One of Somerset Maugham's early works, this novel deals with one of his
favorite themes: the failed marriage. Bertha
Ley - young, rich, and
beautiful - returns from Italy to her ancestral home in the English
countryside, following the death of her father. There she meets
childhood friend and farmer, Edward Craddock. Plunging quickly
into a whirl of romantic dreams, Bertha decides this is the man for her
and marries him,
convinced she is making an ideal marriage to an ideal
man.
Edward is definitely Bertha's social inferior, but she is firmly
convinced this will make no difference. But he is not only socially
beneath her, but culturally, intellectually, and spiritually as well.
As Bertha gradually realizes her husband is quite ordinary and
completely unable to share in her tastes and ideals, she grows to
resent and hate him, especially when it becomes apparent her original
passion for him far exceeded his for hers. After their child is
still-born, Bertha withdraws into herself, completely embittered
against her husband and against life, a condition Edward does not even
realize she has fallen into. The cynicism of the ending reflects
Maugham's own distrust of love and marriage.
Maugham's youth at the time of writing is apparent in the mannerisms of
the style and also in the intolerance on the occasions when he as the
author directly comments on the story. The characters of the vicar and
his sister are cast in such a narrow-minded mold that it makes you a
tad uncomfortable, and leaves you wondering what an unprejudiced view
of them would be. But despite this he enters into Bertha's mind so that
the reader is firmly convinced of the reality of the heroine and
sympathizes with her. Her emotional extremes gradually decrease in
severity as she matures, so that when she does give in to her feelings
it becomes even more touching than her passion that opens the book.