Maugham represents Elliott as kind and generous as well as vain and superficial. Which is his dominant quality, or are they evenly balanced? Is the character likable overall? Why, or why not?

What do you think of the real-life author placing a version of himself in his fictional story? Does it distance the reader from the other characters, or does it create a sense of intimacy with the author? Both? How does Maugham’s approach differ from that of other writers employing authorial intrusion?

Isabel speaks passionately about men and work, but not women and work. What does it say about Isabel (or the society she lives in) that it doesn’t occur to her to study law or medicine or finance as she presses Larry to do?