In W. Somerset Maugham's "Princess September," the King of Siam names his daughters after months and gifts each a green parrot in a golden cage. When Princess September's ......
I read this story when I was 9 years old (I am now 63). It's so wonderful to hear it, after all this time. It reminds me of a popular poster from the 70s: "If you love something, set it free. If it returns to you, it's yours. If it doesn't, it never was."
As a fan of Somerset Maugham, particularly his plays and short stories set in warmer climes, I was very interested to hear this as I don’t remember coming across it before. I was so charmed and amused by it that I looked up its history, which was fascinating. The moral of the story feels quite modern, but is presented as if it is ancient in origin. I was reminded of a song about a bird in a gilded cage which was popular 20 years before this story was written, and I was also reminded of Angela Lansbury when young singing her Music Hall song in The Picture of Dorian Gray. So the idea of this story is not particularly novel, but the execution of the story is beautiful. I can’t help wondering if it had a special meaning for Maugham. Did he feel himself trapped in a golden cage, unable to be free? I was also reminded of Oscar Wilde’s collection The Happy Prince.
A charming story - one might almost fancy he had written it with love for his daughter, just as Kipling did for his children. However, he did disown her and deny paternity so that he could leave his inheritance to a fancy boy and was thwarted by a long ugly court case
