The Trembling of a Leaf

Name: The Trembling of a Leaf
ISBN: 9787210086420

于大卫 / W. Somerset MaughamJiangxi People's Publishing House · ChinaDec 2021

3.8

Word count: 130K words
Chapters: 11
ISBN: 9787210086420

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Summary

Once a soul is awakened, he loses his Eden. In 1916, Maugham traveled to the island of Upolu in the South Pacific and was astonished to find that this was the long-imagined earthly paradise: a tropical landscape full of exotic charm, beautiful and innocent Samoan girls, and an unchanging natural life — everything as lovely as Eden. Yet this was also a colony carved up by Britain, the United States, and Germany; Western civilization and technology, alcohol and prostitutes, religion and values had long since overturned the peace here, and white people comfortably enjoyed the fruits of colonial victory: cheap labor, unequal trade, absolute obedience... On this virgin land they indulged and degenerated, then grew bewildered and despairing. Only in an unconstrained environment does human nature reveal its baseness or nobility. Six people who come to the island, six different twist endings — Maugham, in the storytelling mode he excels at, presents a paradise lost of human nature.

Editor's review

Maugham's short stories are often underrated, and the weight of this collection lies in how it turns "earthly paradise" into a mirror for exposing human nature. Six people come to a South Pacific island with different identities and motives, yet their endings repeatedly twist: readers think they are looking at exotic scenery, but in fact they are watching how a white colonial community is devoured by its own desires and sense of superiority. Maugham's narration is calm and restrained, and he hardly ever steps in to judge; the twists do not rely on piled-up coincidences but are pushed step by step by character toward an inevitable result, often leaving a chill of "so that's how it is" at the end. Yu Dawei's translation preserves Maugham's slightly detached storytelling tone, and it is best read one piece at a time in quiet moments rather than swallowed in one sitting, otherwise the aftertaste of the twists is diluted. For readers familiar with The Moon and Sixpence, this book fills in another side of Maugham's handling of short-story structure and colonial themes; for those encountering Maugham for the first time, it is also an accessible introduction that nonetheless reveals his skill.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Adult readers who like Maugham and want to read his short stories
Readers interested in colonial themes and narratives of human-nature twists
Office workers accustomed to short-form reading, one story at a time
People who want to use fiction to think about the relationship between civilization and desire

Not a good fit for

Readers hoping for warm, healing stories
Lovers of fast-paced, plot-heavy suspense fiction
Readers uncomfortable with colonial settings and white perspectives

Reading tips

Read only one story at a time; after finishing, pause and recall where the twist began to be planted in the details.
As you read, notice what tone the narrator uses toward the islanders and toward the white characters respectively; this is itself part of the text.
After finishing all six stories, choose one and reread its opening to see whether the first paragraph already hints at the ending.
You may consult a map or background material on South Pacific colonialism to help understand the characters' circumstances.

About the publisher

Jiangxi People's Publishing House China · Founded in 1951

Jiangxi People's Publishing House is a comprehensive local publisher based in Nanchang, with publishing directions covering philosophy and social sciences, politics and economics, history and culture, education, and the collation of ancient texts. Judging from its books in the database, the house offers Chinese translations of world classics such as Ulysses, Les Fleurs du mal, and Letter from an Unknown Woman, while continuing to publish Eastern philosophical classics including The Analects, the Dao De Jing, and the fully translated and annotated edition of Chuanxilu, forming a parallel structure of Chinese and foreign literary and intellectual classics. Translators such as Xiao Qian, Wen Jieruo, and Zhang Qiuhong support its foreign literature translations, while authors such as Confucius, Laozi, Wang Zengqi, and Hai Zi reflect its accumulation in traditional classics, prose and miscellany, and modern poetry. Its common categories include world classics, Eastern philosophy, prose and miscellany, literature, foreign literature, and modern poetry, showing a publishing character that balances academic popularization with general reading.

版权信息
太平洋
麦金托什
爱德华·巴纳德的堕落
阿赤
池塘
火奴鲁鲁
雨
跋
译后记看这片叶子如何颤抖
威廉·萨默塞特·毛姆

FAQ

Is this short-story collection similar in style to The Moon and Sixpence?

There are points of kinship: both focus on characters' desires and choices in an exotic setting, but this book is colder and more compressed, with more concentrated twists. If you enjoyed the scrutiny of human nature in The Moon and Sixpence, this will read with a familiar Maugham flavor.

Are the six stories connected?

The characters and plots of each piece are independent; what they share is that they all take place on South Pacific islands and all involve the relationship between outsiders and the local environment. They can be read separately or consecutively; the latter makes it easier to see Maugham's repeated treatment of the same theme.

Why is it said that the endings have twists? Are they very contrived?

The twists mostly arise naturally from character and circumstance rather than from sudden coincidence. As you read, pay attention to characters' motives and conversational details; you can often sense something is off before the ending, and this is precisely Maugham's skill as a storyteller.

If I haven't read Maugham, is it suitable to start with this book?

Yes. The short stories are brief, so finishing a single piece is low-pressure, and you can quickly get a feel for Maugham's narrative style and thematic concerns. If you like it, moving on to his novels will feel natural.

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About the author

于大卫 Author

Public information about Yu Dawei is limited. Judging from the thirteen works recorded in the catalog, his translating interests span foreign literature, science fiction and world classics. His representative translations include Tolstoy's War and Peace: Four Volumes, Anna Karenina and The Death of Ivan Ilyich, Chekhov's Ward No. 6, Clarke's Childhood's End and Kazantzakis's Zorba the Greek. He has also worked on Ken Follett's Century Trilogy, including The Fall of Giants and the nine-volume collection. The chosen titles are mostly classics with grand narratives, large casts and weighty ideas, requiring translations that balance epic sweep with subtle dialogue and handle the distinctive vocabulary of science fiction and philosophical fiction. His translations have circulated among readers, offering readable Chinese versions of classic narratives from the Russian- and English-speaking worlds.

W. Somerset Maugham Author · British · 1874–1965

W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) was a British novelist, playwright and short-story writer, born in Paris. He trained in medicine and turned to writing after publishing his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, in 1897. His representative works include Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, Cakes and Ale and The Razor's Edge, as well as a substantial body of short stories. His plain, direct style and his insight into human nature and society place his works among foreign literature and classics. Maugham excelled in both the novel and the short story; his restrained narration and penetrating observation have earned him a wide readership in Chinese, and this site holds 176 of his works.