"The Hero" By W. Somerset Maugham Google Books: 1908
Captain James Parsons comes home from the Boer War in Africa to a small town in England, injured and a hero with the Victoria Cross. Everyone is so proud of this local son of Colonial Parsons. What they did not count on was the boy they sent off to war is not the same man who comes back. They are not happy with what war and the world has done to him. The same goes for James. He does not like how he and English life has changed either.
I thought I read all of Maugham's novels but was surprised to find it in Google's Books. This is a faulty novel to be sure, but the faults are minor to the really important things that are in this early novel. The character, James Parsons, is well developed and balanced and the reader sees how much he loves his parents but hates the life style that they live in. He also has learned while in Africa how very much he is capable of full blown passion and love although the woman he had fallen in love with was part of the current world and ambitious she is still a woman
that sets his blood racing. Still, he tears her letters up because to love her means to hurt too many people he loves in his life.The people in his home village are set in their ways and so sure they are right. They are Christian and of course God is on their side. When James questions this saying that the Boers were equally convinced that God is on their side and were just like the British people except they could not survive the war they were scandalized. They told him that he had no idea what he was talking about. James was there to fulfill their expectations of the world and not the other way around no matter what his experiences were.
This book could have been set in today's world except for the solemn promise of James' engagement to Mary. James was caught in the wishes and desires of the people he loved. He no longer wanted to marry Mary because he found out what it was to be in love with a woman who could make him desire her. Mary just wanted to do what was expected in her society.
If people stood out and were different, then society would trim him down to fit. They attempted to do this with James with tragic results for James. Over and over again they used the excuse that if he cared for them he would buckle down and do what was was honorable instead of what he wanted to do. Maugham used foreshadowing effectively to show this. It was done well in this book and an indication of the use of it in later works. The author never tells the reader everything to complete the story in the book. They can look for it in the hints and details in the story. Maugham does not enter the story like Hercule Poirot and spell it out for the reader. I like that aspect of his writing.
The writing was excellent although some parts of the book did seem like a play. I never lost interest in the story or in what was to happen to James. Mary was very well developed as well as James parents and Mary's mother. I would like to see this book more read than it is currently. Everyone can read it as it is either free or the cost very nominal.
