I started reading The Razor’s Edge last night.
After watching the interesting but somewhat confusing movie, I had to read the book to get the full picture.
I picked up my copy of the book at the local library. It’s a 1944 edition. Inside the first few pages there’s a note: “THIS BOOK HAS NOT BEEN CONDENSED. ITS BULK IS LESS BECAUSE GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS PROHIBIT USE OF HEAVIER PAPER.” All in caps, yes. McCall and Co would have liked to make the book bulkier; damn that pesky war.
Anyway I’m about 10% into the book and so far so good. Clearly the movie liberally took plot elements from the book and mixed them around. And already something has been made clear: Elliott Templeton (the wealthy chap played by Denholm Elliott in the movie) is an arts dealer. Apparently back in the day this was a bit of a scandalous way to make a living. Anyway, that’s why all those precious items were laying about and getting knocked over in his Paris home; he was buying and selling them. If that was explained in the movie, I must have been napping at the time.
I’m enjoying Maugham’s style but it is a little peculiar. He has a way of describing people which is a little strange. Here’s how we meet Isabel: “She was comely though on the fat side, which I ascribed to her age, and I guessed that she would fine down as she grew older. She had strong, good hands, though they also were a trifle fat, and her legs, displayed by her short skirt, were fat too….” He goes on, but this short bit with “fat-fat-fat” made me laugh out loud.
Here’s the discussion of Gray Maturin: he was “striking rather than handsome. He had a rugged, unfinished look; a short blunt nose, a sensual mouth and the florid Irish complexion; a great quantity of raven black hair, very sleek, and under heavy eyebrows clear, very blue eyes. Though built on so large a scale he was finely proportioned, and stripped he must have been a fine figure of a man. He was obviously very powerful. His virility was impressive….” Doesn’t this passage make you want to giggle? Later we hear that he “strained his heart playing football” so he couldn’t get into the army to fight in WWI. Gee and I thought things like that only happened during the Vietnam war!
In making these descriptions, was Maugham planning out who would play the characters on the big screen (and yes there was a 1946 movie version of The Razor’s Edge, starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney, which I now feel compelled to consume as well)? I’d swear this is done by many best-selling authors these days, but I guess I’m a little surprised if it was being done back in the forties already.
No comments:
Post a Comment