and would be unhappy away from them. Furthermore, Liza felt that she could not leave her mother. Although the old woman had never been much of a mother, Liza thought it her duty to stay with her. There seemed nothing for Liza and Jim to do but to continue as they were or to part entirely. Neither could think of parting.

After Liza’s friend Sally was married, her happiness made Liza even more miserable in her own shame. Later, she learned that Sally’s happiness was only superficial. Her husband beat her regularly, but the girl was too proud to let anyone but Liza know. Liza also had a shock. Once she was late for an appointment with Jim, and he drank too much while he waited for her. When she tried to keep him from going back into the pub for more beer, he struck her in the eye. He was instantly contrite, but the damage to Liza’s heart never quite mended.

Sally warned Liza one day that Jim’s wife was looking for her. To avoid a public scene, Liza tried to keep clear of Mrs. Blakeston, who was much the larger and stronger of the two. In a fight, Liza realized that she would be bested; but at last they met, and Mrs. Blakeston gave Liza a horrible beating. Outclassed from the beginning, the girl fought gamely. Tom and Jim appeared almost simultaneously and stopped the fight, Tom carrying Liza home tenderly and Jim threatening to kill his wife for hurting Liza.

Tom loved Liza so much that he wanted to marry her, although he knew all the gossip about her; he had insulted her in the past because of his hurt. Even when she told him that she was going to have Jim’s baby, Tom still wanted to have her for his wife. Liza, however, refused him again; Tom was too good to be tied to a woman of her reputation.

Jim himself almost killed his wife. He was prevented from doing so only by the intervention of a neighbor woman.

Later that night, Liza awoke with a burning fever and intense pain. For the next day or two, she suffered terribly, and at last her mother became worried enough to send for a midwife. The woman knew at once that Liza had miscarried and was gravely ill. Although they sent for a doctor, the midwife knew that there was little hope for the girl. Tom called regularly, out of his mind with worry. When she was conscious, Liza looked only for Jim. He came as soon as he heard about her condition, but he was too late to give any comfort to the dying girl. She lay unconscious for several hours and then quietly died. As the doctor covered her face, Jim turned away, weary and defeated.

Critical Evaluation:

Although akin to the naturalistic style of fiction emerging at the end of the nineteenth century, LIZA OF LAMBETH is not as relentlessly bleak as George Moore’s ESTHER WATERS or Theodore Dreiser’s SISTER CARRIE. Rather, the novel possesses a lightness of touch closest to the fiction of Guy de Maupassant, and W. Somerset Maugham has acknowledged that the book was modeled after the straightforward, realistic manner of Maupassant and was influenced by the socially conscious plays of Heinrick Ibsen. The novel presents an eloquent—if implied—picture of the need among the poor for birth control. The irony occasionally is heavy-handed, but the boisterous humor of the slum characters is usually amusing and always interesting. The scenes of the slum life of eighty years ago are vividly detailed.

Liza is a girl of spirit with a strong, if untutored, native intelligence. She possesses a vague desire to better herself and would like to marry (since she can think of no other fate than marriage for herself) someone better than any of the men she knows. Her inarticulate dissatisfactions, however, have no outlet other than Jim, the married man down the block. She is cornered by her place in society and by convention. Without even understanding her own feelings, she plunges ahead, hoping for the best, but not expecting it.

The only joy the people in the novel have is in basic physical pleasures: dancing and singing, running and playing games, eating and drinking, and sex. Their pints of beer ease the aches and pains of everyday life, and their moments of lovemaking provide a brief escape into another world. Nevertheless, their pleasures necessarily are fleeting and are paid for with years of boredom and drudgery. It is their lusty humor that carries them along, helping them endure their gray lives. Maugham catches the essence of their humor as well as the taste of their brief gratifications with precision and economy. Their efforts to make life bearable are all the more poignant for the lack of moralizing on the part of the author.

The pressures of the group on the individual are dramatically presented. As much as Liza and Jim want to have their freedom and happiness, they are hedged in by the opinion of the neighborhood. Vere Street is the center of the world to Liza, and she cannot escape it, whatever she does.

The black humor of the closing scene, with Liza’s mother and the old midwife, Mrs. Hodges, guzzling brandy and whiskey and gossiping as Liza lies dying a few feet away, is chilling in its effectiveness and worthy of Dickens. Finally, nobody seems to be to blame for what happened. The incidents of life just piled together, and fate closed in on Liza. Unlike the Naturalist novelists, Maugham makes no plea for social reforms; he has simply presented a piece of life as directly and vividly as possible.