# VII: A Trip to Paris explained — Ashenden

> Chapter companion for Ashenden by W. Somerset Maugham.

## What happens

Ashenden reflects on his life in Geneva, finding it orderly and monotonous despite his claim of never being bored. He receives a telegram from R. summoning him to Paris under the pretext of a sick aunt. In Paris, he meets R., who outlines a plan to capture an Indian revolutionary. They have lunch at a fashionable restaurant, where Ashenden admires the revolutionary's motives while R. remains focused on the mission.

## Themes in this chapter

### Boredom and Routine in War

Ashenden muses on the monotonous and orderly nature of his spy work, contrasting it with the public's perception of adventure.

### Moral Ambiguity of Espionage

Ashenden expresses admiration for the Indian revolutionary's motives, while R. dismisses him as a dangerous criminal, highlighting the ethical complexities of their work.

### Class and Cultural Clash

R.'s shyness and awkwardness in the fashionable restaurant reveal his discomfort with luxury and high society, contrasting with Ashenden's ease.

## Character check-ins

### Ashenden

Reflects on his boredom and routine in Geneva, travels to Paris for orders, and discusses the moral implications of their mission with R.

### R.

Summons Ashenden to Paris, outlines the plan to capture an Indian revolutionary, and shows a fascination with the luxury of the restaurant.

## Key lines

> Ashenden was in the habit of asserting that he was never bored. It was one of his notions that only such persons were as had no resources in themselves and it was but the stupid that depended on the outside world for their amusement.

Ashenden claimed he never got bored, believing that only those lacking inner resources or intelligence relied on external entertainment.

_Ashenden's self-perception and philosophy on boredom._

> It might be, he mused, as he rode along the lake on a dappled horse with a great rump and a short neck, like one of those prancing steeds that you see in old pictures, but this horse never pranced and he needed a firm jab with the spur to break even into a smart trot; it might be, he mused, that the great chiefs of the secret service in their London offices, their hands on the throttle of this great machine, led a life full of excitement; they moved their pieces here and there, they saw the pattern woven by the multitudinous threads (Ashenden was lavish with his metaphors), they made a picture out of the various pieces of the jigsaw puzzle; but it must be confessed that for the small fry like himself to be a member of the secret service was not as adventurous an affair as the public thought.

Ashenden considered that while high-ranking spies might lead exciting lives, his own role was as routine and unadventurous as a clerk's.

_Ashenden's reflection on the mundane reality of espionage for lower-level agents._

> R. had no notion of what Ashenden was talking. 'That's very far-fetched and morbid,' he said. 'We can't go into all that. Our job is to get him and when we've got him to shoot him.'

R. dismissed Ashenden's moral considerations about the Indian revolutionary, insisting their only duty was to capture and execute him.

_R.'s pragmatic and ruthless approach to their mission._

## Links

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