The Merry-Go-Round
1904
The Merry-Go-Round, published in 1904 by W. Somerset Maugham, is a novel that explores the dynamics of wealth and power within family relationships. The story centers on Miss Elizabeth Dwarris, a wealthy and domineering woman, and her cousin Miss Ley, who challenges her authority with wit and bluntness. Through their contentious interactions, Maugham delves into themes of social class, independence, and the complexities of man-woman relationships in early 20th-century England.
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“She would not risk to grow so fond of her home that it was a pain to leave it; she preferred to remain a wayfarer, sauntering through life with a heart keen to detect beauty, and a mind, open and unbiased, ready to laugh at the absurd.””
— W. Somerset Maugham
“To achieve great success in literature you must have a certain coarseness in your composition... Really to move and influence men you must have complete understanding, and you can only get that if you have in you something of the common clay of humanity.””
— W. Somerset Maugham
“I forgive them because they're human and weak. The longer I live, the more I am overwhelmed by the utter, utter weakness of men; they do try to do their duty, they do their best honestly, they seek straight ways, but they're dreadfully weak. And so I think one ought to be sorry for them and make all possible allowances.””
— W. Somerset Maugham
“None was more indifferent to convention than herself, and the marriage tie especially excited her ridicule, but she despised entirely those who disregarded the by-laws of society, yet lacked courage to suffer the results of their boldness: to seek the good opinion of the world, and yet secretly to act counter to its idea of decorum, was a very contemptible hypocrisy.””
— W. Somerset Maugham
“But to secure freedom, entire and absolute freedom, she was ever ready to make any sacrifice: ties affected her with a discomfort that seemed really akin to physical pain, and she avoided them--ties of family or of affection, ties of habit or of thought--with all the strenuousness of which she was capable.””
— W. Somerset Maugham
“He realized that he was manacled hand and foot with fetters that were only more intolerable because they consisted of nothing more substantial than the dread of causing pain.””
— W. Somerset Maugham
