RAIN, Somerset Maugham's Most Famous Short Story

This is the most cited and analyzed of Somerset Maugham's many short stories. Reveals the underbelly of piety.

[@LMVG2233]

WOW!! THANK YOU!! These stories are a magnifcent gift to those who enjoy listening to wonderful words strung impeccably together - like so many pearls!

[@emmahardesty4330]

Wow. What a story. Nothing about it feels contrived, in the way that other complicated short stories wrap up. This story is just as real as real. Marvelous. Thank you---

[@hybridepigenes]

Brilliant stuff. I can't stop listening. Haven't been much of a reader but this has catalyzed my enthusiasm immensely. You have my sincere gratitude.

[@cynthiaslater7445]

I loved the film with Joan Crawford and Walter Huston.

[@MissHellblazer]

Seconded. Look for it here on youtubei

[@AuntieSara459]

I will go look for it by the actors names‼️

[@sandi9659]

I thought the Crawford movie adaptation stank!! I forced myself to watch it to the end, thinking there must surely be a redeeming life lesson. Wrong again. Vampy Joan gave a very poor performance. Sound quality was extremely poor (I know that was due to the year it was made, but still. . )

[@jillg151]

At last, a good story with a clear unhurried reader bringing it to life😊, and BONUS ... no pesky annoying distracting "music" drowning the voice.

[@annemckeon6532]

I'm not 100% sure but I think the reading was done by an AI. If not the reader would have been acknowledged in the description. And it was all a fairly monotone voice.

[@lidiawolanskyj5560]

Yes, I think it’s a robot reader because at times the emphases and pauses are not right.

[@gabriellecunningham7196]

Splendid. Many Thanks 🌹🇦🇺

[@Grace.allovertheplace]

Thank you 🙏

[@spittinchips5175]

I love your narration. Thanks for all you work.

[@antheairenedevilliers1657]

AI

[@novascheller5957]

So many thoughts… The hypocrisy of colonialism… self righteousness of religion…. Marvelous depiction of the monsoon season wearing on the nerves…. And then the ending. Thank you! ❤

[@lizlambert]

Jesus protected the woman from scheming hypocrites. Perhaps Thompson pointed that out to him

[@dbmoriarty1]

She seduced him

[@jillianstokoe4697]

In response to the 1st listed comment, I ask why?. I have recently had my 65th birthday. It wasn't until reading this comment that I'd thought of a person's thinking with age. This appears unfathomable to me. Regardless this is remarkable short story written by a talented author. Bravo! Excellent!

[@user-ws1qf7ol4k]

You haven't learned that our thought process changes with age?!!

[@AuntieSara459]

Please consider editing your comment as I am now the 1st lifted so your remark makes so sense at all. It will help to copy your comment, delete it, then go to the one you refer to, tap their reply button and paste your words followed by one more edit of deleting the first sentence. When done this way the person receives your statement and it's made clearn to whom you're replying. 😊

[@2msvalkyrie529]

What a rigmarole !! The comment was clearly NOT directed at you so why not ignore it !!? People seeking to be offended is the curse ( or one of the curses ) of this age..!!

[@JoanKentBible]

Thank you. Somerset Maugham is such a great story teller. I didn't see the end coming and had to go and get myself a cup of tea. Narration was good and I love your artwork. 🙂

[@jenford7078]

Everything SM wrote is worth knowing but this story has always been at the top of my list of anyone's writings, it's such a true portrayal of the times, the attitudes and the reason religion needs to be curtailed and separate from law in society.

[@Lizziethistle66]

Absolutely 💯 ...I knew straight away what was happening by this 'Man of God' I am a huge fan of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins, having their books ...these people thankfully can be found out quicker than in the past thanks to religion being questioned more...so much more needs done though. I personally want to stop the killing if innocent animals in its name and the cheek to ask for money for doing it! An excellent story .

[@AlgorithmEngagementEntity]

Heart of darkness. Thank you

[@brendabiffibaldovino8306]

Again thank you so much for sharing 💙💙💙

[@janjordal9451]

Wonderful

[@harbinger2838]

A great authorr.

[@user-wc6rm3gf3l]

Excellent!!! Thank you

[@skeleczar]

Woooooow. I was not expecting that. Holy cow.

[@evinnra2779]

When I was younger i would have thought that the ending of this short story was quite predictable Today I see the ending as a horrible injustice against everything good in Life, the blight of Life it self.

[@lightningbug276]

Great story! Loved the movie with Joan Crawford, too.

[@jow6845]

I knew that was happening . I did wonder as another twist that the Davidsons might have gone back to their coral atoll and been massacred.

[@antheairenedevilliers1657]

"No-one has danced in our district for 8 years...". 😅

[@Stratollac]

An excellent story that exhibits a great deal of the attitudes of colonialism and xenophobia of its time. It also paints a (deservedly, to my mind) bleak picture of missionaries that remains a valid critique of that nightmarish enterprise.

[@rosalindabarrett7508]

Great reading

[@annmolloy8600]

Pago Pago is pronounced Pango Pango.

[@fiddlersthree8463]

Forgive the computer. It's still learning English.

[@Iconic58]

⁠@@fiddlersthree8463O-MG!!!!! HI-LA-RI-OUS!!!!!! I like you!

[@PippaAT]

I don't like that piano standing where it is on the deck! Looks rather unsafe to me!

[@nct948]

You're funny!

[@PippaAT]

​@nct948 Well would you sit next to it?

[@nct948]

@@PippaAT 😂😂

[@rambleon3698]

I've ordered some nails and glue. I'll fix it soon.. In the meantime try not to rock your phone or computer too much...

[@PippaAT]

​@rambleon3698 Let me know when it is done, and I will book. Interestingly, (to me at least) I have been given a dress which was made in 1924 for a lady to embark on the Grand Tour. It fits too!

[@wyominghome4857]

I found the ending amusing in an odd way, but having to slog through the whole story? Meh. What Maugham illustrates, however, is a certain kind of personality that feels a need to force a belief system onto others out of fear. I don't see self-righteousness or hypocrisy as inherently a part of Christian evangelism or certain kinds of colonialism, and I somehow doubt that the author does either. One can encounter the same kind of personality whatever the "religion" is: Islam, feminism, transgenderism, environmentalism, socialism, whatever. Get Richard Dawkins going on atheism, for example. Or Greta Thunberg on Saving the World. These religious "missionaries" have their own concepts of mortal sin and paths to redemption, and can be just as oppressive in trying to enforce them. What they don't have - and this was Mr. Davidson's problem - is any sense of peace and joy.

[@dmann1115]

To lump Dawkins and religious zealotry together with the reality of pollution, climate change, and global warming, about which Greta Thunberg is 100% correct, with the facts on her side, is pretty offensive, and more importantly, stupid.

[@wyominghome4857]

@@dmann1115 And you illustrated my point perfectly.

[@dianesleeman5940]

With Maugham character is the story. If having to "slog through" the whole story to get to the point is tiresome then the nuances of personality, fatal flaws are wasted. There is a terrible sense of doom in all Maugham's stories. Perhaps his training in medicine fits him for the almost clinical dissection of human nature. I'm really relishing these stories long though they may be but it is 60 odd years since I first read them. Having had some experience in the tropics and Asia the clash of cultures and ideologies is acute and so often poignant. But these critical comments are excellent. Best downloads in years.

[@lizlambert]

Great comment

[@veritas6335]

Baloney. Hypocrisy and intolerance are the essence of religion. All religions. Religion is superstitious nonsense, period. All religions, even yours. An invention of human beings created to control others and relieve oneself of the burden of having to take responsibility for one’s own life.

[@medicuswashington9870]

À visionary genius

[@ginagabriel2613]

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏👏👏👏👏👏💕

[@1969lumbee]

Good story. I was hoping Miss Thompson would kill him though. A gal had to do what she had to do in a tough male dominated world. From the p.o.v. of an indigenous person I've got to say, "Missionaries, am I right"?

[@opinionatednonna8261]

Colonial missionaries...not all are the same

[@1969lumbee]

@@opinionatednonna8261 I checked with the rest of the natives. We all agree.

[@brynawaldman5790]

FWIW, Rabbi Tovia Singer would agree about the emotional brutality of missionaries. He has KZbin clips about it. They hang out at the memorial site of the Nova Music Festival in Israel trying to convert Israelis who go there to mourn their dead. In 2024. I suppose by one gloss the young women who were killed were "sinful" the way Miss Thompson was . . . although it's a stretch to compare beautiful dancing hippie peaceniks of our time to sex workers of the past, & their mourning relatives whom the missionaries harass in order to convert them. What strange creatures we humans are.

[@rambleon3698]

​@@opinionatednonna8261 But they are all interfering busy bodies. Its the nature of the job...

[@ConsumerReportsUSA]

I didn’t understand the ending.

[@Riklott1111]

Me Davidson had sex with Sadie

[@Riklott1111]

Me Davidson had sex with Sadie and killed himself afterwards out of guilt

[@sylviasmother4774]

He was a dirty old man underneath his pious facade and his wife probably knew that too ,??

[@yasminedey8612]

He had sex with her and afterwards killed himself

[@makkapakka3265]

He’d made sexual advances to her (& his wife heard it) & he couldn’t live with what that meant about him.

[@gordoloboalbondigas]

With such good reason this is regarded by some as S. Maugham's best short story, now that thanks to this medium I've heard several: extremely powerful on so many levels: pro female liberation when that was hardly the thing, a comprehension of what colonialism was, the sin the church bore against indigenous populations...viewed through the eyes of a doctor. Truly a great short story. I look forward to more!

[@deannachapman5411]

A tragic and compelling tale. I'm sorry for the uncharitable light missionaries are painted in... Many of whom endured great suffering and gave their lives to bring the story of salvation to the nations. Sadly, where there is great misapplication of the Scriptures there will always be great hypocrisy and abuses of power in it's wake.

[@sprathik100]

Anywhere missionaries went it was followed by cruelty, deceit, corruption, slavery. Sad they were doing the devils work. They incinerated every Mayan codex of untold astronomical insight. The missionaries destroyed culture and will have to answer to God.

[@rambleon3698]

Pretty sure the natives didn't need Salving...If there's a god, it seems quite happy to let them be...

[@deannachapman5411]

@@rambleon3698 certainly a very uninformed observation. Hopefully, you'll look to the astounding heap of evidence for a Creator before you are standing at His throne.

[@claires9100]

​@@rambleon3698I am with you. God is a fabricated tool to impose menral control. Thompson represented mother nature who cannot be denied .

[@rambleon3698]

​@@deannachapman5411 Ahh! Saving the world for Jesus, one comment at a time...

[@grespa3781]

Stereotypical explanations can't touch the depth of genius description of human nature. It's far more than about colonial times.

[@georgecampbell9305]

Far more impressed with the language than the very implausible plot.

[@robertmatch6550]

I took the story as an 'export' version of a common theme of Maugham. Specifically: hypocrisy. More generally: People are frequently not what they seem. For worse or for better. For an example that tends the 'better' way, find 'The necklace'.

[@clairewyndham1971]

Would that story have been penned by Guy de Maipassant ?

[@mikedavidson1970]

I don't understand 😔

[@katiedotson704]

It seems that when this devout man of God discovered that he couldn't control his libido, that dying by his own hand was not the biggest sin after all. Only the final one.

[@mikekennedy5470]

I have lived my life without religion and have had no problem . I have helped many people and never wanted or expected anything . I did it because I wanted to and to make an example to my children I have no problem with religion but that's between you and your God. Not me . I have always thought people that push religion are insecure and can't be satisfied unless others buy in with them . Just like abortion I don't like it but that's between the woman the doctor and if In the end they can explain it to the god if he is real I guess.. just my opinion.

[@mollydooker9636]

Well said.

[@elaineproffitt1032]

I agree, it's the individual that has to answer to God for their actions. However, I feel that God directs us to individuals that need help or even just a glimmer of hope. Therefore, if you are not connected to Him, how can you guide someone else? What we do in life is our choice, free will. But I'd rather give my free will back to Him and lead a life in Him, however difficult.

[@veritas6335]

Oh please. There is no “god.” No sun god, no moon goddess, no Zeus or Thor or Aphrodite. Claiming to be “directed by god” is just your excuse for not taking charge if your own life.

[@ritaroad]

@@veritas6335Look around at the state of the world. It’s an indicator of humans taking charge of their own lives.

[@Buce-ku9vx]

Thanks for this. 😏🫵👍

[@kellyannpage1469]

No surprises here

[@anitaholst7671]

I'm disappointed. I'd say it was predictable but SM isnt what I'd call a predictable writer.

[@donaldpaterson5827]

Religion does need to be controlled, but true Christianity needs to spread, it has brought such benefits to the world, we could do with much,much more of it.

[@lizlambert]

Especially with such evil making its move right now

[@veritas6335]

Benefits to the world? Name one. Mostly a way for sleazy televangelists to prey on the ignorant and get rich and for corrupt priests toweird power and prey on little boys Religion is a creation of the ignorant.

[@renate.g]

by what definition of Christianity? Who determines what is true and what is speculation? Jesus lived and died as a Jew. Throughout history, Christianity has been used as a power play against anyone who dares to question the prevailing dogma of those in power. Remember that Jesus retaliated against the orthodox leadership as well as Rome.

[@jamesallen2487]

Davidson is a total caricature. Why would SM create such a one-dimensional, inhuman character? Maybe the answer is suggested by his biography.

[@Riklott1111]

What do you mean?

[@robertmatch6550]

Davidson may seem to be a caricature to some. But I see him whenever I tune through certain TV channels, and I hear him on the radio.

[@fiddlersthree8463]

A lot of religious zealots are one-dimensional caricatures of piety so this depiction seems quite accurate to me.

[@fiddlersthree8463]

@@robertmatch6550 Yes, and they rave and shout and pronounce "Jesus" as "Jeeeesus-uh."

[@wendellas3420]

Boy a lot of generalizations are floating about!

[@mikewalker8956]

Kind of a predictable ending really. I didn’t think this was the great story it was advertised to be.

[@LulasSong]

Not clear enough for me.The Priest sinned, or what?

[@Faretheewell608]

@@LulasSong Yes, Sadie Thompson seduced him. He was not able to live with the sin and the possibility of Hell. He realized he was like every man, and no better than the natives he fined and bullied into belief. The hopelessness caused him to commit the additional sin of suicide.

[@SueLegg-lh6fj]

She may have vowed to expose his own sin and ruin him, so that taking his life was about much more than guilt.

[@veritas6335]

Good story but a bit overwritten. Maugham needed an editor. He takes way too much time to get the story going.

[@an234dfg]

As Patrick Henry famously said, "Give me Dickens, Conrad, Poe, Doyle, Wilde, and the Russian authors presented on your channel or give me death!"