I’d like to add one small book to this month reading. It is a bit of extra and you don’t have read it if you are not interested. On a Chinese Screen by W.S. Maugham, a travel book first published in 1922. Sorry Wenan, it is even older than The Good Earth
Another book of China through foreigners’ eyes. It is actually “a series of acute and finely crafted sketches of Westerners who are culturally out of their depth in the immensity of the Chinese civilization” (quote from the back cover of the book)
Btw, W. Somerset Maugham is my all time favorite.
Read it online
3 comments:
I like Somerset Maugham too, but did not read this work of his. Thank you, and will read.
Please do tell us your reflections on this. I am very intersted!
I'm so glad I have found kindred spirits. We should read some of his works sometime.
On first reading I did not think much of it, brushing it off as he being a foreigner with little knowledge of China. What he saw during his trip was very limited; when re-reading it, I really admire his writing, so concise and economical, yet the characters seem to just jump out from his sketch book.
The good thing is that each essay is only a page or two long. I do think they could be 范文 for language learners.
Sorry, this books has too much details. I'd got so distracted that I could not hold my concentration.
Post a Comment