Impelled by the desire to recapitulate and amplify those 'subjects that have chiefly interested me during the course of my life', Somerset Maugham wrote The Summing Up when he was sixty-four. Autobiographical without being an autobiography, confessional without disclosing the private self, The Summing Up is one of the most highly regarded expressions of a personal credo. It is not only a classic avowal of a professional author's ideas about style, literature, art, drama and philosophy, but also an illuminating insight into this great writer's craft.
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我知道苦难无法使人更高贵,反而使人更卑微。它使人自私、猥琐、狭隘、猜忌。它把人们注意力吸引在细小的事情上面,它没有使人超越人本身,却使人称不上真正的人;我曾残忍地写道,我们不是从自己的苦难,而是从他人的苦难中才学会了顺从。
大多数人过着受变幻莫测的命运所掌控的随遇而安的生活。很多人受迫于其出生的境遇和生活的必需而保持一条笔直而狭窄的生活道路,在这条道路上,没有向左转或者向右转的可能。...只有艺术家,或许还有犯罪,才能制定自己的生活模式。
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