The Razor's Edge is a 1944 novel by W. Somerset Maugham. The first chapter is like that of Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), where the author explains his purpose in writing the novel, and in this case declares it a roman a clef. Maugham himself makes frequent appearances in the book, as he pops in and out of the lives of Larry Darrel and those who know him. Larry has just returned to Chicago from serving as a fighter pilot in WWI, and decides not to go into business with his friend Gray Maturin at Gray's father's investment house. His fiancée, Isabel, decides to give him some time find himself, and her uncle, a good-hearted snob par-excellence named Elliott Templeton. Meanwhile, their lower-middle class friends Sophie and Bob are madly in love, get married, and have a kid.
Well, after spending some time in Paris, Larry decides that he still doesn't want to be a stockbroker, and Isabel leaves him, eventually marrying Gray and having his children, despite still being in love with Larry. Sophie's husband and child die in a car crash, sending her into pattern of self-destructive behavior meanwhile Larry has gone to India and finds a path towards enlightenment there. He comes back only to find that Sophie and Gray are living with Uncle Elliott in Paris, after the stock market crash of 1929 ruined Gray's family's firm. Here they run into Sophie, who has become an alcoholic opium-addict and likely possibly prostitute Larry makes it his mission to help Sophie, and she achieves sobriety. Larry eventually decides to marry her, which devastates Isabel. Isabel tempts Sophie into drinking again, which leads to her reentering the low-life and her eventual murder. Larry decides to head back to the US, to share what he has learned with the salt of the earth. According to Maugham at the novel's close: "...I had written nothing more or less than a success story. For all the persons with whom I have been concerned got what they wanted. Elliott social eminence; Isabel an assured position backed by a substantial fortune in an active and cultured community; Gray a steady and lucrative job with an office to go to from nine till six every day; ...Sophie death; and Larry happiness."
