Maugham Sounds Like Kerouac?


Maugham sounds like Kerouac?
Maugham sounds like Kerouac?

I know, I know, it seems that I am changing the direction of the blog. Instead of talking about first editions and books I am chattering about this and that; but since Maugham can't answer, perhaps we who think he deserves better should. After all, it's not an opinion, but chronological error. It is thus I console myself that I am not really a busybody....

The English professor Gary Carlson said in the news:
"I thought, gosh, this sounds like Kerouac," Carlson said of the novel's account of one man's physical and spiritual journey to find himself. "I read it and I was enthralled ... and it became one of the most popular novels (in the course)."

Shouldn't one say Kerouac sounds like Maugham instead? Maugham began writing The Razor's Edge in late 1942 and by the end of 1943 it was serialised in Redbook, and finally published in book form in 1944. I believe Kerouac didn't publish his first book until 1942 and it was in Slovak, but I might be wrong. And if Carlson is referring to On the Road, it wasn't written until 1951, even if we concede that the idea occurred to him as early as 1947.

And the reporter is very careful in not overpraising The Razor's Edge; it is one of the most popular novels, but watch it, only in the course.

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