The short stories in Casuarina Tree, each of which is the best short story by the British writer Maugham. The Letter is probably better known than other titles because it was adapted into plays and films.
The 1940 version of the film was titled "Tears of Incense Notes", with Betty Davis playing the heroine Leslie. The film's director is William Wheeler, and nothing in his work is Roman Holiday.
Betty isn't her first appearance in Maugham's work, she played Mildred in The Chains of Life. To say that her appearance should not be very beautiful, but it is very characteristic, giving people the first impression of being full of personality and change. Betty Davis wants to play a bad woman, and the persuasion is still very strong. In short, she and Leslie in Maugham's novel "Letter" are more consistent in image.
What kind of woman is Leslie? She was a murderer. One day, when her husband was out on an errand and did not return at night, Hammond, the owner of the rubber plantation, broke into her house and tried to rape her, and Leslie killed Hammond in self-defense and fired six shots in a row.
Everyone thought that Leslie had killed the man in self-defense, but it was not reasonable to say that she had fired six shots in a row. However, the lawyers who defended her did not find it difficult to prove her innocence.
But then came a letter from Leslie to Hammond, which proved that Leslie and Hammond were lovers. Now the letter is in the hands of Hammond's Chinese mistress, precisely because she found that her lover still had a mistress, and Leslie was jealous and killed Hammond in madness.
Leslie learned that the letter was still there and fainted on the spot.
Then she magically regained her composure and asked the lawyer to ask her husband for money to buy the letter. The letter had an amazing price, but she knew her husband still loved her and was willing to make any sacrifice for her.
This is the general content of the Letter. A woman, out of jealousy, or out of anger at betrayal, kills her lover and is eventually acquitted. She did not admit to being murdered, but her lawyers and assistants knew it.
Leslie's husband bought the evidence against her for ten thousand yuan, which can be discussed separately, and here we will mainly talk about the character of Leslie.
Leslie was finally released because she made full use of the good impression she had always given, took advantage of all available conditions, and the most fundamental reason was to take advantage of her husband's trust and love for her.
And this is precisely the greatest irony.
As we all know, Maugham's novels are usually based on the material at hand. "Letter" has archetypal characters and stories. In 1911, a headmaster's wife named Ethel shot and killed a tin mine manager for the same reasons as written in the novel. But the court did not accept her claim, but held that she and the deceased were lovers, because the other party was living with another mistress and hated to kill. At the time, Ethel was sentenced to death by hanging, but her friends and supporters petitioned together, and she was eventually granted amnesty by the local governor.
Ten years later, Maugham heard Ethel's lawyer tell the story, and he added the key material of "letters" to write the novel.
In real cases, the court found no concrete evidence that the killer had an intimate relationship with the deceased, but in Maugham's novel, the letter is irrefutable evidence.
What happened to the archetypal characters of this novel, and what really happened during the trial of this case, is unknown. In short, the archetypal characters were released without any punishment. But Maugham was visibly unhappy with such an ending, and he asked the poor husband to pay for the letter himself, and after reading the letter, put it in his pocket.
"No, you can't. I'll keep it myself. It cost me a lot of money. ”
By this time he knew that his beloved wife had betrayed him long ago, but he said nothing. He was a man with a very simple mind, and it was only when he was told that the letter was important that he first became suspicious of his wife.
"At this moment, there seems to be a glimmer of light in his dull intellect."
The novel ends with Leslie knowing that her husband knows everything and confessing the truth to the lawyer.
Maugham wrote several times about the horrific look of the woman's face as it was deformed, and Leslie ended up with the impression of a beast wearing a human skin mask.
In reality, the defendant in this case is not punished in any way, and Maugham makes her pay the price in the novel. This price, one is to make her lose her husband's trust and love, I am afraid that she will also lose the marriage and family that are enough to protect her social status; the other is to expose the viciousness and madness after her quietness and elegance, even if only a few people know this, it is better than being deceived by her.
Bibliography: Letters (In Maugham), Biography of Maugham (Selena Hastings)