October 5, 2021
Book Review: Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham
A mildly entertaining set of stories.
The main character is quite flat, and a little more clever than the plots themselves, so that it becomes mostly a set of his witty but convoluted observations of the world and general life, in abstract.
Other characters do little to distinguish themselves from one another, and are often inconsistent. Mr Harrington, in the final story, is a fantastic and hilarious character with so much more to recommend him than any other in terms of his development. He is starkly entertaining, and his interpretation of the Russian Revolution is comic to a fault. Yet even he turns from a rabid chatterbox to an unwary charmer from beginning to end.
The scene of him running through Revolution-torn Petrograd demanding his dry cleaning is, though, one of the most superbly comic scenes I can recall.
If there was a Harrington prequel I would buy it.
Equally a sequel following Anastasia around Russia would have tremendous potential.