Blade
About This Novel
This book is the last of Maugham's four masterpieces. After the first draft of the novel was completed, he said: "Writing this book brought me great pleasure. I don't care whether other people think this book is good or bad. I can finally speak out. For me, this is the most important thing "The background of this book is set during the two world wars. The protagonist Larry served in the Air Force during World War I. He once flew high in the vast sky and wanted "power and honor far beyond the world." The death of his comrades shocked him to the helplessness and insurmountability of life. After being discharged from the army, Larry did not go to college, get married, or find a job. He left his relatives and friends behind and traveled to Europe. Finally, he went to India, where he was inspired by a Ganesha master's ashram and realized the true meaning of life. This book is a novel in which Maugham uses his own name as the narrator. Although the characters in the book have "different names", the content is "not fictitious" and is derived from the personal experiences of Maugham and his friends.
What Readers Think
Rating
Community(0)
Official(45)Scraped 21d ago
A spiritual practice - Comment on "Blade"
In Maugham's novel "The Knife's Edge", the author created a character named Larry who was stimulated by the war and embarked on the path to pursue the meaning of life. Although the background of this image was after World War I and showed the mental state of people after World War I, in fact, Larry's image transcended the boundaries of time and space, revealing the survival dilemma faced by people after World War II and contemporary people, and showing them a life direction that is consistent with realistic meaning. This article starts from Larry's disillusioned life and explains the meaning of real survival. From Larry's experience, he has been self-constructing his whole life. In his life in Chicago, Larry has been in a state of self-examination and awakening. After leaving Chicago, he decided to try his luck in Paris. Postponing his engagement with his fiancée and refusing a good job, Larry has always wanted to pursue inner freedom. For a long time in Paris, Larry completed his self-construction in various ways, such as learning foreign languages, reading books, and attending universities. After two years of such a life, Larry and his fiancée officially broke off their engagement. He went to work as a coal miner elsewhere, and then experienced farm life and travel with others. Because of his rich personal experience, his heart gradually changed a lot. During his travels in India, Larry developed a keen interest in Indian religion. Under the influence of the Indian philosophical classic "Upanishad", Larry finally completed his self-reconstruction. Later Larry became a devotee of Sri Ganesha. This master advised his followers to get rid of the enslavement of selfishness, lust, and lust, telling them that through silence, restraint, humility, concession, concentration, and diligent yearning for freedom, they can be liberated. Larry finally found inner peace, and all his previous confusions were answered. From an ethical point of view, the ultimate goal should be moral, so as to achieve peace of soul and separation from the world. From this aspect, one can also think that when Larry constructs himself, it is also a process of searching for truth. It is an unobjectionable fact that Maugham's peaceful narrative style and flexible creative style have been learned by future generations. In an environment where modernism, a new trend of thought, was becoming more and more popular, Maugham bravely crossed over to this new trend of thought. Insist on realism as the mainstay in creation. Although this leap has flaws and shortcomings, it has left a trail for future generations to follow and provided them with a broader writing space.
Untitled
A life epiphany? It's better not to watch it now!
Perhaps facing life with ease and spontaneity will lead to a more secure life.
Thoughts after reading
Generally speaking, these books, which most people only have a fleeting understanding of, will be praised as masterpieces by countless people, and of course I am no exception. Most people are ordinary people and cannot pursue the path of sages. Therefore, if you read classics with a sage's heart, you will always have sage-like insights, while an ignorant market person like me can only read some short stories in them. So, let's review this book again. Perhaps many people will be impressed by the author's delicate but not procrastinating outlines of various characters, they will be intoxicated by the author's extreme but not exaggerated description of the lakes and mountains, and they will be deeply immersed in the author's ordinary but wonderful treatment of the main line of the story. But for a person like me who has little talent and knowledge, I can only say: Hold the grass, your writing is really smooth! To show admiration. I'm not here to discuss the form and literary value of the work, let's talk about this simple life-like story. Story content (omitted) Any novel that can tell a story that makes people feel like it really happened is a successful novel. I think this book has done that. The story in the book is as true as yesterday, and it is impeccable in all aspects, but why it is said to be so is because there is a variable in the story - Larry. I am ignorant and have little experience. I have never seen or heard of Larry in real life, and I don't think that anyone will become a different person because of a war, and will embark on a journey to seek the road. With the mentality of not shedding tears until I see the coffin, I don't think there is a person like Larry in the world, I mean a similar experience. So this story can only be regarded as a successful novel. As for Larry, I have nothing to say, after all, I can't understand it either. It may just be the author's imagination, or it may be understood as a creative need. Speaking of the characters in the story, relatively speaking I admire Eliot more. He is not bad in nature, but he will do whatever it takes to fight for fame and gain. In his eyes, ethics and moral concepts have long been forgotten. The only thing that makes him energetic and motivated is probably social interaction. This reminds me of Cao Cao and Zhu Di. They can be classified into the same category, but I won't go into details here. Eliot never forgot about social interaction until his death. He devoted his life energy to it. He regarded social interaction as a career for which he struggled all his life. Having said this, I suddenly felt ashamed. I had lived for half my life, but I still had not found a career that I could devote my whole life to. Just imagine, if you were like Eliot, with clear goals and enthusiasm, would you still feel that life is meaningless? I really envy those who have a career that they can work for their whole life! Going back to the book, in fact, looking at the content of the story alone, there are not many ups and downs in the plot, and of course it is not too calm. Many things happened without warning but just right. That's life, isn't it? Okay, the above is all nonsense, friends who feel it is wordy can just skip it. If you want to ask me what I feel after reading so much, it's actually just one sentence: Life will always give you some unexpected surprises when you don't expect it. The above content is copyrighted, please do not crawl it.
To be seen
Let's see it tomorrow, it's a bit late today, eh
Material pursuit and spiritual pursuit
I like this book very much. It describes different characters and the different pursuits of these characters. Eliot's pursuit of social life, Isabel's pursuit of the upper class, Larry's pursuit of the spiritual world, Gray's pursuit of money, and the pursuits of other characters in the book, all pursuits require sacrifices and sacrifices. There is no absolute right or wrong in everyone's pursuit. Regardless of whether you pursue money, fame and wealth, physical enjoyment, God, or life and death, there is no absolute right or wrong. It all depends on personal preference. There will be a hundred different worlds in the eyes of one hundred people. The book focuses on describing the pace of life in the United States, the United Kingdom, Paris, France, India and other places. In the process of the gradual rise of the United States, most Americans have very similar pursuits and life rhythm trends. They want to follow this trend and make a lot of money, so they have to speed up their life pace, make themselves work non-stop, and bear a lot of mental pressure. No matter how fast the pace is now, people cannot lack spiritual enjoyment. If you go see more of the world and read more books, you will find that money, fame, wealth, and physical lust are not that important.
6 Same, same, eh, eh, eh, yo
In reality, there is more Eliot, but in my heart I yearn for Larry.
When we were young, we all had the same confusion about the world, but in the end we felt trapped by the times. We did not pursue the so-called fame and fortune like Eliot, nor did we explore the meaning of life like Larry. All living beings are but a drop in the ocean!
The road to enlightenment is difficult and difficult
Therefore, wise men often say that the road to salvation is difficult.
Rating
Community(0)
Official(45)Scraped 21d ago
A spiritual practice - Comment on "Blade"
In Maugham's novel "The Knife's Edge", the author created a character named Larry who was stimulated by the war and embarked on the path to pursue the meaning of life. Although the background of this image was after World War I and showed the mental state of people after World War I, in fact, Larry's image transcended the boundaries of time and space, revealing the survival dilemma faced by people after World War II and contemporary people, and showing them a life direction that is consistent with realistic meaning. This article starts from Larry's disillusioned life and explains the meaning of real survival. From Larry's experience, he has been self-constructing his whole life. In his life in Chicago, Larry has been in a state of self-examination and awakening. After leaving Chicago, he decided to try his luck in Paris. Postponing his engagement with his fiancée and refusing a good job, Larry has always wanted to pursue inner freedom. For a long time in Paris, Larry completed his self-construction in various ways, such as learning foreign languages, reading books, and attending universities. After two years of such a life, Larry and his fiancée officially broke off their engagement. He went to work as a coal miner elsewhere, and then experienced farm life and travel with others. Because of his rich personal experience, his heart gradually changed a lot. During his travels in India, Larry developed a keen interest in Indian religion. Under the influence of the Indian philosophical classic "Upanishad", Larry finally completed his self-reconstruction. Later Larry became a devotee of Sri Ganesha. This master advised his followers to get rid of the enslavement of selfishness, lust, and lust, telling them that through silence, restraint, humility, concession, concentration, and diligent yearning for freedom, they can be liberated. Larry finally found inner peace, and all his previous confusions were answered. From an ethical point of view, the ultimate goal should be moral, so as to achieve peace of soul and separation from the world. From this aspect, one can also think that when Larry constructs himself, it is also a process of searching for truth. It is an unobjectionable fact that Maugham's peaceful narrative style and flexible creative style have been learned by future generations. In an environment where modernism, a new trend of thought, was becoming more and more popular, Maugham bravely crossed over to this new trend of thought. Insist on realism as the mainstay in creation. Although this leap has flaws and shortcomings, it has left a trail for future generations to follow and provided them with a broader writing space.
Untitled
A life epiphany? It's better not to watch it now!
Perhaps facing life with ease and spontaneity will lead to a more secure life.
Thoughts after reading
Generally speaking, these books, which most people only have a fleeting understanding of, will be praised as masterpieces by countless people, and of course I am no exception. Most people are ordinary people and cannot pursue the path of sages. Therefore, if you read classics with a sage's heart, you will always have sage-like insights, while an ignorant market person like me can only read some short stories in them. So, let's review this book again. Perhaps many people will be impressed by the author's delicate but not procrastinating outlines of various characters, they will be intoxicated by the author's extreme but not exaggerated description of the lakes and mountains, and they will be deeply immersed in the author's ordinary but wonderful treatment of the main line of the story. But for a person like me who has little talent and knowledge, I can only say: Hold the grass, your writing is really smooth! To show admiration. I'm not here to discuss the form and literary value of the work, let's talk about this simple life-like story. Story content (omitted) Any novel that can tell a story that makes people feel like it really happened is a successful novel. I think this book has done that. The story in the book is as true as yesterday, and it is impeccable in all aspects, but why it is said to be so is because there is a variable in the story - Larry. I am ignorant and have little experience. I have never seen or heard of Larry in real life, and I don't think that anyone will become a different person because of a war, and will embark on a journey to seek the road. With the mentality of not shedding tears until I see the coffin, I don't think there is a person like Larry in the world, I mean a similar experience. So this story can only be regarded as a successful novel. As for Larry, I have nothing to say, after all, I can't understand it either. It may just be the author's imagination, or it may be understood as a creative need. Speaking of the characters in the story, relatively speaking I admire Eliot more. He is not bad in nature, but he will do whatever it takes to fight for fame and gain. In his eyes, ethics and moral concepts have long been forgotten. The only thing that makes him energetic and motivated is probably social interaction. This reminds me of Cao Cao and Zhu Di. They can be classified into the same category, but I won't go into details here. Eliot never forgot about social interaction until his death. He devoted his life energy to it. He regarded social interaction as a career for which he struggled all his life. Having said this, I suddenly felt ashamed. I had lived for half my life, but I still had not found a career that I could devote my whole life to. Just imagine, if you were like Eliot, with clear goals and enthusiasm, would you still feel that life is meaningless? I really envy those who have a career that they can work for their whole life! Going back to the book, in fact, looking at the content of the story alone, there are not many ups and downs in the plot, and of course it is not too calm. Many things happened without warning but just right. That's life, isn't it? Okay, the above is all nonsense, friends who feel it is wordy can just skip it. If you want to ask me what I feel after reading so much, it's actually just one sentence: Life will always give you some unexpected surprises when you don't expect it. The above content is copyrighted, please do not crawl it.
To be seen
Let's see it tomorrow, it's a bit late today, eh
Material pursuit and spiritual pursuit
I like this book very much. It describes different characters and the different pursuits of these characters. Eliot's pursuit of social life, Isabel's pursuit of the upper class, Larry's pursuit of the spiritual world, Gray's pursuit of money, and the pursuits of other characters in the book, all pursuits require sacrifices and sacrifices. There is no absolute right or wrong in everyone's pursuit. Regardless of whether you pursue money, fame and wealth, physical enjoyment, God, or life and death, there is no absolute right or wrong. It all depends on personal preference. There will be a hundred different worlds in the eyes of one hundred people. The book focuses on describing the pace of life in the United States, the United Kingdom, Paris, France, India and other places. In the process of the gradual rise of the United States, most Americans have very similar pursuits and life rhythm trends. They want to follow this trend and make a lot of money, so they have to speed up their life pace, make themselves work non-stop, and bear a lot of mental pressure. No matter how fast the pace is now, people cannot lack spiritual enjoyment. If you go see more of the world and read more books, you will find that money, fame, wealth, and physical lust are not that important.
6 Same, same, eh, eh, eh, yo
In reality, there is more Eliot, but in my heart I yearn for Larry.
When we were young, we all had the same confusion about the world, but in the end we felt trapped by the times. We did not pursue the so-called fame and fortune like Eliot, nor did we explore the meaning of life like Larry. All living beings are but a drop in the ocean!
The road to enlightenment is difficult and difficult
Therefore, wise men often say that the road to salvation is difficult.
