The lovers’ picnic in Maugham’s in The Razor’s Edge fails. The lovers never touch or kiss or even hold hands.
Isabel Bradley is young and socially mercenary. But, her lover Larry Darrell wants to “loaf” to find himself. Isabel confronts this impasse at a picnic on the steps of a country house, where she and Larry eat stuffed eggs, chicken sandwiches, apple pie, and coffee. She brings a thermos of martinis for good measure, which they seem never to get to drink. Isabel’s uncle Elliott Templeton had suggested a French menu. Still, the fiercely American Isabel and her mother Louisa Bradley reject the pâté de foie gras, curried shrimps, breast of chicken in aspic, heart-of-lettuce salad, and a cold bottle of Montrachet. This Continental picnic might have softened Larry’s heart, but he remains intractable.
When Isabel makes a direct pitch, “Let’s be sensible. A man must work, Larry. It’s a matter of self-respect. This is a young country, and it’s a man’s duty to take part in activities.” Larry begs off. Instead of a job and marriage, he wants to see Europe in peacetime. “Well,” he says, “I thought I’d start by going to Paris.”.
Though they pledge their love, Isabel and Larry’s future is ambiguous at best.
Featured Image: This country club evening should have been a picnic on porch steps. Edmund Goulding’s The Razor’s Edge (1946).
See W. Somerset Maugham. The Razor’s Edge. London: Heinemann, 1944; Edmund Goulding. The Razor’s Edge (1946). The screenplay is by Lamar Trotti and is based on Maugham’s novel, John Byrum. The Razor’s Edge (1984). The screenplay is by John Byrum and Bill Murray based on W. Somerset Maugham’s. Byrum and Murray’s screenplay has three picnics, none according to Maugham’s text.