This is a tale of logic and business deals. Given their respective needs and circumstance, all the characters involved came together to devise a plan that worked well for all of them.
Hubris, Maugham's favorite subject. In this story, it is the English disdain of the hubris of the French (you have to listen to the introductory sentences carefully). We understand, of course, that the Senator/Minister never saw Lisette again. She'd slowly purchased land with her hero father and saved every spare sou, kept her lover so that their relationship could endure, then gotten the Minister to stake their marriage with a million francs and a new car. Obviously, they drove straight to her father's home. 🤷 [INSERT GALLIC SHRUG HERE]
I suppose they could have continued with what seemed to be a comfortable arrangement for everyone. Even the boy/husband didn't seem to mind and who knows what other benefits Lisette might procure.
I found this story quietly searing. By the title, I thought it was going to be some heady, philosophic work. Instead it's about how hypocrisy functions to underpin and support social order.
This is a fabulous channel. I haven't read this SM story, and thoroughly enjoyed your narration of it Such eventual no nonsense dialogue and reasonable discussion, and understanding...most enjoyable. Many thanks from Ruth x
artificial intelligence. you can always tell it's AI if you study the images long enough, like one of those search and find puzzle pictures.... something is always off. sometimes amusing, often bizarre... extra fingers, objects where they do not belong. one video had a thumbnail image of an old woman hanging clothes on a line - and the line was coming right out of her NECK!
What a life Mr. Maugham had. From his early days in France, working as a spy against the Bolshie's in Russia following WWI. Has someone written his biography ?
"Maugham's infelicitous real-life comportment"? You mean he struggled to love and be loved, understand and be understood? That is, to live fully, balancing risks and rewards. His reputation will outlive shallow judgments. Life is "infelicitous". One reason is intolerance.
Based. Unrelated: I assume even a man of your calibre must needs resort to an e-reader at times when a book is inconvenient. What do you have/recommend? Anyone else with a strong opinion please chime in as well.
A strange idea from the French a girl being a lover of a senator/minister is less acceptable and indeed respectable than a married woman for the same thing.
@@mewhoelse3554 may be I misunderstood something but what makes me feel a bit funny that he runs after beauty , as he is engrossed with fat ugly women but when the women whom he fell for chose the same that is running after handsome man then being with ugly old man...just because he is rich doesn't mean that he can brought love out of his money.
I think you got this one wrong. I would hazard a guess this is opposite of "male fantasy" garbage. The young woman ends up with a nice apartment, a million francs, a young virile husband, her reputation, and a man of means she can manipulate. I'm not sure any male chauvanist has that as his fantasy!
I think you've got this one wrong. I would hazard a guess this is opposite of "male fantasy" garbage. (thus the title of the story).The young woman ends up with a nice apartment, a million francs, a young virile husband who loves her and she is not beholden to, her reputation, and a man of means she can manipulate. I'm not sure any male chauvinist has that as his fantasy!
@@charlottechipps4982. No, I disagree. For every person with such a flippant, shallow attitude toward fidelity in marriage there are many people who are hurt by this attitude….adult children and spouses. Only people who live on a superficial plane will be amused. Those who have lived long know how people are maimed and even destroyed. And one does not have to be religious to know that this is true.
