Several years ago, there was a burst of people telling stories that were recognizably copied from Somerset Maugham's story "The Verger". What had been lost was

Several years ago, there was a burst of people telling stories that were recognizably copied from Somerset Maugham's story "The Verger". What had been lost was Maugham's irony, what was left was a pull-your-self-up-by-your-bootstraps story that could have been inspiring if true but instead was just dumb.