A Studyof Maugham's Novels

Somerset Maugham is a conscious novelist who visualises a pattern for 'complete life', which is enshrined in the growth of the three characters in his novels. There are three characters--Liza, Tom and Jim. There are configurations of three aspects--passionate, sensitive and pragmatic - of Maugham's personality. They grew into Catalina, Blasco and Domingo in his last novel highlighting Maugham's developing theme of life--bondage, aesthetic and spiritualism. The growth of an individual...
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Somerset Maugham is a conscious novelist who visualises a pattern for 'complete life', which is enshrined in the growth of the three characters in his novels. There are three characters--Liza, Tom and Jim. There are configurations of three aspects--passionate, sensitive and pragmatic - of Maugham's personality. They grew into Catalina, Blasco and Domingo in his last novel highlighting Maugham's developing theme of life--bondage, aesthetic and spiritualism. The growth of an individual from sensualism to spiritualism with the quest of loving-kindness sums up Maugham's life and his work as a novelist. There is a quest for purna purnsha, 'complete man' in Maugham. That is the central theme of Indian classics. So Maugham wakes the reader up, and helps him to become a purna purnsha. Although Maugham, the, novelist is widely popular, his novels have not received adequate critical attention and the inter-relationship between his life and novels has not been properly examined. This study is to get for him the place that he richly merits and the award he missed. He left no stone unturned to change the individual into a god by inculcating Indian mysticism by his novels. Klaus Jonas, the professor friend of Maugham, 'learned from a confidential source in the Nobel Institute that Maugham was considered as a candidate for the Nobel Prize'. T. S. Eliot just mentions datta, dayadwadham and damyata of the Bruhadharnyaka Upanishad in the Waste Land, and ends it with Om santi santi santhi, and won the Nobel Prize. Maugham placed Indian mysticism on a platter in his novels. Conquer youself to be with God. He hammers out how beauty, sundaram, can be turned into goodness, sivam, and become truth, satyam, 'God Particle', anoraniyan mahatomahiyan of the Veda, Higgs Boson, which gives particles their mass. Brahman is that Particle in Indian mysticism, a panacea and light to the world. Maugham, a mystic himself, showcased how Man can become God in his novels. Does he not deserve the Nobel at least posthumously? Better late than never.