Far Eastern Tales

These tales are quintessential Maugham: eccentric, idiosyncratic, unconventional. Wrapping the package in a colonial setting, he fashions long, lazy afternoons on verandahs, just on the edge of the jungle, with ladies sipping their tonics and gin and gents enjoying their whiskeys; he fashions long, lazy voyages across very calm oceans, always sunlit -- and then conjures a thunderclap, so that you spill your gin; so that the ocean heaves up a bit of menace.

This collection is even steven: half of the time Maugham delivers quite a conventional tale of colonialism, so that you're surprised there is no surprise at the end, given that it's Maugham; the other half, he delivers what could be termed "real zingers", and you smile because that's show more the Maugham you've come to know and love, the one who makes you see the strop and razor hidden behind the calmness of convention.

I like how he upsets the apple carts, just when you least expect it. What I especially like is that there is no lead-up drama: it's like watching an elegant lady in evening dress, strolling demurely down an avenue, suddenly break into a jig and moon the bystanders, and then continue strolling down the avenue as if nothing out of the ordinary had taken place.

Oh, and it's full of clichés, just like this review, because there's a comfort in that too, the shorthand of shared conventions which allows you to get right to the heart of the matter without wasting too many words. Great stuff! show less

To read this collection of Maugham short stories is to be whisked away to another time, another place. It's an awful lot like watching a scratchy old black and white adventure film from the 1930s, such as Red Dust or Lady of the Tropics. It just gets everything perfect in transporting the reader to a spot in time and place that existed only ever so briefly but still stirs the imagination of many a reader.

One thing about these stories: nearly all of them seem to be set on a veranda. In that sense, they remind me of Conrad's Almayer's Folly. Instead of a sitting room, it is the veranda that acts as a barrier to the pulsating jungle forest just a few steps on. Lives are lived on these verandas. Passions and fears exhibited against their show more backdrop. (Aside: if you live in this part of the world, you would know how much magic these fixtures on houses have. Even as I write this, I'm looking out the doorway to my own veranda in the suburbs of Bangkok.) But it's a way of living that is also quickly disappearing, along with high ceilings, and musty rooms with their scorching heat in the dry season and limp humidity in the rainy season.

And what of the settings of most of these stories? Today, if you go to Malaysia, the roads are paved and well maintained. Kuala Lumpur contains a harvest of malls and aircon laden hotels and restaurants. The transformation is even more severe in Singapore, where the beehive of the subway has made much surface traffic disappear. In both places the canals, rivers, and sampans no longer exist as an ongoing means of transportation. (Only in Bangkok do the riverboats and ferries continue to ply their trade in a manner reminiscent of 60 or 70 years ago.) If you want to experience the world of the Far East described in these stories, you'll only do so on the pages of Maugham's tales.

All of this, of course, only describes the backdrop of these stories. It is the characters in them that make them ultimately memorable. They are of a type also no longer with us. Broken down planters. Jaded colonial bureaucrats. And men and women always in a state of sexual frustration. And most of them cratering into despair and moral failure accompanied by a Singapore sling or gin fizz. show less

Far Eastern Tales is my favorite of Somerset Maugham's short story collections of the five that I have read. It offers an excellent introduction to Maugham's short stories and to his fiction in general, for those not ready to tackle Of Human Bondage.

Far Eastern Tales contains ten short stories, most of which are set in the far eastern reaches of the old British empire, plus a few of which take place on board ship. Included in this collection are some true masterpieces, stories that arguably match the best ever written by Guy de Maupassant (often considered to be the dean of the genre). Choosing favorites is an impossible task. There is the wonderfully amusing and insightful Mr Know-All, easily one of my favorites of his stories; The show more Door of Opportunity, a fascinating tale that builds quietly but implacably to its devastating conclusion; P&O, a ship - board story that combines the incongruous elements of love, terror, and satire; and the wonderfully satirical Before the Party. Two excellent stories involve murder and/ or death in the tropical jungle -- Neil McAdam and Footprints in the Jungle. Two others are powerful and wrenching in different ways -- The Force of Circumstance and The Buried Talent. Indeed, in this amazing collection, I found only two stories (Mabel and The End of the Flight) that left me unmoved; and needless to say, that is a personal reaction.

When reading collections of short stories, I rate each one on a five star system, and it is a rare collection with more than a few that get over 3 stars. For what it's worth, in Far Eastern Tales I awarded four and five stars to all but two of the stories. I recommend this collection highly -- give it a chance to work its subtle magic on you, and see if you don't agree that when it comes to the short story, Somerset Maugham ranks among the best. show less

Maugham’s tales about British gentry living and working overseas waxes and wanes with Twilight Zone-esque quirk or Hitchcockian tongue-in-cheek. short, droll stories that shed some insight on 19th century British character and colonialism itself. many also skewer them outright. i picture Maugham writing these with a wry smirk.

Contents as follows:
Footprints in the Jungle
Mabel
P. & O.
The Door of Opportunity
The Buried Talent
Before the Party
Mr. Know-All
Neil MacAdam
The End of the Flight
The Force of Circumstance

This was a set of shortt stories that feature, as a common thread, the setting of Malaysia when under British rule. Considering when it was written, there is the casual racism that was prevalent at the time, which is distasteful to a modern sensibility. What is more unexpected is how he approaches women. In 3 of the stories, he allows his wives to leave an unsatisfatory marriage and venture forth on their own into the world with every liklihood of their success. In a forth he excuses what is probably murder on the account of the husband's behaviour. It was show more quite refreshing.

Not all of them are equally as good as their fellows. They are a real mixture. Mr Know-All has a twist in the tale and is gently mocking. Footprints in the jungle is a crime story that's more howdunnit than whodunnit, but it's nonetheless interesting for that. There is a mixture of 1st and third person narrative, making it a varied colleciton to listen to, this isn;t the same story in a variety of guises.

I couldn't quite work out when these were suposed to be set. My guess would be interwar, but there was no mention of WW1 to give you any certainty of that. I've not read any of Maugham's works before, but if this is any guide, he ought to get more of my attention in the future. show less

Delightful, evocative stories set in the Far East, a long vanished time and place.

Extremo Oriente es una colección de relatos cortos ambientados en la Malasia y Singapur del Imperio Británico durante los años 30 del pasado siglo.