CHAPTERS 2,3.

The aim of the lesson is to teach you to determine the author's mood and his attitude to art and artists.

1. PRONUNCIATION DRILL:

Bashful Superfluous Hypocritical Obscure Indulgent

... came across persons who were familiar with him. ... throw light on that part of his tragic career. ... should seek his reward in the pleasures of his work. ... can't stomach the heartiness with which they slap me on the back.

b) ATTACH EACH WORD TO ITS MEANING:

not clearly seen, ready to forgive, more than is needed, insincere, shy.

2. Chapter 2 is a by-the-way chapter. It explains the attitude of the author to what he is doing and to the men of letters, who consider themselves to be up-to-date. He says that he writes his books for his own entertainment, but there is a shade of bitterness in his tone. Choose the sentences that characterize Somerset Maugham’s ideas about the younger writers and translate them into Russian, conveying the bitterness he implies. E.g.: “ I seek no refuge in such excuses. I forget who it was who recommended men for their own good to do each days two things they dislike: it was a wise man, and it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed. But there is in my flesh a strain of asceticism, and I have subjected my flesh to a more severe mortification. I have never failed to read the Literary Supplement of “The Times ”. = «Я и не думаю оправдываться. Я не помню, кто это сказал: «Дважды в день делай то, что больше всего не любишь», но он-то уж явно был мудрецом, и его совету я всю свою жизнь следую: и его предписанию я всегда неукоснительно следовал, ибо ежедневно вставал и ежедневно ложился спать. Но есть во мне аскетическая жилка, и я еженедельно подвергаю плоть более суровому умерщвлению. Я никогда не забываю прочесть литературное приложение к «Таймс».

3. Paraphrase the following sentences:

1) The writer should seek his reward in release from the burden of his thought and care nothing for praise or censure.

2) It is not without melancholy that I wander among my recollections of the world of letters.

3) Personal narratives of such who knew him in the flesh cannot be superfluous.

4) I find myself in a position to throw light on just that part of his tragic career which has remained most obscure.

4. Reproduce the information and add a sentence or two:

William Somerset Maugham was originally a doctor. Then he turned to fiction and play-writing. With the publication in 1919 of "The Moon and Sixpence", his reputation as a novelist was established. He was also well-known as a story-teller. He had descriptive and dramatic powers and a masterly economy of English. And yet the novel does not start with a direct narrative. In the opening chapters Maugham (speaks of; shows; tries to explain; acquaints us with.....; introduces us to..........)

5. "A painter's monument is in his work." The same can be said of any kind of artist (novelist, poet, composer, etc). How should an artist treat his work, according to Maugham? Is it natural to expect fame or oblivion? What does Maugham think of himself as an artist?

6 "The pendulum swings backwards and forwards. The circle is ever travelled anew." These words seem like an echo from Ecclesiastes: "There is no new thing under the sun..." Every generation comes and goes like a wave on the shore... And yet, what difference does the writer find between the men of letters he knew in his young days and those of the younger generation?

7. Maugham often delights in irony. Find some cases of irony and explain whether it is used to expose something that the author hates, to bring home to the reader a really important idea, just to amuse the reader, to avoid being sentimental, to conceal one's melancholy, etc.

8. INTERPRETE THE INDIRECT MEANING OF THESE PHRASES:(perhaps in some cases a mere periphrasis is enough, others may need a more detailed explanation)

a) I continue to write moral stories in rhymed couplets.

b) I'm on the shelf.

c) Woman had not yet altogether come into her own.

d) The pendulum swings backwards and forwards.

9. What's the use of chapters 2 & 3, considering that they hardly ever mention the central personage?

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