On the weekend I read two books. Before you say "That's a lot of colouring-in", let me explain: one was "Scurvy - How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail"; the other one was W. Somerset Maugham's "The Narrow Corner".
Filled with adventure, passion, and intrigue, "The Narrow Corner" is a classic tale of the sea. Island hoping across the South Pacific, the esteemed Dr. Saunders is offered passage by Captain Nichols and his companion Fred Blake, two men who appear unsavoury, yet any means of transportation is hard to resist. The trip turns turbulent, however, when a vicious storm forces them to seek shelter on the remote island of Kanda. There these three men fall under the spell of the sultry and stunningly beautiful Louise, and their story spirals into a wicked tale of love, murder, jealousy, and suicide.
Of course, I had read it before but when I found this beautifully bound hardcopy edition by the Vanguard Library, I couldn't resist to read it all over again. A Hollywood film version, starring Douglas Fairbanks, was produced and released in 1933. But don't judge the book by its movie; instead, read it here, or listen to the BBC Saturday Night Theatre here.
