The Verger short story by Somerset Maugham summary

Maugham's "The Verger" is a simple tale about a simple man who does his duties with great joy and dedication. Foreman has been the verger of his church for sixteen years, doing all the menial and manual duties of the vicarage. He loved his job and there were no complaints about him until a new pastor arrived and made a startling discovery--Foreman cannot read. While that fact has never interfered with his duties, the new preacher is appalled and immediately fires the verger.And so, he loses his low-paying job as a verger because it is discovered that he is illiterate, but he adapts to his problem by becoming a successful shopkeeper. He finds he is better off being illiterate. Maugham likes to write about the odd diversity of human characters. In fact, he traveled the world in search of unique characters who would provide inspiration for his stories and novels. "The Verger" is more of a character study than anything else. What is true for the hero of "The Verger" is not necessarily true for everyone; however, there are a lot of men like Maugham's Albert Edward Foreman who have little book-learning but plenty of worldly wisdom obtained through intelligent observation of the real world. Albert Foreman was happy because he did not aspire to social success even after he made a lot of money. He and his wife were both content to lead simple lives. Foreman goes on to start a very practical business, opening a tobacco store where he sees a need, and is amazingly successful. Years later, when Foreman was asked to sign some papers at the bank but could not read them, the banker was astonished at what this man had accomplished without the ability to read. When he asked Foreman what he would have done if he could read, Foreman gave a quick and simple answer: he would have been a verger.