num_pages: 343
description: In this, the second volume comprised of Maugham's best works, the four plays in this selection provide significant evidence of the playwright's powers as a dramatist.  "For Services Rendered" sheds a harrowing light on provincial middle-class England after the First World War.  "The Letter," a tense drama of sexual passion set in the Malay States, shows Maugham as the colonial storyteller. In contrast, "Home and Beauty" treats the marital complications of a returning war hero with Mozartian "joie de vivre."  W. Somerset Maugham established his reputation as a master of the social comedy in the tradition of Oscar Wilde with "Lady Frederick" in 1907.
language: English
title: Plays 2: For Services Rendered / The Letter / Home and Beauty / Lady Frederick
titlecomplete: Plays 2: For Services Rendered / The Letter / Home and Beauty / Lady Frederick
ratings_count: 15
publisher: A&C Black