Maugham

Picked up a Somerset Maugham novel after a gap of almost 5 years! Perhaps he induced in me whatever cynicism I possess, through his three famous books - Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Six Pence and The Razor’s Edge.

The book I started reading now, Cakes and Ale, another classic, is his take on the literary world. The first few pages itself put me back in the somewhat strange and, in fact, likeable world of Maugham.
For instance, the way he details the appearance of his characters:

...a fine, upstanding young man, six feet high in his stockinged feet and of an athletic build, with broad shoulders and a confident carriage. He was not handsome, but in a manly way agreeable to look at, with wide, blue, frank eyes and curly hair of a lightish brown; his nose was rather short and broad, his chin square. He looked honest, clean and healthy. He was something of an athlete.

Or his typical observations of human nature:

Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practised at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.

Happy to be reading Maugham again!