The author is a humorist

How does the story reflect his sense of humour?

The device of humour is employed to evoke laughter. Laughter is of two types, dry or blank laughter and wise or meaningful laughter. Humour evokes laughter which often calls for sympathy from the readers. In the opening of the story, the narrator introduces us to humour by describing how he was tactfully and cunningly called by the lady to visit the Foyot. She almost insisted him to offer her a luncheon in that highly expensive place. Visiting Foyot was not a reachable thing to afford in those days and given the economic condition of the narrator, it was beyond his reach to visit the place. However, driven by flattery he agreed to do so. After several calculations, he finally decided to visit there only to realize that to afford the dishes of Foyot was beyond his budget line. Thus, we find the comic humour in the story as he constantly tries to calculate his available cash and simultaneously tries to entertain the lady. Further, we find humour in the lady’s remark that she lives on the very meager amount of food for a luncheon but ultimately orders a variety of rich delicacies. Finally, there is humour in the lady’s remark as she instructed the narrator to follow her example of having a so-called little luncheon and the narrator sarcastically replied that he would set a better example by not having anything for dinner that night. Thus, we find that Maugham’s “The Luncheon” is replete with ample humorous moments carved with soft sarcasm.