“The Creative Impulse” by William Somerset Maugham. “Do you like the story? Why?

Allow me to state that “The Creative Impulse” is definitely an interesting and worthy piece of literature. Written in a short and non-sophisticated manner, this short story brings up such moments and questions in life of a man or a woman as spiritual strength, the ability to deal with unexpected and unpleasant turns and events, the strength to come to terms with bitter truth and the ability to find motivation in words of others and to overcome anger and despair. Let me explain one by one.

Mr. and Mrs. Forrester had been married for thirty-five years. One day he wrote her a letter, talking about his wanting to divorce her and become married to another woman. The very first reaction of Mrs. Forrester is natural and doesn’t launch any strong reader’s response. For me, at least. But then a reader learns that Mrs. Forrester doesn’t fall to despair, depression or to commiting suicide. She decides to bring her husband back. The brilliant moment of the story is that a reader starts feeling inspiration first, and the protagonist starts it secondarily. Mrs. Forrester finds a vigour to face her husband and talk to him. That is spiritual strength and the ability to deal with unpleasantries in life. He delivers her a bitter truth that they have never had anything in common and that her infatuation with art and literature never interested him. In the end he finds the strength to go away despite all feeling and all those years together. She, in her turn, finds the strength to agree and to accept that that was truth. Finally, she finds inspiration in their words and doesn’t put down her hands, getting ready to write a worthy detective story. “The Creative Impulse” is like a fist punch from a short distance. Fast, simple, easy to perform, non-sophisticated but at the same time powerful, impressive and without any redundancy.