Up At The Villa BR

English 11

丙班

张旭帆

Jessica

Num:/613392

Up At The Villa

Up

At

The

Villa

is

a

1941

novella

by

William

Somerset

Maugham.

This

book

has

245pages,

and

it

published

in

the

simplified

Chinese

language

by

arrangement with Big Apple Tuttle Mori Agency.

Why I choose this book? There are several factors: firstly, I like the writer.

William

Somerset

Maugham

was

a

famous

English

author,

novelist

and

playwright. Many of his short stories and novels have been adapted for radio

and

televisions.

secondly,

as a

fast-paced

story,

Up at the

Villa

incorporates

elements of the crime and suspense novel

.

That is the book, I

’

m looking for.

Finally, the cover of this book is simple, almost without anything .

I

n Up At The Villa, W. Somerset Maugham portrays

a young widow caught

between

three

men:

her

suitor

,

her

one-night

stand,

and

her

confidant.

So

naturally, this wealthy young English woman Mary Panton becomes the main

character.

As

a

novel,

the

author

wrote

a

lot

about

the

other

three

men.

The

first

is

Edgar Swift, a man who had been for five years Governor of the North West

Provinces.

He

has

a

lean

face

with

a

strong

chin

and

an

aquiline

nose;

his

brown eyes under the heavy brows were deep-set and vigilant. Fifty-four? He

didn

’

t

look

a

day

more

than

forty- five.

The

second

man

is

Karl

Richter,

a

student of art, he was Austrian when Austria existed. In the other word, he was

a refugee of war. The third man named Rowley Flint, he had a tolerable finger,

but he was of no more than average height, and in clothes he looked thick-set.

He had not a single feature that you could call good, he had white teeth ,but

they were not very even; he had a fresh color, but not a very clear skin, he was

now just over thirty, he was in short a young man with a shocking reputation

which he thoroughly deserved.

The

action

takes

place

in

the

late

1930s.

30

year-old

Mary

,

whose

extraordinary beauty has always been one of her greatest assets, has been a

widow for one year. Her late husband Matthew, whom she married when she

was 21 because she was really in love with him, turned out to be an alcoholic,

a gambler, a womanizer, and a wife- beater. When he drinks and drives he has

a car accident and eventually, dies in Mary's arms, which is a blessing for both

of them.

The

Leonards

—

a

couple

who

never

appear

in

the

novella

—

offer her

their

16th century villa on a hill above Florence, Italy, to stay there for some time,

and she gladly takes them up on it. The old villa is staffed by two people

—

Nina,

the maid, and Ciro, her husband, a manservant

—

but otherwise empty. Mary,

whose

parents

are

both

dead,

enjoys

the

solitary

life

up

at

the

villa.

Occasionally, she joins other highbrow residents of, and visitors to, Florence

for a party or luncheon. Also, she likes driving round the countryside in her car.