The Merry-Go-Round (Annotated)
Enriched Edition. Modern RomanceBy William Somerset Maugham
Length2h 58m
About this audiobook
The Merry-Go-Round is one of Maugham's ambitious early novels, a broad social comedy in which London society turns, like the fairground image of the title, through recurring patterns of desire, vanity, marriage, and disillusion. Built as a sequence of interlocking lives rather than a single linear romance, it ranges across classes and temperaments, observing drawing rooms, professional households, and precarious attachments with cool precision. Its style combines late-Victorian realism with the sharper irony that would become Maugham's signature, placing it in the Edwardian transition from moral certainties to modern skepticism. William Somerset Maugham brought to the novel an unusually observant apprenticeship: orphaned young, educated in England and Germany, trained as a physician at St Thomas's Hospital, and already committed to literature after the success of Liza of Lambeth. His medical work among the poor, his cosmopolitan formation, and his wary experience of social convention helped sharpen his interest in the compromises by which people survive respectability, passion, and failure. This book is recommended to readers who value psychologically alert fiction and social panorama over melodramatic plot. It is especially rewarding for those tracing Maugham's development, since its breadth, irony, and humane detachment foreshadow the mature mastery of Of Human Bondage and The Razor's Edge.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes.
- The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists.
- A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing.
- An Author Biography reveals milestones in the author's life, illuminating the personal insights behind the text.
- A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings.
- Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life.
- Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.
- Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
Audiobook details
Rating★★★★ 4.1 (12)
Includes Amazon
GenreLiterary Classics, General Fiction
Length2 hrs 58 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
Publish dateJun 7, 2022
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1The Canadian (Annotated)
8PART II THE MERRY-GO-ROUND
2Introduction
9CHAPTER I
3Synopsis
10CHAPTER II
4Historical Context
11Analysis
5Author Biography
12Reflection
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6PART I THE MERRY-GO-ROUND
13Memorable Quotes
7CHAPTER I
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