THE HAPPY COUPLE, A Short Story by Somerset Maugham

[@karinteves1412]

I am thoroughly enjoying these short stories by Somerset Maugham.

[@Pattilapeep]

One of the great features of Maugham"s stories is that he takes all the time he needs to set up the characters, places and events. It really fleshes out the story and makes it great!

[@daviddean6032]

Listening to this audio while I’m walking around Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. ❤

[@danjsy]

Listening to these in real time unable to sleep in roasting Corfu !

[@gottasay4766]

I fall to sleep with these. That is a compliment. Complete dreams insue.

[@purple467]

How does one listen in unreal time?

[@Laura-tp8wz]

@@gottasay4766me too

[@lisaroberts8135]

@@purple467 Easy peasy !

[@purple467]

@@lisaroberts8135 do tell

[@JacobH181]

Listening from Philadelphia USA - fantastic story!

[@emmahardesty4330]

This is marvelous. Maugham tucked in so many other stories in this story. Just great. Thank you--

[@scepisle4970]

Love Somerset Maugham.... ❤

[@carolinewalker3106]

Listening to this story whilst cycling along the seafront at Brighton , thank you so much for this 🙂

[@paulwooton4390]

Shame they used a.i. to read. I suppose professional voice actors are expensive, and ordinary people lack the necessary vocal or reading skills. Your ride must be lovely.

[@lydiamangiardi6032]

I've listened to a lot of books on tape read by real voices. Some I've had to stop because the voices are irritating - too loud, too much emotion, not enough emotion, too much bravado, too syrupy, the rhythmical cadrnce is choppy, or the voice is too high and shrill and doesnt sound the depths, etc., etc. For some reason, I don't find this AI voice annoying. The cadence is just tight, there's inflection, but not too much inflection. It's not imbued with so much emotion that it directs you to make a conclusion one one way or another. It's steady and even, without so much drama that it steers your thinking. It allows you to participate in your own conclusion and doesn't direct you to make an intended one. I actually really like the AI voice because it stays out of the way of your own conclusions and lets you bring something to it based on your imagination and life experience. I actually really like it because it stays out of the way of what you see in it without the emotion in the narrator's voice that risks bringing too much bias to it.This AI voice doesn't give away too much. The tone is more subtle, sophisticated, and less preachy, and this gives more room for your own thoughts to bloom and your own imagination to engage in the creative process.

[@toniyoung8474]

Marvellous reading! Thank you!

[@MrPaddymarley]

Listening in Tamraght, Morocco

[@Lordreinerwolf]

Listening to these stories since we’ve had a power outage last night in Michigan and this morning before work 😢. I listening 👂 to these stories 😊

[@barbarasch6611]

Listening to this audio while eating dinner in Southern Germany. 😂

[@samdapanda8055]

That "sentimental donkey" bit had me cracking up 10 at night 😂😂😂

[@cevhawaii7840]

Listening poolside under the palms in Hawaii🤙🏻

[@novascheller5957]

Interesting twists and turns!

[@JanisJanus25]

Just discovered. What a treat.

[@marilynmckenzie2111]

Listening to these most enjoyable short stories while cross stitching and getting tired enough to sleep in Ont Canada 🥰🇨🇦🧑🏻‍🦰

[@14921960]

Listening to this audio while I’m lying in bed at home near Chicago.

[@jeremypearson6852]

Interesting story. Even judges can be impartial sometimes.

[@olgascopeliti401]

Listening to this in Voula Attica, Hellas.

[@lianavardanyan7182]

Listening from Armenia, I reallly love Samerset Maughams' novells

[@tyed9295]

I really enjoyed this short story . This one had a complete ending not like some of the other that end so abruptly as if couple of pages were missing. Thanks for posting all the S.M. short stories ✌️

[@rosemaryfairbanks6399]

NZ

[@mimsalamims6571]

"One should hold a woman by the waist, a bottle by the neck" Thanks for the tip, Somerset!

[@veritas6335]

Hardly. Rather gauche to grasp the neck of a wine bottle when pouring. One should grasp the bottle full around its middle.

[@JanisJanus25]

Subscribed immediately

[@catherinedavies3727]

Excellent!

[@rumin528]

Listening in Sofia Bulgaria :) A huge fan.

[@oldenglishsheepdogfun5960]

Listening as I walk along the South Downs way

[@gillps5130]

I wonder if the narrator ever disabused Miss Grey of her romantic embroiderings of the couple's relationship. A later, speculative follow up over cocktails overlooking the sea, perhaps on Miss Grey's terrace, would have been cosily salacious and led, perhaps, to new positive, romantic thoughts closer to home.

[@c.a.savage5689]

I do not think the narrator's romantic thoughts are inclined towards Miss Grey, or women generally.

[@nadaklen3254]

English is not my native language, but I understand it well. This time I didn't understand why the lady's companion insisted on poisoning? Couldn't they have gotten married without the poisoning story?

[@ireminsel]

Money

[@nadaklen3254]

⁠Thanks for answerning. I was thinking about that. But she certainly would not gain anything by discovering the poisoning, because the will was written. And to be bitter to that extent? And the writer insists that she couldn't wait for Lady to die so she could marry the doctor. I don't know, something doesn't make sense to me. Or this time I really, really didn't understand English😂

[@CarolWoodhouse-w2s]

You sound like a very nice person who would never think of murder as a way to get money. Unlike these people. Your English is very good. Best wishes.

[@nadaklen3254]

I had to listen this story once more. And now, ladies and gentlemen, something completely different🥁🥁🥁... I understood. Maid insisted on poisoning story, not lady's companion😃

[@ricardo53100]

This was a very odd story indeed.

[@ricardo53100]

I was listening to this story in Prague.

[@fahahahaha6669]

WAY Too Many freaking ads for such a short story! Ugh! You just start finding yourself in the midst of the story only to be suddenly ripped out by ANOTHER freaking ad! Exhausting! I wish i could find another person who offered Somerset stores 🤬

[@joshual.1833]

Methinks Maugham'd be cancelled today with some words like "I never met a woman who could pour a glass...", innit

[@AnnaDalen2497]

He doesn’t seem like a womanhater, says lots of appreciative things

[@gillps5130]

​@@AnnaDalen2497Ah, but it's all about perceptions, how it makes you feeel.

[@diannew6066]

@@AnnaDalen2497 Probably wasn't a woman hater at all, but he's writing like men spoke in those days and even in my youth. Glad those days are gone.

[@__-1234]

Perfect, except the "Mouton Rotschild", with the i pronounced as e, not as i.

[@mattneillninasmom]

Don't know why a bachelor/doctor would not have money enough for the two to marry and live well, without committing murder. Goes against a lifelong commitment to saving lives, not taking them. And what about the nieces, blood relatives, cut out of the will? Flawed logic in this story. Unable to sleep in Los Angeles.

[@MrAlexsegal]

My guess is that the doctor was greedy.

[@marilynbrown-x4m]

I wonder how the baby got into the story.

[@ginagabriel2613]

🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏👏👏👏👏💕

[@garethadams9610]

Can someone help me? I missed the twist in this. Either because I’m stupid or because I wasn’t listening properly.

[@c.a.savage5689]

The couple were murderers, not as imagined by Miss Grey.

[@mireille4751]

The judge recognized the « perfect » couple named Craig : they were in fact named Brandon and had gotten married after having been suspected to poison an old lady. The jury cleared them from murder but the judge is convinced that they were guilty.

[@mireille4751]

Thank you for these short stories which I love. I am listening from Arcachon, a seaside resort in Southwest France 🇫🇷

[@helenwheels3341]

10 31 24. Another sleepless night

[@dontaylor7315]

Landon is such a nasty character I kept longing to see him abjectly humbled. But a writer of Maugham's caliber doesn't turn out wish-fulfilment fantasties in lieu of solid stories, so I never got my wish.

[@jacknorth6438]

Interesting

[@samsum3738]

A pair of wrong 'uns .

[@Edo9River]

An odd intertwining of purposeful restraint and relaxation of morality 😢

[@susanpetropoulos1039]

Insufferable judge! 😂 I bet Maugham knows that type well.

[@joelweidenfeld471]

Aristo douuuchhhe Maugham

[@stephenperretti8847]

And your point is????

[@joelweidenfeld471]

@@stephenperretti8847 ANOTHER MASONIC or POS...piece of sheep author we are told is beautiful

[@VickersDoorter]

What's your problem, Jew.

[@joelweidenfeld471]

@@stephenperretti8847 ANOTHER NOT voice of the COMMON MAN a MASON liar...but the point is all you ever have read is bullshit they tell you is great and it's not ...from not Shakespeare the aristo almost ROYAL de vere , A FUCK LOAD OF LIES RIGHT THERE TO Somerset to Mark twain to Vonnegut .. MOST men writters they pump however are not masons as artists avoid it UNTIL fame and generationaly they don't pass it on like the skull and bones batch of Crap.... the point is all you will see is very CONTROLLED from newspapers to telegraph to radio to RADIO and tv to movies and the INTERNET has more rules that flush the constitution DOWN the drain than I could remember without looking at their insane TOS AND CGs...the point is all that is controlled by 8 corporations and the point is that 100 percent , book publishing is included in that control

[@carolthomas8528]

@@stephenperretti8847 I don’t understand the original remark- can you explain ?

[@anotherblonde]

She must've been gemini not virgo, they are very contrary

[@veritas6335]

“Virgo intacta” refers to the woman being a virgin. Not to her astrological sign. Besides, it’s silly to cast Géminis as murderers simply because you don’t like them. Scorpios would be more given to it than most, but there are murderers of all astrological persuasions.