The House of Doors

A fictionalised account of W Somerset Maugham’s 1921 stay in Penang, Malaya as a guest of Robert and Lesley Hamlyn.

This quietly compelling novel tells of unhappy marriages, secrets and intrigue. Told in the first person by Lesley and in the third person by Willie (Maugham), the narratives convey the social attitudes of the time concerning gender, sexuality and colonialism with meticulous detail.

The author’s masterful writing has great emotional depth and brings events to life.

The audiobook is perfectly cast by narrators Louise-Mai Newberry and David Oakes.

My thanks to NetGalley and WF Howes for the ARC.

This was the third book I have read by this author (The Garden of Evening Mists was the first book I ever reviewed many years ago), and I adore his beautiful prose and gentle but incisive character observations.

I particularly liked the melding of historical figures and events with fictional ones which made it feel more like a memoir and made me intrigued to find out just how much of the book was based in fact. It has also made me interested in reading W Somerset Maugham. His book The Letters was a reimagining of the Proudlock scandal from Malaysia in 1911, and so I found the concept of The House of Doors as a reimagining of his time in Malaysia and what he learnt while he was there to be fascinating.

The audiobook had two different narrators for the perspectives of Lesley and Willie and this worked particularly well and made it a very enjoyable and immersive listen.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical literary fiction, particularly the audiobook format as it complemented the author’s writing so well.

“The walls here were also covered with doors. And hanging from the ceiling beams were more doors, carefully spaced apart and suspended on wires so thin they seemed to be floating in the air. We walked between the rows of painted doors, our shoulders and elbows setting them spinning slowly.”

My thanks to W.F. Howes for a review copy via NetGalley of the unabridged audiobook edition of ‘The House of Doors’ by Tan Twan Eng. The audiobook is narrated by David Oakes and Louise-Mai Newberry.

It is notable that Eng’s first two novels were both nominated for the Man Booker Prize: ‘The Gift of Rain’ was long-listed in 2007 and ‘The Garden of Evening Mists’ was short-listed in 2012 and went on to win two literary awards. It will be interesting to see how ‘The House of Doors’, his third novel, is received.

The novel has two narrative perspectives. The first is Lesley Hamlyn, a society hostess who in 1921 is living with her lawyer husband, Robert, at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert's, comes to stay.

The second voice is Willie Somerset Maugham, one of the greatest writers of his day. Yet despite his fame, Willie has many problems including an unhappy marriage, ill-health, and business problems. On top of all this he is struggling to write.

Over time a friendship grows between Lesley and Willie. She ends up confiding her secrets to him, including how in 1910 she came to know the charismatic Dr Sun Yat Sen, a revolutionary fighting to overthrow the imperial dynasty of China and her relationship to Dr. Arthur Loh, who had served as Dr. sen’s interpreter. It is Loh who collects painted doors and displays them in the house of the title. Lesley also reveals her connection to the case of an Englishwoman who was charged with murder in the Kuala Lumpur courts.

Throughout ‘The House of Doors’ Tan Twan Eng’s writing is exquisite. He skilfully blends fact and fiction, incorporating details of the infamous murder trial along with Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s time in Penang. Given its period setting it’s quite fitting that Eng addresses issues linked to British colonialism. As a result dated language and attitudes are sometimes expressed.

With respect to the audiobook edition, I appreciated that there were two narrators as it smoothly signalled the shift between the perspectives of Lesley and Willie. Actors Louise-Mai Newberry and David Oakes may not have much experience as audiobook narrators, though they did an excellent job of bringing the beauty of Eng’s writing to life.

Overall, I found ‘The House of Doors’ a brilliant work of historical literary fiction that addresses important issues, perfectly evokes its period setting, and proved an engaging and thought provoking read.

Highly recommended.