W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) wrote The Razor’s Edge in 1944. The novel’s title comes from a quotation translated from the Katha Upanishad, with the assistance of Christopher Isherwood: “Rise, wake up, seek the wise and realize. The path is difficult to cross like the sharpened edge of the razor." The story has been adapted for film twice, once in 1946 starring Tyrone Power and again in 1984 with Bill Murray.

When World War I air corps pilot Larry Darrell returns home at the end of the war, he finds himself tormented with questions: why evil exists, whether God is good, and the purpose of life. The search for answers takes him across Europe and into India where he finds a sense of fulfillment in Eastern philosophy. Larry’s quest is based on Maugham’s own experiences in India where he met Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. Maugham himself was agnostic and considered Christian theology to be foolish and ignoble. For the most part, he found Hindu dogma tiresome as well until he met Sri Ramana Maharshi. The character Larry expresses many of Maugham’s own thoughts on religion.

Maugham was one of the most prolific and highly paid writers of his time, both as a playwright and novelist. He often described himself as unimaginative and claimed that he never made anything up. His gift as a writer was his ability to make the reader see his characters with the same clarity and compassion that he does. Maugham inserts himself into the story as author, narrator, and as a passive participant in the action. He never sees Larry’s quest directly and only knows what he is told by Larry himself or people who have encountered him. The character Maugham is better acquainted with Larry’s ex-fiancé, Isabel. Larry and Isabel embody conflicting ideas about the meaning of life—self-perfection versus materialism, respectively—and Maugham uses the story as a vehicle to explore the merits and failings of each.

This study guide references the Vintage International Kindle edition.

Plot Summary

The author/character, Somerset Maugham, opens by explaining that he calls this story a novel only because he doesn’t know what else to call it. It’s an account of his acquaintance with a remarkable young man, Larry Darrell, who he thinks someday may change the world. Maugham happens to be passing through Chicago when his friend Elliott Templeton invites him to meet his sister, Louisa Bradley, and her daughter, Isabel. Elliott is vain and superficial, interested only in social status, but he is also kind and generous and a dedicated supporter of the Catholic Church.

At the Bradleys’ dinner party, Maugham meets Larry, a young woman named Sophie, and also Gray Maturin, who is in love with Isabel. After dinner, Isabel’s mother and uncle discuss their concerns about her engagement to Larry. He has a small inherited income, but it’s nowhere near enough to support Isabel’s customarily lavish lifestyle. Gray Maturin would be a much better match for Isabel. The biggest concern, however, is that Larry doesn’t work.

Over the next few days, Maugham learns more about Larry. What Larry really wants to do is what he calls “loafing,” by which he means seeking answers to his existential questions. Maugham will learn, years later, what changed Larry: While serving in the air corps, high above the earth in his plane, he experienced unity with something greater than himself, followed by his first close confrontation with death. It left him with an urgent need to understand why evil and suffering exist.

When Isabel finally confronts Larry about their future, they argue about what really matters—work and material success or the questions that torment Larry (concerning God and the meaning of life). They agree to postpone their engagement for two years while Larry seeks his answers. Larry goes to Paris, leaving Isabel behind in Chicago.

A year-and-a-half later, Isabel confronts Larry again. He still hasn’t found his answers, and he proposes to Isabel that they get married and travel the world. The life he plans for them sounds miserable to Isabel. They break their engagement. Larry leaves Paris and goes to clear his mind by working in a mine in the north of France. Isabel returns to Chicago and marries Gray.

Working in the mine, Larry meets Kosti, who introduces him to mysticism. Larry begins to see that the answers to his questions may lie beyond the physical world. Koski invites Larry to spend the summer walking through Belgium and Germany with him. Midway through the summer, they find a farm and stop to spend a few weeks working there. Larry doesn’t realize that both the farmer’s young wife and widowed daughter-in-law are interested in him. The daughter-in-law comes to him in the middle of the night and seduces him. Recognizing that the incident will cause trouble between the two women, Larry departs in the middle of the night and moves on.

He meets a monk who suggests that immersion in the Church will answer his questions. Larry spends some time at a monastery but finds that the answers offered by the monks make God seem like a vain and irresponsible parent. Unsatisfied, he returns to France and passes the spring with a friend, Suzanne Rouvier, who is recovering from typhoid and still weak. He takes care of her until she recovers her strength, and she repays him with sex until he feels the urge to move on again. Traveling to Spain, he has an affair with a Spanish woman.

Larry then visits India, where he spends two years in an ashrama learning that enlightenment requires renunciation of the world. Going high in the mountains, he sits on a ledge as the sun comes up. Seeing the mountains spread out around him and the lake in the valley far below him, he feels himself at one with the Infinite. Finally at peace, he returns to Paris, where he encounters Maugham, Isabel, and Gray for the first time in 10 years.

Isabel and Gray are delighted to see Larry again. The market crash of 1929 ruined Gray, but Isabel’s uncle Elliott has generously put them up in his luxurious Paris flat and pays all their expenses, including clothes and servants. Gray has had a “nervous breakdown” and suffers from debilitating headaches. Larry is able to cure Gray of his headaches and restore his self-confidence through hypnosis. Isabel confesses to Maugham that she is still in love with Larry. She has never loved Gray, although she is fond of him, and he has made her very happy by giving her the life she always wanted.

The four of them are out together one evening when they encounter Sophie Macdonald. The mousy intellectual girl (whom Maugham met at the Bradleys’ party years ago) has developed an addiction to drugs and alcohol and, while she is intoxicated, has frequent sex—but the reader soon learns that these are Sophie’s methods of coping with traumatic grief. She was married and had a baby, but her husband and child died in a car accident, and Sophie was devastated by the loss (the narrative also suggests that, being deprived of those beloved connections, she is now unconsciously interested in self-destruction). Isabel is disgusted and contemptuous, but Larry tells them how he remembers Sophie when she was young, passionate, and intellectually curious. He is oblivious to Isabel’s jealousy when she hears him talking about Sophie.

Larry tries to rescue Sophie. He helps her to stop drinking and asks her to marry him. Isabel is horrified by the engagement. She is jealous, but she claims her concern is that Sophie will ruin Larry’s life. She manipulates Sophie into falling back on her substance use, and Sophie runs away before the wedding. She later tells Maugham that she felt dead inside without her addictions. Her lifestyle may kill her, but in some part of her soul, that’s what she wants.

Elliott Templeton has been ill, and his usefulness to the upper echelon of society subsides. He is heartbroken to be forgotten by the people he has helped and entertained and flattered. His superficial values have turned back on him, leaving him alone and unwanted. Maugham calls for a priest to give Elliott last rites, and in respect of Elliott’s generous contributions to the Church, the bishop himself comes. Elliott is mollified and his hurt feelings salved. He expects to move in the highest social circles of heaven.

Isabel inherits the bulk of Elliott’s estate and returns home to America. Maugham encounters Larry, and Larry recounts the story of his travels in the 10 years between their first meeting and Larry’s return. Larry’s plan is to give away all his money and return to America. Maugham never sees Larry or Isabel again, but he supposes they are both happy with the lives they have chosen. It’s a success story of a sort, even if Maugham isn’t sure that either character has chosen the best life for them.