num_pages: 512
description: Maugham's unerring hold over audiences and readers is amply demonstrated by the five plays in this selection. Sheppey, his last, is the comedy of a Cockney barber who wins a sweepstake. The Sacred Flame gives an unusual note of suspense to a moving drama of maternal love. The Circle, widely regarded as Maugham's masterpiece, deals wittily with the dilemma of a woman intent on leaving her pompous husband. In The Constant Wife, a sparkling war-between-the-sexes comedy, his married heroine is an early feminist. Our Betters exposes an English aristocracy funded by American heiresses.
language: English
title: Plays 1: Sheppey / The Sacred Flame / The Circle / The Constant Wife / Our Betters
titlecomplete: Plays 1: Sheppey / The Sacred Flame / The Circle / The Constant Wife / Our Betters
ratings_count: 21
publisher: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama