Previous
Summary
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Razor’s Edge, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Wisdom and the Meaning of Life
Social Norms and Conformity
Trauma and Self-Destruction
Snobbishness, Social Status, and Cosmopolitanism
Truth and the Problem of Evil
Summary
Analysis
Somerset Maugham says that, in this novel, he plans to tell a story that ends with neither a marriage nor a death. Instead, he is going to write about a person he knew at different intervals throughout his (Somerset’s) life. This person isn’t famous, but, Somerset says, he is still remarkable. In his account of this man’s life, Maugham says that he has not made anything up other than bits of dialogue that he wasn’t present to hear. He has also changed the names of the people involved to spare them any potential embarrassment. Other than that, Somerset says, he will report the story exactly as it happened. Somerset says he is apprehensive to be writing about Americans while he is an Englishman. He clarifies that he will not be writing about Americans as they see themselves but as an Englishman sees them.
Somerset Maugham is both the author and narrator of the novel. This is an example of metatextuality, which occurs when a work of art references the fact that it is a work of art. Metatextuality is often used in postmodern literature to call attention to the artifice of a given piece of art. In this novel’s case, though, Maugham (the author) uses metatextuality to try to make the fictional narrative seem closer to nonfiction, as Somerset (the narrator) says that he has not invented anything; instead, he says, despite this being a work of fiction, the story of the novel will unfold exactly as it did in “real life.”
Themes
