Pleasure Reading 1. Chapter 1

The events of the book began in 1919. The narrator, Somerset Maugham, received the invitation from his friend Elliot Templeton  to a lunch in Chicago with him. There he met Mrs. Louisa Bradley, his friend's sister, her daughter Isabel and Isabel's fiance Larry Darrell. The next day the narrator had dinner with all of them again, where he was introduced to Gray Maturin, a Larry's friend, who also fell in love with Isabel. Gray's rich father offered Larry, who didn't have a job, a promising position in his company. But Larry was still suffering from the shock of seeing his best friend who had been killed during the World War I. He had no ambition or desire to work, and he turned the job offer down. Instead, he said he intended to go to Paris and loafed around for two years. Isabel said she would wait for him.