One year before settling there for life, he had come, and at once fell in love with the beauty of the place, and was determined in his purpose. Wilson began the story of his love for Capri.įifteen years ago Wilson came to Capri and settled there for life. Wilson said that the purpose of all work was leisure but the people forgot it. One full-moon night on the mountain Monte Solaro the author and Wilson had their dinner. The author’s friend came and the conversation turned to other things Wilson had to stay there for twenty-five years. Wilson told him the story of the mythical German who came to Capri for a lunch and stayed there for forty years.
Wilson felt to have been living there in historical times. Wilson told him that what was known as the baths of Tiberius was really one of the villas of Tiberius. After taking bath the author came to Wilson who was reading a book. The author found nothing extraordinary in Wilson while his friend said that Wilson could do something uncommon.Ī day or two afterwards the author and his friend came to bathe at a beach called the Baths of Tiberius. The author, his friend and Wilson came to Morgano’s inn and had drinks. The author took him to be a manager of an insurance company. The physical appearance of Wilson was plain, and his dress also was simple. Ultimately Wilson died of the beauty of the sight of Faraglioni on one full-moon night And Maugham gives here his own criticism of life. Herein lies the modern element in the story. He had lost all capacity for doing any work as he had to face no obstacles in life for twenty-five years. After twenty-five years of comfort he had to endure a life of discomfort.
#Best somerset maugham short stories full
Maugham’s Capri, with its mountains forests and the sea, with its two rocks called the Faraglioni standing out of the sea, with Vesuvius giving out ‘a great red plume of smoke’ rising from the sea, with the full moon over the sea, had such a captivating effect upon the soul of Wilson that he refused to go back to his old service in the bank in London and settled to lead a life of comfort drinking the beauty of nature.
Tennyson also wrote a poem, entitled ‘The Lotos-Eaters’, that captured the spirit of indolence pervading the whole land of the lotus eaters or the ‘lotophagi’, in his musical lines having effect of a Jullaby.
According to Homer, the Greek companions of Ulysses lost their determination to go back home after they had taste of a fruit called the lotus. Maugham’s short story, ‘The Lotus Eater’, is a modern version of the ancient story of the lotus eaters as found in Homer’s Odyssey. The Lotus Eater by Somerset Maugham Summary