“I’m rather vague about him, because really he didn’t make any particular impression on me; in the East one meets such a lot of people, and he seemed like anybody else.”–FOOTPRINTS IN THE JUNGLE by W. Somerset Maugham
What does the expression “such a lot of” in the above excerpt mean? Does it connote “many” ? Or, does it simply mean “such kind of”?
so many
I take it to mean “many such people”. There was nothing to distinguish him from many similar people, so the writer has a vague (fuzzy) recollection of the man.
In the UK we would say Maugham simply meant that in the East one meets so (very) many people, and he seemed no different.
The expression is still used colloquially as in “we had such a lot of fun” (meaning we had great fun) or “it was such a lot of hard work” when we want to emphasise the amount of XYZ.
P.S. @TroisRoyaumes may be a person of few words, but generally they are spot on :