从国外大学学成归来的人们用他们满是亵渎的双手在无情在撕毁这个世界上最古老的文明时，他的情绪变得异常激动，眼里充满了悲愤。
“可是你知道你们在做什么吗？”他愤愤地说道，“你们有什么理由认为你们的东西就比我们的好？你们在艺术或文学上超过了我们吗？我们的思想家没有你们的博大精深吗？我们的文明不如你们的完整，全面，优秀吗？当你们还在居山洞，穿兽皮，过著茹毛饮血的生活时，我们就已经是文明开化的民族了。你知不知道我们曾进行过人类历史上空前绝後的实验？我们曾寻求用智慧，而不是武力来治理这个伟大的国家。而且在许多个世纪里我们是成功了的。可是你们白种人为什么瞧不起我们黄种人？需要我来告诉你吗？就是因为你们发明了机关枪。这是你们的优势。我们是一个不设防的民族，你们可以靠武力把我们这个种族灭绝。我们的哲学家曾有过用法律和秩序治理国家的梦想，你们却用枪炮把这一梦想打得粉碎。现在你们又来向我们的青年人传输你们的经验。你们将你们的发明强加给我们。可是你们难道不知道我们是一个对机械有著天赋的民族吗？难道你们不知道我们拥有四万万世界上最讲实效，最为勤奋的人们吗？难道你们真的认为我们需要很久的时间才能学会你们的技术吗？当黄种人也可以制造出同样精良的枪炮并迎面向你们开火时，你们白种人还会剩下什么优势吗？你们求助于机关枪，可是到最终你们将在枪口下接受审判。”
就是这时我们的谈话被打断了。一个小女孩悄悄地走进来，偎依在老人的身旁。她用好奇的眼光打量著我。老人告诉我这是他最小的女儿。老人把女儿揽在怀里，边与她轻声谈话边亲吻她。小女孩穿著一件黑色的上衣，黑色的裤子刚刚长及脚裸，一条长长的辨子坠在脑后。小女孩是有辛亥的当天出生的。那场成功地废黜了皇帝。
“我想她的出生预示了一个新时代春天的到来，”他说，“她是我们这个伟大民族秋天里的最后一只花朵。”
从他书桌的抽屉里老人拿出一些零用钱递给小女孩，打发她出去了。
“你看我留著一条辨子，”他把一边用手缕著辨子，一边说道，”它是一个象征。我是古老中国的最后一个代表。“
接著他用更为平和的语调同我谈起很久以前的哲学家。那时他们同周游列国，向可以教化的人们宣传自己的学说。各国的国王很是善待他们，或是邀请他们出将入相，或是任命他们主治一方。他学识渊博，谈锋犀利，讲起他这个国家的历史事件来绘声绘色，娓娓动听。我禁不住想他是一个悲剧性人物：他觉得自己有能力治理这个国家，可是却不再有皇帝能够任用他；他觉得自己才高八斗，有能力施教诲之责，他渴望人们会成群地追随他，更渴望把自己的知识传授给他们，可是前来听讲的却寥寥无几，而且还都是些穷困潦倒，食不果腹，呆头笨脑的乡下人。
有那么一二刻直觉告诉我该是告辞的时侯了，可是他却没有要我走的意思。最后我不得不向他告辞。我站起来，拉住了我的手。
“你来拜访中国的最后一个哲学家，我该送你点什么留作记念才是。可是我是一个穷人，我不知道送点什么值得你接受的东西。”
我连忙说什么都不用送，这次拜访的记忆本身就是最好的记念。他笑了。
“在这个堕落的年代里，人们的记忆都变得短暂了，我还是应该送给你一件有形的东西。我想送给你一本我的拙作，可是你又不能读中文。”
他带著困惑但友善的神情望著我。突然间我有了一个主意。
“能不能给我一份您的书法作品？”我问道。
“你喜欢书法作品？”他笑了。“我年轻时侯的书法在人们的眼里还远不是一无是处呢。”
他在书桌边坐了下来，他拿出一张宣纸，展放在桌上。他在砚台上滴了几滴水，拿起墨在上面研好了墨，然后便拿起笔开始写了起来。我站在一旁边看他写字，边想著关于他的一些不大风光的传闻。据传这位老先生，无论何时只要手头积攒一点钱，总是要挥霍在烟花巷里。他的大儿子是这个城市里一个颇有身份的人。对其父的行为感到恼火，觉得受了屈辱，若不是由于这种父子关系的存在，他早就会对这种浪当行为大张挞伐了。在我看来，这种不检点的行为对于其子来说是一件满难于启齿的丑事，但是对于研究人类本性的学者们来说则是一件需以平常心来对待的事情。哲学家们个个都极善于在研究中阐明自己的理论，并根据别人的生活经验得出结论；可是在我看来，哲学们若能够亲身经历人生的各种事情，他们所写的著作会更有价值。对于我自己，我是能以宽容的心来对待这位老人背地里所过的放荡生活。或许他只是在寻求去阐述人类幻想里最不可思义的事情。
他写完了。为了使墨能尽快些干涸他撒了些灰在纸上面，然后伸手递给我。
“你写的什么？”我问道。
我看到他的眼里飘过一丝幸灾乐祸的神情。
“我冒昧送给你自己作的两首小诗。”
“我不知道您还是一位诗人。”
“当中国还是一个未开化的民族的时候，”他挖苦道，“所有受过教育的人就能够写出优美的诗句了。”
我拿起纸来看了看上面的中国字。唯一能看明白的就是上面的字是相当有序地排列著的。
“您能不能告诉我一下上面写的是什么？”
“对不起，我不能，”他回答道，“你不能指望我背叛自己。还是请你的英国朋友帮这个忙吧。那些自以为了解中国的人实际上什么也不了解，但我想你至少会找到人向你解释一下这两首诗的大概意思。”
我向他道了别，他则非常客气地一直送我上轿。后来我有机会遇到一位从事汉学研究的朋友，我请他把这两道诗翻译了出来。我不得不承认，每当我读到这两首诗，就不免想起和那位哲学家的会面。
第一首诗
当初你不爱我
你的声音是那么甜美
你的眼里充满了笑意
你的双手纤细温柔
后来你爱上了我
你的声音变得苦涩
你的眼里充满了泪水
你的双手僵硬乾涸
这是多么的令人悲伤
因为爱使你变得
不再可爱
第二首诗
我曾乞求岁月匆匆
带走你明亮的双眼
你如桃花般娇嫩的皮肤
和你迷人的青春朝气
那样我就可以独自爱你
你也会在乎我的爱
岁月真的匆匆过了
带走了你明亮的眼睛
你如桃花般娇嫩的皮肤
和你迷人的青春朝气
可是我却不再爱你
也不再在乎你的爱
真想象不出这么大的一座城市会出现在这么偏远的一个地方。当夕阳西下的时侯，登上城门上远远望去，你可以看到喜马拉亚那白雪皑皑的山脉。这是一座人口众多的城市，你只有走在城墙上才不会觉得拥挤；这是一座占地广阔的城市，你就是走得再快，绕城走上一圈也要花上三个小时。距这座城市方园一千公里以内见不到一条铁路，顺城而下的河流很浅，只有载重很轻的船只才可以通行。坐舢板从杨子江下游到达这里要花上五天的时间。在这种环境里有时你难免会扪心自问：我们日常生活中所依赖的火车和蒸气船是不是生存所必不可少的？在这里，数以百万计的人们生于斯，长于斯，老死于斯；在这里，数以百万计的人们创造著财富，创造著艺术，创造著思想。
而且在这里还住著一位著名的哲学家，前去拜会这位哲学家是我这次可算是艰苦跋涉的旅途的目的之一。他是中国最大的儒学权威。据说他的英文和德文说得都很流利。他曾做过皇太后著名总督之一的秘书多年，但是现在已经退休。然而，在一年四季，每周固定的日子里，他的门总是向那些渴求知识的人们打开著。他有一群，但人数并不是很多。他的学生们大都喜欢他那简朴的住宅和他对外国大学奢侈的建筑及野蛮人实用科学的深刻批判：同他谈论这些题目只会遭到嘲讽。通过这些传闻我断定他是一位满有个性的人。
当我表示想去拜会这位著名的绅士时，我的主人马上答应这我安排这次会面；可是很多天过去了，我还没有得到一点消息。我终于忍不住向主人询问，他耸了耸肩，说道：“我早就派人送了张便条给他，让他到这里来一趟。我不知道他为什么到现在还没有来。他这个人很不通情理。”
我不认为用如此傲慢的态度去接近一个哲学家是合适的；他不理会这样随随便便的呼召丝毫没有使我感到意外。我用我能够找到的最谦卑的言辞写了封信给他，向他询问是否可以允许我拜访他。信送出还不到两个小时，我就接到了他的回信，约好第二天上午十点见面。
我是坐著轿子去的。前去拜访他的路似乎很长。我们穿过的街道有的拥挤不堪，有的却不见人影。最后我们来到了一条寂静、空旷的街道，在一面长长的白色墙壁上有一扇小门，轿夫在那里把我放了下来。一个轿夫前去叩门，过了很长的一段时间，门上的监视孔打开了，我们看到一双黑色的眼睛在向外张望。经过简短的交涉，我得到了进去的许可。一位衣著破旧、面色苍白而又乾枯的年轻人示意我跟著他进去。我不知道这个年轻人是一个仆人还是这位哲学家的第子。我穿过一个破旧的院子，被领著进入了一个又低又长的房间。房间里仅有几件简单的家具：一张美国式的带盖的桌子，几把黑檀木做的椅子和两张茶几。靠墙摆著的是书架，书架上摆满子各种各样的书籍：毫无疑问，最多的是中国书籍，但也有许多英文、法文和德文的哲学与科学书籍。此外还有数以百计尚未装订的学术书籍杂志。在书架与书架的空格处，挂满了各种各样的书法条幅，我猜想条幅上写的定是孔子的语录。地上没有地毯。这是一间阴冷、没有装饰、十分不舒服的房间。桌子上一只长长的花瓶里所插的黄色菊花是这个毫无格调的房间里的唯一点缀。
我坐在这个房间里等了一会儿，那位领我进来的年轻人摆上来一壶茶、两只茶杯和一包弗吉尼亚产的香烟。他刚出去，那位哲学家跟著就进来了。我马上站起来对他给我这个机会拜访他表示感谢。他指给我一把椅子，给我倒上了一杯茶。
“你想来见我真使我感到三生有幸，”他说，“你们英国人只与苦力和买办打交道；所以你们认为中国人只有两种：不是苦力定是买办。”
我想表示。但是我还没有弄明白他讲这番话的真正意图。他靠在椅子里，用嘲弄的目光看著我。
“你们认为只要随便召唤我们就得随叫随到。”
这时我才弄明白他对我朋友以那种方式与他联络仍耿耿与怀。我不知道该怎样回答。只得随口说了几句恭维的话。
他是一位老人，个子很高，留著一条灰色的细长辨子，大而明亮的眼睛下面已长出很重的眼袋。他的牙齿已参差不齐，也不再洁白。他出奇的瘦，两只手又细又小，苍白没有血色，看起来象鹰爪。我听说他抽大烟。他身穿一件破旧的黑色长袍，头戴一顶黑色的帽子，长袍和帽子都是穿了很多年，业已褪色。一条长裤在脚裸处扎了起来。他在观察我。他还没有搞清楚应该用什么方式待我，你可以看出他保持著一种警戒的态度。而我则可以说是有备而来的，我清楚地知道应该如何同哲学家打交道。在那些关心灵界诸事的人们心目中，哲学家拥有至荣的地位。我们自己的哲学家本杰明。迪斯累里早就讲过应该把哲人奉为神明。我说了很多恭维的话。我注意到他开始有些放松下来。他坐在那里象准备好让人家拍照一样摆好了姿式，等到听到快门的响声后立即放松下来恢复了原本的样子。他指给我看他的著作。
“你知道我是在柏林拿的哲学博士，”他说，“那儿以后我又在牛津大学做过一段时间的研究。但是英国人对哲学实在是没有很大的胃口，如果你不介意我这样说的话。”
虽然他是用略表歉意的语调来发表这些评论的，但是很明显一点点不同的表示都会引起他的不悦。
“可是我们也有过对人类社会思想界多少产生过影响的哲学家呀，”我提醒道。
“你是说休谟和柏克莱？可是我在牛津的时侯那里的哲学家们更为关心的并不是哲学问题，而是如何才能不冒犯他们的神学同事。如果他们思考所得出的逻辑结果可能会危及他们在大学社会里的地位的话，他们宁愿放弃。”
“您研究过当代哲学在美国的发展吗？”我问道。
“你是说实用主义？实用主义是那些相信不可信之物的人们的最后避难所。比起美国的哲学来，我还是更喜欢他们的石油。”
他的评论很是尖酸刻薄。我们又坐了下来喝了一杯茶。他开始滔滔不绝地讲了起来。他说著一口多少有些拘泥形式但却是道地的英语，时不时地夹杂著一些德文。如些看来，他这个性格顽固，难以被影响的人还是被德国影响了。德国人的行为方式以及德国人的勤奋刻苦在他心中留下很深的印象。当一位勤奋的德国教授在一份著名的杂志上发表了一篇关于这位哲学家的著作的论文时，他也看到了德国人哲学的敏锐。
“我发表过二十本著作，”他说，“而这是整个欧洲出版界对我的成果所施予的唯一关注。”
但是他研究西方哲学的唯一目地就是为了佐证他的一贯观点：即儒家学说已经囊括了所有的智慧。他对儒家哲学深信不疑。儒家哲学已经满足了他所有的精神需求，这就使得所有的西方学问变得毫无价值可言。我对这一点十分感兴趣，因为它证明了我的一个观点：哲学与其说是关于逻辑的学说还不如说是关于性情的学说：哲学家所信仰的并不是证据，而是他们自己的性情；他们相信自己的本能，本能认为是对的就是正确的，他们的哲学思考不过就是使已经确定下来的“真理”合理化而已。孔子学说所以能够深深地植根于中国人当中，不过是因为它解释并表达了中国人的性情而已。其它学派则没有做到这一点。
我的主人点燃了一支烟。开始时他讲话的声音很细，也显得很疲惫无力；可是随著他对所讲的题目性趣增大，他的声音也变得宏亮起来。他满有地讲著。此时的哲学家已不再有那哲人特有的宁静。他成了一个善辩者和斗士。他对当代关于自由主义的呼声深恶痛决。对他来讲社会是一个团体，而家庭则是这个团体的根基。他捍卫古老的中国，古老的学说，传统的帝制，和孔教严格的教条。当他谈到那些刚刚从国外大学学成归来的人们用他们满是亵渎的双手在无情在撕毁这个世界上最古老的文明时，他的情绪变得异常激动，眼里充满了悲愤。
“可是你知道你们在做什么吗？”他愤愤地说道，“你们有什么理由认为你们的东西就比我们的好？你们在艺术或文学上超过了我们吗？我们的思想家没有你们的博大精深吗？我们的文明不如你们的完整，全面，优秀吗？当你们还在居山洞，穿兽皮，过著茹毛饮血的生活时，我们就已经是文明开化的民族了。你知不知道我们曾进行过人类历史上空前绝後的实验？我们曾寻求用智慧，而不是武力来治理这个伟大的国家。而且在许多个世纪里我们是成功了的。可是你们白种人为什么瞧不起我们黄种人？需要我来告诉你吗？就是因为你们发明了机关枪。这是你们的优势。我们是一个不设防的民族，你们可以靠武力把我们这个种族灭绝。我们的哲学家曾有过用法律和秩序治理国家的梦想，你们却用枪炮把这一梦想打得粉碎。现在你们又来向我们的青年人传输你们的经验。你们将你们的发明强加给我们。可是你们难道不知道我们是一个对机械有著天赋的民族吗？难道你们不知道我们拥有四万万世界上最讲实效，最为勤奋的人们吗？难道你们真的认为我们需要很久的时间才能学会你们的技术吗？当黄种人也可以制造出同样精良的枪炮并迎面向你们开火时，你们白种人还会剩下什么优势吗？你们求助于机关枪，可是到最终你们将在枪口下接受审判。”
就是这时我们的谈话被打断了。一个小女孩悄悄地走进来，偎依在老人的身旁。她用好奇的眼光打量著我。老人告诉我这是他最小的女儿。老人把女儿揽在怀里，边与她轻声谈话边亲吻她。小女孩穿著一件黑色的上衣，黑色的裤子刚刚长及脚裸，一条长长的辨子坠在脑后。小女孩是有辛亥的当天出生的。那场成功地废黜了皇帝。
“我想她的出生预示了一个新时代春天的到来，”他说，“她是我们这个伟大民族秋天里的最后一只花朵。”
从他书桌的抽屉里老人拿出一些零用钱递给小女孩，打发她出去了。
“你看我留著一条辨子，”他把一边用手缕著辨子，一边说道，”它是一个象征。我是古老中国的最后一个代表。“
接著他用更为平和的语调同我谈起很久以前的哲学家。那时他们同周游列国，向可以教化的人们宣传自己的学说。各国的国王很是善待他们，或是邀请他们出将入相，或是任命他们主治一方。他学识渊博，谈锋犀利，讲起他这个国家的历史事件来绘声绘色，娓娓动听。我禁不住想他是一个悲剧性人物：他觉得自己有能力治理这个国家，可是却不再有皇帝能够任用他；他觉得自己才高八斗，有能力施教诲之责，他渴望人们会成群地追随他，更渴望把自己的知识传授给他们，可是前来听讲的却寥寥无几，而且还都是些穷困潦倒，食不果腹，呆头笨脑的乡下人。
有那么一二刻直觉告诉我该是告辞的时侯了，可是他却没有要我走的意思。最后我不得不向他告辞。我站起来，拉住了我的手。
“你来拜访中国的最后一个哲学家，我该送你点什么留作记念才是。可是我是一个穷人，我不知道送点什么值得你接受的东西。”
我连忙说什么都不用送，这次拜访的记忆本身就是最好的记念。他笑了。
“在这个堕落的年代里，人们的记忆都变得短暂了，我还是应该送给你一件有形的东西。我想送给你一本我的拙作，可是你又不能读中文。”
他带著困惑但友善的神情望著我。突然间我有了一个主意。
“能不能给我一份您的书法作品？”我问道。
“你喜欢书法作品？”他笑了。“我年轻时侯的书法在人们的眼里还远不是一无是处呢。”
他在书桌边坐了下来，他拿出一张宣纸，展放在桌上。他在砚台上滴了几滴水，拿起墨在上面研好了墨，然后便拿起笔开始写了起来。我站在一旁边看他写字，边想著关于他的一些不大风光的传闻。据传这位老先生，无论何时只要手头积攒一点钱，总是要挥霍在烟花巷里。他的大儿子是这个城市里一个颇有身份的人。对其父的行为感到恼火，觉得受了屈辱，若不是由于这种父子关系的存在，他早就会对这种浪当行为大张挞伐了。在我看来，这种不检点的行为对于其子来说是一件满难于启齿的丑事，但是对于研究人类本性的学者们来说则是一件需以平常心来对待的事情。哲学家们个个都极善于在研究中阐明自己的理论，并根据别人的生活经验得出结论；可是在我看来，哲学们若能够亲身经历人生的各种事情，他们所写的著作会更有价值。对于我自己，我是能以宽容的心来对待这位老人背地里所过的放荡生活。或许他只是在寻求去阐述人类幻想里最不可思义的事情。
他写完了。为了使墨能尽快些干涸他撒了些灰在纸上面，然后伸手递给我。
“你写的什么？”我问道。
我看到他的眼里飘过一丝幸灾乐祸的神情。
“我冒昧送给你自己作的两首小诗。”
“我不知道您还是一位诗人。”
“当中国还是一个未开化的民族的时候，”他挖苦道，“所有受过教育的人就能够写出优美的诗句了。”
我拿起纸来看了看上面的中国字。唯一能看明白的就是上面的字是相当有序地排列著的。
“您能不能告诉我一下上面写的是什么？”
“对不起，我不能，”他回答道，“你不能指望我背叛自己。还是请你的英国朋友帮这个忙吧。那些自以为了解中国的人实际上什么也不了解，但我想你至少会找到人向你解释一下这两首诗的大概意思。”
我向他道了别，他则非常客气地一直送我上轿。后来我有机会遇到一位从事汉学研究的朋友，我请他把这两道诗翻译了出来。我不得不承认，每当我读到这两首诗，就不免想起和那位哲学家的会面。
第一首诗
当初你不爱我
你的声音是那么甜美
你的眼里充满了笑意
你的双手纤细温柔
后来你爱上了我
你的声音变得苦涩
你的眼里充满了泪水
你的双手僵硬乾涸
这是多么的令人悲伤
因为爱使你变得
不再可爱
第二首诗
我曾乞求岁月匆匆
带走你明亮的双眼
你如桃花般娇嫩的皮肤
和你迷人的青春朝气
那样我就可以独自爱你
你也会在乎我的爱
岁月真的匆匆过了
带走了你明亮的眼睛
你如桃花般娇嫩的皮肤
和你迷人的青春朝气
可是我却不再爱你
也不再在乎你的爱
如果你看了原文,就可以看出作者的思路,月亮是美好,纯洁的代名词,便士是金钱社会的代名词.主人公原来是一个富有的上层人士,在经历了空虚的前半生后,他开始了真正的理想追求,他的一生都在追求纯粹的美,震撼的美.而用月亮来诠释他的追求是最合适的.对一般人来说,月亮高不可求,但这正好反映了主人公执著的追求和高洁的人格.相比周围的配角,他们没有也不想脱离现实的欲望,因此用便士来形容他们所在的世界是在合适不过了，至于作者用六这个数字,实际上没有什么特别的意义,毛姆的很多作品里都有一些随意的东西(也可以说是创意或者个性标榜),我们不用在这个数字上透析.
我记得读这本小说已经很久了。记忆不在清晰，蒙胧的回忆是中痛苦的残记。但我仍要推荐这本小说。我的眼光一直是另类的眼光，但我对文本的读法也许本身就有属于我的记忆。我不想说是我误读了毛姆。因为作品一旦被创造出就不属于作者自己，也许作品有时候只属于作者自己！外来的读法是种主观的想法。
我记得钱钟书先生决定写《围城》时就是因为受到毛姆的刺激。钱先生的学问是没有人与之可以媲美的。别的不再多说。话说多了会惹出麻烦的。钱钟书先生说：毛姆都能写出那样的小说。读者直多是无法计算的。毛姆当时确实是炙手可热的人物。于是乎《围城》横空出世！关于《围城》它可以说是借着钱先生的才华融多家与一体的杰作。其中可以看出很多欧美小说名家的影子，以为钱先生学贯中西的才华《围城》被写成了一部杰作！
闲话说的已经多了，下面我谈谈自己对《月亮和六便士》的看法：毛姆以前是个医生，而当医生的这段经历为他日后的创作提供了大量的材料。但《月亮和六便士》的原型是法国印象派画家高更。
高更的画本身就很有价值，这部以他为原形的小说风靡后，高更的绘画艺术和作品受到了更大的关注，高更印象派宗师的地位得到确立。同时，塔希提岛-----高更隐居的小岛也名扬与世，成了旅游胜地。
根据高更的著作《马裏欧的古代信仰》,知道女人是月神希纳,男人是地神法脱。大地之神主宰人世的生成和轮转,乃是必然的毁灭。月之女神长官永远的丰收和不朽。
这个关于这个作品的题外话，而真正的文学内涵远非如此简单的解读。我自己的看法是：这个本小说远远超过毛姆自己的解读。因为我发现其实这本小说写的是关于天才的事情！天才是个残酷的字眼，人们根本不愿意承认天才！因为我们总相信：天才出于勤奋！事实上并非如此。尤其在文学领域。真正的优秀的艺术家是天才。文学不过是艺术中最上乘的精品！我知道的这个就是我读《月亮和六便士》的感悟！我作下我残酷的决定放弃化学从而转向文学就是因为这个缘故。我也许更适合搞文学。
我感激我在大一那次灵魂的颤栗！《月亮和六便士》主人公思特里克兰德那“旷野的呼喊”终于让我认识到了自我。
作家就是这样的一种人，他们把人类的智慧发现后用作品表现出来。我自己是学习化学的。我自己很难均衡文科与理科的思维。理科讲的是科学。科学真的是个很麻烦的词语。严格意义上说只有能用数学公式表达的东西才是科学。科学越来越教我怀疑？怀疑所谓的科学？所谓的科学根本解决不了人类的问题！我不想借文学来阐释科学。我多言了。
房子里的光线特别暗，仿佛是，他突然走入了一个神的世界；蒙蒙胧胧中，他好象觉得自己正置于一个原始森林中，大树下倘徉着一些赤身裸体的人。特拉斯医生几乎连呼吸都停止了，过了一会儿他才知道，他看到的是四壁上巨大的壁画。他心中出现了一种既无法理解又不能分析的感情。这幅画具有压人的气势，它既是肉欲的，又充满无限热情，与此同时又含着某种恐惧成分......绘制这幅巨作的人已经深入到大自然的隐秘中，知道了一般人所不知道的事物。他画的是某种原始的令人震慑的东西，既美的惊人，又污秽邪恶，他的画奇异而荒诞，好像宇宙初创时的图景----伊甸园，亚当和夏娃……
“上帝啊，这是天才” 特拉斯医生掩口惊呼。
这个原文的话，感谢作者道出了真理的话，艺术是属于天才的！这个是震撼灵魂的话语！
有两本相似的小说《月亮和六便士》和塞林格的《麦田的守望者》。这两个小说的主人公有着惊人的相似。
《月亮和六便士》不乏精彩的句子。如：
“世界是冷酷无情的、残酷的。我们生到人世间没有人知道为了什么，我们死后没有人知道到何处去。我们必须自甘卑屈。我们必须看到冷清寂寥的美妙。在生活中我们一定不要出风头、露头角，惹起命运对我们注目。让我们去寻求那些淳朴、敦厚的人的爱情吧。他们的愚昧远比我们的知识更为可贵。让我们保持着沉默，满足于自己小小的天地，像他们一样平易温顺吧。这就是生活的智慧。”
“在爱这种感情中主要成分是温柔。爱情中需要有一种软弱无力的感觉，要有体贴爱护的要求，有帮助别人、取悦别人的热情——如果不是无私，起码是巧妙地遮掩起来的自私；爱情包含着某种程度的腼腆怯懦。……爱情要占据一个人莫大的精力，它要一个人离开自己的生活专门去做一个爱人。即使头脑最清晰的人，从道理上他可能知道，在实际中却不会承认爱情有一天会走到尽头。爱情赋予他明知是虚幻的事物以实质形体，他明知道这一切不过是镜花水月，爱它却远远超过喜爱真实。它使一个人比原来的自我更丰富了一些，同时又使他比原来的自我更狭小了一些。他不再是一个人，他成了追求某一个他不了解的目的的一件事物、一个工具。……”
“我们每个人生在世界上都是孤独的。每个人都被囚禁在一座铁塔里，只能靠一些符号同别人传达自己的思想；而这些符号并没有共同的价值，因此它们的意义是模糊的、不确定的。我们非常可怜地想把自己心中的财富传送给别人，但是他们却没有接受这些财富的能力。因此我们只能孤独地行走，尽管身体互相依傍却并不在一起，既不了解别的人也不能为别人所了解。我们好像住在异国的人，对于这个国家的语言懂得非常少，虽然我们有各种美妙的、深奥的事情要说，却只能局限于会话手册上那几句陈腐、平庸的话。我们的脑子里充满了各种思想，而我们能说得只不过是像‘园丁的姑母有一把伞在屋子里’这类话。”
张贤亮在〈绿化树〉中说：“凡是出现两次的事物必有某种意义，那就是命运！”
文学，文学真的是很难言的东西，它如此另人费解，它不是靠智力，不是靠理性可以把握的。科学最大的弊端是可以模仿。即使你很笨，你仍然可以在科学上做出成绩，尤其是化学！而文学则不然！这个也许就是文学的魅力！它如此令我痴迷！尼采说：“模仿无疑于自杀”。科学的本质正是模仿。
Plot summary
The novel is written largely from the point of view of the narrator, who is first introduced to the character of Strickland through his (Strickland's) wife and strikes him (the narrator) as unremarkable. Certain chapters are entirely composed of the stories or narrations of others which the narrator himself is recalling from memory (selectively editing or elaborating on certain aspects of dialogue, particularly Strickland's, as Strickland is said by the narrator to be limited in his use of verbiage and tended to use gestures in his expression).
Strickland, a well-off, middle-class stock broker in London some time in the late 19th or the first half of the 20th century. Early in the novel, he leaves his wife and children and goes to Paris, living a destitute but defiantly content life there as an artist (specifically a painter), lodging in run-down hotels and falling prey to both illness and hunger. Strickland, in his drive to express through his art what appears to continually possess and compel him inside, cares nothing for physical comfort and is generally ignorant to his surroundings, but is generously supported while in Paris by a commercially successful yet unexceptional Dutch painter, Dirk Stroeve, a friend of the narrator's, who immediately recognizes Strickland's genius. After helping Strickland recover from a life-threatening condition, Stroeve is repaid by having his wife, Blanche, abandon him for Strickland. Strickland later discards the wife (all he really sought from Blanche was a model to paint, not serious companionship, and it is hinted in the novel's dialogue that he indicated this to her and she took the risk anyway), who then commits suicide - yet another human casualty (the first ones being his own established life and those of his wife and children) in Strickland's single-minded pursuit of Art and Beauty.
After the Paris episode, the story continues in Tahiti. Strickland has already died, and the narrator attempts to piece together his life there from the recollections of others. He finds that Strickland had taken up with a native woman, had at least one child by her (only a son is directly referenced) and started painting profusely. We learn that Strickland had settled for a short while in the French port of Marseilles before traveling to Tahiti, where he lived for a few years before finally dying of leprosy. Strickland left behind numerous paintings, but his magnum opus, which he painted on the walls of his hut in a half-crazed state of leprosy-induced blindness, was burnt down after his death by his wife by his dying orders.
Inspiration
The inspiration for this story, Gauguin, is considered to be the founder of primitivism in art. The main differences between Gauguin and Strickland are that Gauguin was French rather than English, and whilst Maugham describes the character of Strickland as being largely ignorant of his contemporaries in Modern art (as well as largely ignorant of other artists in general), Gauguin himself was well acquainted with Van Gogh. How many of the details of the story are based on fact is not known. However, Maugham had visited the place where Gauguin lived in Tahiti, and purchased some glass panels painted by Gauguin in his final days.
About the title
According to some sources, the title, the meaning of which is not explicitly revealed in the book, was taken from a review of Of Human Bondage in which the novel's protagonist, Philip Carey, is described as "so busy yearning for the moon that he never saw the sixpence at his feet." Presumably Strickland's "moon" is the idealistic realm of Art and Beauty, while the "sixpence" represents human relationships and the ordinary pleasures of life.
Adaptations
The book was filmed by Albert Lewin in 1943. The film stars George Sanders as Charles Strickland.
The novel served as the basis for an opera, also titled The Moon and Sixpence, by John Gardner to a libretto by Patrick Terry; it was premiered at Covent Garden in 1958.
Writer S Lee Pogostin adapted it for American TV in 1959. It starred Laurence Olivier
In popular culture
In the opening scene of Francois Truffaut's cinematic adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, several firemen are preparing books for burning. In the crowd of onlookers is a little boy who picks up one of the books and thumbs through it before his father takes it from him and throws it on the pile with the rest. That book is The Moon and Sixpence.
我记得读这本小说已经很久了。记忆不在清晰，蒙胧的回忆是中痛苦的残记。但我仍要推荐这本小说。我的眼光一直是另类的眼光，但我对文本的读法也许本身就有属于我的记忆。我不想说是我误读了毛姆。因为作品一旦被创造出就不属于作者自己，也许作品有时候只属于作者自己！外来的读法是种主观的想法。
我记得钱钟书先生决定写《围城》时就是因为受到毛姆的刺激。钱先生的学问是没有人与之可以媲美的。别的不再多说。话说多了会惹出麻烦的。钱钟书先生说：毛姆都能写出那样的小说。读者直多是无法计算的。毛姆当时确实是炙手可热的人物。于是乎《围城》横空出世！关于《围城》它可以说是借着钱先生的才华融多家与一体的杰作。其中可以看出很多欧美小说名家的影子，以为钱先生学贯中西的才华《围城》被写成了一部杰作！
闲话说的已经多了，下面我谈谈自己对《月亮和六便士》的看法：毛姆以前是个医生，而当医生的这段经历为他日后的创作提供了大量的材料。但《月亮和六便士》的原型是法国印象派画家高更。
高更的画本身就很有价值，这部以他为原形的小说风靡后，高更的绘画艺术和作品受到了更大的关注，高更印象派宗师的地位得到确立。同时，塔希提岛-----高更隐居的小岛也名扬与世，成了旅游胜地。
根据高更的著作《马裏欧的古代信仰》,知道女人是月神希纳,男人是地神法脱。大地之神主宰人世的生成和轮转,乃是必然的毁灭。月之女神长官永远的丰收和不朽。
这个关于这个作品的题外话，而真正的文学内涵远非如此简单的解读。我自己的看法是：这个本小说远远超过毛姆自己的解读。因为我发现其实这本小说写的是关于天才的事情！天才是个残酷的字眼，人们根本不愿意承认天才！因为我们总相信：天才出于勤奋！事实上并非如此。尤其在文学领域。真正的优秀的艺术家是天才。文学不过是艺术中最上乘的精品！我知道的这个就是我读《月亮和六便士》的感悟！我作下我残酷的决定放弃化学从而转向文学就是因为这个缘故。我也许更适合搞文学。
我感激我在大一那次灵魂的颤栗！《月亮和六便士》主人公思特里克兰德那“旷野的呼喊”终于让我认识到了自我。
作家就是这样的一种人，他们把人类的智慧发现后用作品表现出来。我自己是学习化学的。我自己很难均衡文科与理科的思维。理科讲的是科学。科学真的是个很麻烦的词语。严格意义上说只有能用数学公式表达的东西才是科学。科学越来越教我怀疑？怀疑所谓的科学？所谓的科学根本解决不了人类的问题！我不想借文学来阐释科学。我多言了。
房子里的光线特别暗，仿佛是，他突然走入了一个神的世界；蒙蒙胧胧中，他好象觉得自己正置于一个原始森林中，大树下倘徉着一些赤身裸体的人。特拉斯医生几乎连呼吸都停止了，过了一会儿他才知道，他看到的是四壁上巨大的壁画。他心中出现了一种既无法理解又不能分析的感情。这幅画具有压人的气势，它既是肉欲的，又充满无限热情，与此同时又含着某种恐惧成分......绘制这幅巨作的人已经深入到大自然的隐秘中，知道了一般人所不知道的事物。他画的是某种原始的令人震慑的东西，既美的惊人，又污秽邪恶，他的画奇异而荒诞，好像宇宙初创时的图景----伊甸园，亚当和夏娃……
“上帝啊，这是天才” 特拉斯医生掩口惊呼。
这个原文的话，感谢作者道出了真理的话，艺术是属于天才的！这个是震撼灵魂的话语！
有两本相似的小说《月亮和六便士》和塞林格的《麦田的守望者》。这两个小说的主人公有着惊人的相似。
《月亮和六便士》不乏精彩的句子。如：
“世界是冷酷无情的、残酷的。我们生到人世间没有人知道为了什么，我们死后没有人知道到何处去。我们必须自甘卑屈。我们必须看到冷清寂寥的美妙。在生活中我们一定不要出风头、露头角，惹起命运对我们注目。让我们去寻求那些淳朴、敦厚的人的爱情吧。他们的愚昧远比我们的知识更为可贵。让我们保持着沉默，满足于自己小小的天地，像他们一样平易温顺吧。这就是生活的智慧。”
“在爱这种感情中主要成分是温柔。爱情中需要有一种软弱无力的感觉，要有体贴爱护的要求，有帮助别人、取悦别人的热情——如果不是无私，起码是巧妙地遮掩起来的自私；爱情包含着某种程度的腼腆怯懦。……爱情要占据一个人莫大的精力，它要一个人离开自己的生活专门去做一个爱人。即使头脑最清晰的人，从道理上他可能知道，在实际中却不会承认爱情有一天会走到尽头。爱情赋予他明知是虚幻的事物以实质形体，他明知道这一切不过是镜花水月，爱它却远远超过喜爱真实。它使一个人比原来的自我更丰富了一些，同时又使他比原来的自我更狭小了一些。他不再是一个人，他成了追求某一个他不了解的目的的一件事物、一个工具。……”
“我们每个人生在世界上都是孤独的。每个人都被囚禁在一座铁塔里，只能靠一些符号同别人传达自己的思想；而这些符号并没有共同的价值，因此它们的意义是模糊的、不确定的。我们非常可怜地想把自己心中的财富传送给别人，但是他们却没有接受这些财富的能力。因此我们只能孤独地行走，尽管身体互相依傍却并不在一起，既不了解别的人也不能为别人所了解。我们好像住在异国的人，对于这个国家的语言懂得非常少，虽然我们有各种美妙的、深奥的事情要说，却只能局限于会话手册上那几句陈腐、平庸的话。我们的脑子里充满了各种思想，而我们能说得只不过是像‘园丁的姑母有一把伞在屋子里’这类话。”
张贤亮在〈绿化树〉中说：“凡是出现两次的事物必有某种意义，那就是命运！”
文学，文学真的是很难言的东西，它如此另人费解，它不是靠智力，不是靠理性可以把握的。科学最大的弊端是可以模仿。即使你很笨，你仍然可以在科学上做出成绩，尤其是化学！而文学则不然！这个也许就是文学的魅力！它如此令我痴迷！尼采说：“模仿无疑于自杀”。科学的本质正是模仿。
Plot summary
The novel is written largely from the point of view of the narrator, who is first introduced to the character of Strickland through his (Strickland's) wife and strikes him (the narrator) as unremarkable. Certain chapters are entirely composed of the stories or narrations of others which the narrator himself is recalling from memory (selectively editing or elaborating on certain aspects of dialogue, particularly Strickland's, as Strickland is said by the narrator to be limited in his use of verbiage and tended to use gestures in his expression).
Strickland, a well-off, middle-class stock broker in London some time in the late 19th or the first half of the 20th century. Early in the novel, he leaves his wife and children and goes to Paris, living a destitute but defiantly content life there as an artist (specifically a painter), lodging in run-down hotels and falling prey to both illness and hunger. Strickland, in his drive to express through his art what appears to continually possess and compel him inside, cares nothing for physical comfort and is generally ignorant to his surroundings, but is generously supported while in Paris by a commercially successful yet unexceptional Dutch painter, Dirk Stroeve, a friend of the narrator's, who immediately recognizes Strickland's genius. After helping Strickland recover from a life-threatening condition, Stroeve is repaid by having his wife, Blanche, abandon him for Strickland. Strickland later discards the wife (all he really sought from Blanche was a model to paint, not serious companionship, and it is hinted in the novel's dialogue that he indicated this to her and she took the risk anyway), who then commits suicide - yet another human casualty (the first ones being his own established life and those of his wife and children) in Strickland's single-minded pursuit of Art and Beauty.
After the Paris episode, the story continues in Tahiti. Strickland has already died, and the narrator attempts to piece together his life there from the recollections of others. He finds that Strickland had taken up with a native woman, had at least one child by her (only a son is directly referenced) and started painting profusely. We learn that Strickland had settled for a short while in the French port of Marseilles before traveling to Tahiti, where he lived for a few years before finally dying of leprosy. Strickland left behind numerous paintings, but his magnum opus, which he painted on the walls of his hut in a half-crazed state of leprosy-induced blindness, was burnt down after his death by his wife by his dying orders.
Inspiration
The inspiration for this story, Gauguin, is considered to be the founder of primitivism in art. The main differences between Gauguin and Strickland are that Gauguin was French rather than English, and whilst Maugham describes the character of Strickland as being largely ignorant of his contemporaries in Modern art (as well as largely ignorant of other artists in general), Gauguin himself was well acquainted with Van Gogh. How many of the details of the story are based on fact is not known. However, Maugham had visited the place where Gauguin lived in Tahiti, and purchased some glass panels painted by Gauguin in his final days.
About the title
According to some sources, the title, the meaning of which is not explicitly revealed in the book, was taken from a review of Of Human Bondage in which the novel's protagonist, Philip Carey, is described as "so busy yearning for the moon that he never saw the sixpence at his feet." Presumably Strickland's "moon" is the idealistic realm of Art and Beauty, while the "sixpence" represents human relationships and the ordinary pleasures of life.
Adaptations
The book was filmed by Albert Lewin in 1943. The film stars George Sanders as Charles Strickland.
The novel served as the basis for an opera, also titled The Moon and Sixpence, by John Gardner to a libretto by Patrick Terry; it was premiered at Covent Garden in 1958.
Writer S Lee Pogostin adapted it for American TV in 1959. It starred Laurence Olivier
In popular culture
In the opening scene of Francois Truffaut's cinematic adaptation of Fahrenheit 451, several firemen are preparing books for burning. In the crowd of onlookers is a little boy who picks up one of the books and thumbs through it before his father takes it from him and throws it on the pile with the rest. That book is The Moon and Sixpence.