W.S.Maugham "In a Strange Land"

Speaking about the author of the story, William Somerset Maugham (25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was a British playwright, novelist and short story writer. He was among the most popular writers of his era and reputedly the highest paid author during the 1930s. The first run of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth (1897), sold out so rapidly that Maugham gave up medicine to write full time. During World War I, he served with the Red Cross and in the ambulance corps, before being recruited in 1916 into the British Secret Intelligence Service, for which he worked in Switzerland and Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. During and after the war, he traveled in India and Southeast Asia; all of these experiences were reflected in later short stories and novels.

The direct meaning of the title refers to the notion of being in a foreign country. As for the indirect meaning, I guess it connects with the fact that the main character of the story, an English woman who has been living in a foreign country for 30 years, and who perfectly knows its language and traditions, never feels as a part of the country she spends the big part of her life. Knowing everything there, she doesn’t feel any connection to the land she lives, even disgust.  So, the country where the most important events of her live have happened will always be a Strange Land for her.

I think that the story raises many themes, such as international marriages (an English woman who married an Italian man), relatives attitude towards such decisions (the main heroine’s relatives are against her marriage with the foreigner), the problem of motherland and the country you live (what’s your real motherland -  a country you were born, or belong to according to nationality or a country you live and build your life), and the last problem of how a foreign country, after spending many years there may affect you and your perception of life.

Now, I’d like to represent the brief summary of the story. The narrator, travelling in Minor Asia, stays at hotel where he gets acquaintance with its innkeeper –a typical English woman of that time - Signore Niccolini. After the storyteller’ several unsuccessful attempts to get her talking, she finally tells him about her life. She was a house keeper in service in a notable English family where she met her future husband of Italian descent who worked as a chief. After their marriage they saved up some money on which they opened their own hotel, having moved in Turkey, paying no attention to the disapproval of the woman’s relatives towards their marriage. Her husband died 15 years ago, and the woman continues to rule hotel service, at the same time bringing up two adopted children fathered by her late husband. However, she doesn’t see anything out of the way in her story life and she even justifies her husband describing him as a full blooded man, thus surprises the narrator.

I think that the main idea of the story that It doesn’t matter how long you live abroad, and how easy you adopt to customs and traditions there, you never be able to eradicate those things which were put into your mind with your mother’s milk. In this story we may see the perfect example of this statement. As 30 years ago, the main heroine remains to be Englishwoman to the marrow of her bones. Neither external factors such as the country she lives with the totally different customs, nor internal ones such as her international marriage which usually considers a mixture of cultures, make her to be not so English even for “gram”.

As for the character sketch, I’d like to describe Signora Niccolini. She is a typical English woman with typical English prejudices towards other nations. There is not anything unusual with her appearance and her outward “world” – she is not beauty but not ugly, a solidly built middle aged woman . However we can’t say the same about her “inward” features. Although she lives in Turkey for many years, her behavior, her life perception and even her accent represents her as a real English woman. She looks like a servant, but holds herself with dignity and with a little arrogance.

Speaking about my impression on this story, I really like it, especially for the themes I have found there. The story is very easy and pleasant to read thanks for the author’s particular style of writing. The story makes you think and as evidence, I collected my thoughts for some time after reading. I also like it because of the connection which is established between the title and the main idea. Besides I like the way the main heroine is represented and described in the story – very indirectly and this circumstance lets you to think over her image, thus helping you to form your attitude towards her action, the themes which are raised on her example and come to your own conclusion.