Point of View

From the outset, the narrator clearly states that The Razor's Edge will not proceed like most novels. The author, W. Somerset Maugham, speaks directly to the readers in the opening passage and tells them that he has misgivings about writing this novel. He claims it is based on real people and actual events, but that the names have been changed and that he has put the conversations into his own words. When he wasn't around for the conversations, he wrote them as he imagined they would have gone. All of this information is given in the first section of the first chapter, which essentially serves as an introduction, although one that is not given a separate section as with most novels.

Because of Maugham's inclusion in the story, the novel exercises every point of view. He talks to the reader in the second person, and his...