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drunk with a well-known reputation within the colony, and that he had married
Millicent while on home leave largely because he'd been warned he'd be sacked if he didn't find himself a wife who could keep him in line, she describes her dogged attempts to reform him—and to preserve her marriage. (Both Skinner sisters had grown old enough to be considered spinsters, and Millicent in particular had been anxious to marry; she had not imagined herself in love with her husband, but it is a blow to discover just how far from in love with her he had been.)
338:. His assistant, Mr. Pryce, becomes exasperated with the doctor's ineffectiveness, confiding to Mrs Hamlyn that the native woman Gallagher left behind put a spell on him: he will die, she swore, before reaching land. Despite a witch doctor's efforts to beat the curse, Gallagher does die at sea, and through his death Mrs Hamlyn becomes aware of the importance of living. She writes a letter of forgiveness to her husband.
331:: a woman who's leaving her husband after many years of marriage, and a middle-aged man heading back to Ireland and retirement after 25 years as a planter. Mrs Hamlyn is forty and has left her husband not strictly because he betrayed her—it is not her husband's first dalliance—but because this time her husband really cares for the woman, and has refused to give up his mistress.
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leave. Such domestic arrangements as he had with the native woman are common and expected among unmarried white men in the colony, he assures Doris, and the native women expect the arrangements to end as casually as they begin; there was no love between them, nor any expectation of any; and the woman was paid well to go away and is unusual in her refusal to be gone.
411:
period of some years in prison for manslaughter, Robert
Crosbie reads the letter and is confronted with the fact of his wife's infidelity - it turns out that she and Hammond had been lovers for years and that she had shot him not to prevent rape, but in a jealous rage when Hammond rejected her and declared his love for his Chinese mistress.
410:
It emerges that the letter is in the possession of
Hammond's Chinese mistress. Using Ong Chi Seng as a go-between, she blackmails the husband, Robert Crosbie, into purchasing the letter at an exorbitant price. Having paid dearly to save his wife from a possible death sentence for murder or at least a
366:
When a native woman lurks about the compound with her small children and makes an ever-growing nuisance of herself, Guy at last reveals the woman's connection to him, one he had believed Doris need never discover, since residents usually were not sent back to their old posts after returning from home
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officer, Mr
Warburton, and his newly arrived, uncouth assistant, Mr Cooper. In a battle of class differences, the feisty Cooper, despite his competence in his job, manages to repel his more refined boss and to make enemies of the native helpers. Each man is extremely lonely for the company of another
307:
After having been impressively sober for some months and an attentive husband and father—just when he'd given
Millicent reason to believe she had triumphed—he relapses badly, and the discovery is so stark and so bitter that she stabs him to death with the ornamental native sword hanging above the bed
406:
A Singapore-based lawyer, Joyce, is called on to defend Leslie
Crosbie, a planter's wife who is arrested after shooting Geoffrey Hammond, a neighbor, in her home in Malaya while her husband is away on business. Her initial claim to have acted in self-defense to prevent Hammond from raping her falls
303:
While the
Skinners are gathering to leave, after one question too many from her younger sister, who's heard a rumour that her brother-in-law was a drinker and didn't die of fever after all, Millicent tells the true story of her husband's death. Explaining her discovery that he was an incorrigible
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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,
439:
Maugham explains choosing imaginary names for anywhere outside of
Singapore because he based a lot of his material on personal experiences though the characters are composites. In his disclaimer he recounts that while the people are imaginary, an incident in "The Yellow Streak" was "based on a
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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.
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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.
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where she found him drunk. It was easy to conceal the true cause of death from the local council, and by now the jungle has reclaimed the body in its entirety, so there's no danger whatsoever that her crime will be discovered, Millicent tells her family in conclusion.
300:; she and her child have returned home to England to live with her parents and sister. During this era, the early twentieth century, when propriety dictated a strict period of mourning, it is one of Millicent's first social appearances since her husband's death.
387:. Drink, vanity, carelessness and self-doubt bring Izzart to cracking point when an incident with a tidal wave on the river means it's every (white) man for himself. Not only his weakness, but his inner torment is clear to the more experienced Campion.
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The upper-class Skinner family is preparing to attend a party. Among them is silent older daughter Millicent, mother of a young child and widowed when her husband, a colonial administrator, died of fever eight months earlier while they were living in
379:"The Yellow Streak" is an internal story of class snobbery, racism and frail human nature in the face of death. Izzart is an insecure snob with a secret who is put in charge of the safety of Campion, a mining engineer hired by the
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Despite loving Guy and knowing he loves her, despite her appreciation of his loneliness so far from home without white companions, Doris is repelled by the discovery that he lived with a native woman and fathered her children.
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under suspicion after Ong Chi Seng, a junior clerk in Joyce's law office, comes to Joyce with the information that a letter is in existence showing that Hammond had come to Leslie Crosbie's house that night at her invitation.
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Her proper parents and sibling are aghast; her father, a lawyer, considers his duty; but the overall impression is that her family is stunned by the impropriety of Millicent's deed. It simply was shockingly bad form.
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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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on September 2, 1926. The first American edition was published on September 17, 1926 by George H. Doran. It was re-published by Collins in London under the title
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and Southeast Asia, often used to stabilise soils. In Maugham's foreword, he writes that the title was a metaphor for "the English people who live in the
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Things aboard ship are merry, as the various passengers plan a Christmas party, until the planter, Mr. Gallagher, develops incurable
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because they came along after the adventurous pioneers who opened the country to Western civilisation." He likens the pioneers to
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in the region for six months in 1921 and four months in 1925. He published a second set of short stories based on these travels,
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suggested that this story be made the basis of tourism promotion in
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This short story was later adapted for the stage by Maugham as
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which is well known for the tidal bore featured in the story.
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Two people are returning home to the British Isles from the
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Guy meets and marries Doris in England while on leave from
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of fictional Sembulu to discover mineral possibilities in
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1926 collection of short stories by W. Somerset Maugham
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461:. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. p. 18.
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1283:Secret Agent
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1195:The Magician
1193:
1187:The Canadian
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1171:East of Suez
1169:
1161:
1155:The Divorcée
1153:
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1131:The Explorer
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846:Then and Now
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766:The Magician
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758:Mrs Craddock
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602:. Retrieved
600:. April 2017
597:
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266:Major themes
256:introduction
253:
230:
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25:
1475:Being Julia
1251:Our Betters
1122:Adaptations
1086:Non-fiction
1011:Our Betters
474:Maughamiana
323:P. & O.
286:Story plots
262:, himself.
238:P. & O.
208:Australasia
183:, in 1933.
1516:Categories
1323:The Letter
1211:The Letter
1179:The Circle
1163:Jack Straw
1043:The Letter
1027:The Circle
649:0224018132
549:0224018132
516:0224018132
437:postscript
431:Postscript
424:The Letter
402:The Letter
260:postscript
250:The Letter
95:, New York
604:9 January
220:mangroves
204:Casuarina
156:Heinemann
129:288 pages
84:Publisher
21:Casuarina
995:Penelope
889:Ashenden
854:Catalina
566:Archived
427:(1927).
396:Sri Aman
348:Resident
227:Contents
170:(1945).
66:Language
1494:Related
1395:Quartet
1075:Sheppey
897:Ah King
814:Theatre
435:In the
392:Sarawak
336:hiccups
214:and in
180:Ah King
69:English
1486:(2006)
1478:(2004)
1470:(2000)
1462:(1984)
1454:(1964)
1446:(1962)
1438:(1957)
1430:(1954)
1422:(1953)
1414:(1951)
1411:Encore
1406:(1950)
1398:(1948)
1390:(1947)
1382:(1946)
1374:(1946)
1366:(1946)
1358:(1944)
1350:(1944)
1342:(1942)
1334:(1940)
1326:(1940)
1318:(1938)
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1254:(1933)
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1222:(1929)
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1206:(1928)
1198:(1926)
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1182:(1925)
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1166:(1920)
1158:(1919)
1150:(1917)
1142:(1917)
1134:(1915)
1113:(1954)
1105:(1938)
1097:(1922)
1078:(1933)
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1054:(1928)
1046:(1927)
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974:(1902)
916:(1947)
908:(1940)
900:(1933)
892:(1928)
884:(1926)
876:(1921)
857:(1948)
849:(1946)
841:(1944)
833:(1941)
825:(1939)
817:(1937)
809:(1932)
801:(1930)
793:(1925)
785:(1919)
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769:(1908)
761:(1902)
753:(1897)
742:Novels
677:, p232
665:, p231
646:
546:
513:
480:
385:Borneo
381:Sultan
361:Malaya
298:Borneo
216:Borneo
46:Author
1147:Smith
987:Smith
963:Plays
731:Works
540:251-2
444:Notes
126:Pages
74:Genre
1403:Trio
1235:Rain
932:Rain
644:ISBN
606:2023
544:ISBN
511:ISBN
478:ISBN
202:The
105:1926
90:, UK
733:by
640:253
507:253
146:by
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