Plays Volume One by W Somerset Maugham

Plays Volume One by W Somerset Maugham

In his day, W. Somerset Maugham was most celebrated as a playwright, and the breadth of his ability is manifested in this collection of his most popular plays. Included here are the noirish mystery The Sacred Flame, the hilarious satires The Circle, The Constant Wife, and Our Betters, and the sharp-witted drama Sheppey. Whether suspenseful or acerbically witty, these plays take a sly look at the idiosyncrasies and hypocrisies of their time.

Maugham has given infinite pleasure and left us a splendour of writing which will remain for as long as the written English word is permitted to exist * Daily Telegraph *
A formidable talent, a formidable sum of talents..precision, tact, irony and total absence of pomposity * Spectator *
Gripping and entertaining * The Daily Telegraph on 'The Letter' *
A shrewd, still-relevant examination of women's roles, the nature of love and the manners and mores of marriage * Variety on 'The Constant Wife' *

William Somerset Maugham, famous as novelist, playwright and short-story writer, was born in 1874, and lived in Paris until he was ten. He was educated at King's School, Canterbury, and at Heidelberg University. He spent some time at St. Thomas' Hospital with a view to practising medicine, but the success of his first novel, Liza of Lambeth, published in 1897, won him over to letters. Of Human Bondage, the first of his masterpieces, came out in 1915, and with the publication in 1919 of The Moon and Sixpence his reputation as a novelist was established. His position as a successful playwright was being consolidated at the same time. His first play, A Man of Honour, was followed by a series of successes just before and after World War I, and his career in the theatre did not end until 1933 with Sheppey.

His fame as a short story writer began with The Trembling of a Leaf, subtitled Little Stories of the South Sea Islands, in 1921, after which he published more than ten collections. His other works include travel books such as On a Chinese Screen, and Don Fernando, essays, criticism, and the autobiographical The Summing Up and A Writer's Notebook.

In 1927, he settled in the south of France, and lived there until his death in 1965.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781784872120
ISBN 10	1784872121
Title	Plays Volume One
Author	W Somerset Maugham
Series	Maugham Plays
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Vintage Publishing
Year published	2017-02-23
Number of pages	480
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable