Why WS Maugham's Rain won't shock readers today

W. Somerset Maugham's story Rain, considered by some to be his best or most famous, is truly a great read, a fairly long story by today's standards, will hold your interest top to bottom - it's tempting to say some bromide such as They don't write stories like they used to, and there's some truth in that - stories of a century ago were published in popular magazines and were meant to entertain and not to befuddle, and WSM seems clearly in the tradition of the well-made narrative: a character faces a crisis and resolves it, or doesn't. Essentially, there are 5 characters in the story: Dr. and Mrs. Macphail Scottish, en route to a remote posting on an island near Borneo, and Mr. and Mrs. Davidson, missionaries, heading out to the same area. They land in Pago Pago, American Samoa, and are stuck there unexpectedly for 2 weeks (the 1920s equivalent of an airport layover) and they rent rooms in a small house in town. Dr M is truly the main viewpoint for the story, and he clearly loathes the Davidsons, prim and narrow-minded in their faith and convictions: Mr. D tells proudly of how he got the "natives" to give up their sinful ways by fining them and threatening them. The story gets under way as a young woman, Miss Thompson, rents a room in the same house, and Rev. D is perturbed by her rowdy ways: she plays ragtime music, has men come over to her apartment to drink and party, she's bold and brash - a second-class traveler no less. He threatens her, a real prig and bully, and, as he realizes that she is a prostitute, takes several steps to get her deported from the island. She pleads with for mercy, and he begins to spend a lot of time trying to convert her. Modern readers of course will see what's happening much faster than Maugham's original readers did - we're far more used to frank even blatant sexual aggression in fiction and popular culture - but the ending is still pretty powerful and odd, even if predictable. Maugham does a great job sketching in the characters, a few excellent topical details, and then we get to know them by their actions and their speech: Dr. Macphail an acerbic and trenchant observer, trying to do the right thing but a little befuddled by Davidson's obstinacy; Davidson a Malvolio or a Dimmesdale, so resolute in his faith and so self-absorbed. The wives are sketched lightly and play only a supporting (if not supportive - more like enabling) role.