The Casuarina Tree
US first edition
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| Author | W. Somerset Maugham |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Winifred E. Lefferts |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short story collection |
| Publisher |
William Heinemann, UK George H. Doran Company, New York |
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Publication date
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1926 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 288 pages (US first edition) |
The Casuarina Tree is a collection of short stories set in 1920s Malaya by W. Somerset Maugham that came out of travels he paid for by working for the British Secret Service as a spy. It was first published by the UK publishing house, Heinemann, in 1926.
The Casuarina tree of the title is native to Australasia and Southeast Asia, often used to stabilise soils. In Maugham's foreword, he says the title was a metaphor for "the English people who live in the Malay Peninsula and in Borneo because they came along after the adventurous pioneers who opened the country to Western civilisation." He likens the pioneers to mangroves reclaiming a swamp, and the expatriates to Casuarinas, who came later and served there. He then learned that his idea was incorrect botanically but decided it would suggest the planters and administrators who for him, were in their turn the organisers and "protectors" of society. The book and the author are true to their times but express views and language that are considered politically incorrect today.
The stories—
Maugham wrote the introduction, "The Casuarina Tree" and postscript, himself.
The major themes are class division, racial difference, adultery, personal competitiveness, and human nature in reaction to fate.
The strong thread running through the stories is alienation and contrast – between people and cultures. For most of the characters, after a crisis in their circumstances, life seems to take up where it left off and closes over the revelations that brought on the drama.
People who are regarded as sane and level-headed, reliable and "well brought-up" show their unexpected real character in a crisis, their inner workings become exposed in reaction to surprise events. The exceptional circumstances are about being away from the England of law and order, in a wild, unfathomable foreign country where they may be misled, misunderstood, faced with life-or-death decisions, physically and mentally at risk, or beyond the scrutiny of their peers.
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Wikipedia