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Analysis of East of Suez (1922) by W. Somerset Maugham
Home > Blog >East of Suez stage scene 1, from Basil Dean's Seven Ages
East of Suez. A Play in Seven Scenes. London: Heinemann, 1922.I am at the moment a little bit upset with myself because it seems that with years I haven't grown wiser. Last night I finished reading East of Suez, and I had been all excited waiting for the first free moment to write about it. Industrious as I always am, I went to have a look at Mander and Michenson's Theatrical Companion to Maugham, to see abo…
The Sacred Flame (1928): A Story About Love. Analysis and First Edition
Home > Blog >The Sacred Flame, Doubleday, Doran & Co., 1928
The Sacred Flame. A Play in Three Acts. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, 1928.Reading the play The Sacred Flame was a curious experience. I feel sorry that I had some ideas of what it was about, which thus destroyed the suspense, and I can't say whether I would have guessed it right if I were not to know anything about it. However, it wouldn't be possible to discuss the play if I don't talk about what the…
The Constant Wife – "A Piece of Music" – Alan Stanford
Home > BlogGuerin, Harry. "Alan Stanford: The Constant Life." RTE, 14 Jul. 2016. Web. 14 Jul. 2016. "a brilliant comedy depicting the infinite ingenuity by which women control their world."
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"It's the most beautifully composed script. It's like a piece of music and yet it never sounds that way. Maugham was a genius novelist and a genius user of language. He also understood theatre very brilliantly, in that he manages to set up all the information you nee…
"Rain" by W. Somerset Maugham: Analysis
Home > Blog > One of the ongoing projects that I have started is to collect performances of W. Somerset Maugham's plays, which are more robust than I would have imagined.What is on at the moment is an adaption of Maugham's short story "Rain" into a musical by Michael John LaChiusa and Barry Eldelstein, performed at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Several of Maugham's works have been adapted into other genres, such as Liza of Lambeth into a musical, The Moon and S…My Maugham Collection Concordance Library (MMCCL)
Happy New Year!As mentioned in a previous post, a project that I have been working on, My Maugham Collection Concordance Library (MMCCL), is going to come live today, as W. Somerset Maugham's works come under the public domain in countries with copyright law that is extended to fifty years after the creator's death.
MMCCL is still in its initial state. I have a significant amount of texts ready to be uploaded, but this is a long process and please be patient. For now, the three p…
For Services Rendered - W. Somerset Maugham & Howard Davies
Finally, it appears that someone has got it right.W. Somerset Maugham's play For Services Rendered is being performed at the moment at Minerva Theatre, Chichester, directed by Howard Davies.
The reviews are nothing but glowing.
Reorganization
Just a short note about the reorganization of the blog. I have cleaned up the pages and reorganized them into Maugham ePortal. This fancy name is for what were previously called the Free eBooks pages, separated by their genres: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Non-Fiction, and Media (videos). Criticism of Maugham and Useful Links (which is dying for an update...) also fall under this category. Their addresses have not changed, so if some of you who have very kindly backlinked do not have to chan…%2Bby%2BW.%2BSomerset%2BMaugham.jpeg)
The Land of Promise (1913) - W. Somerset Maugham
The Land of Promise. A Comedy in Four Acts (London: Heinemann, 1922)The Land of Promise is a play by W. Somerset Maugham, written after his trip to the Western prairies of Canada in 1912, especially for gathering materials after the insinuation of Charles Frohman, who wanted his most popular dramatist to write something along the line of Taming of the Shrew. [1]
The play was first produced on 26 February 1914 at the Duke of York's Theatre. The first and second editions, for copyright purp…
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The Bread-Winner (1930) by W. Somerset Maugham
The Bread-Winner (London: Heinemann, 1930)This post is about The Bread-Winner. A Play in Three Acts, by W. Somerset Maugham. The Bread-Winner was first performed at the Vaudeville Theatre on 30 September 1930, and published in the same year. Maugham was by that time fifty-six and he is definitely going to give the young a piece of his mind.
The copy that I acquired is an interesting piece in itself, which I will talk more about later on.
The Bread-Winner
The Bread-Winner is a brilliant play, …
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Jack Straw (1912) by W. Somerset Maugham - First Edition
Jack Straw (London: Heinemann, 1912)Jack Straw, a play by W. Somerset Maugham, first performed on 26 March 1908 at the Vaudeville Theatre, later revived in 1923, and more recently saw the light of day again at the Elmwood Theatre as a production of the Linden House Theatre Company, was written in 1905, after Lady Frederick was repeatedly turned down by managers and out of frustration Maugham changed his strategy of writing a part to attract a leading lady to a leading man instead.
However, the…
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The Constant Wife (1926) by W. Somerset Maugham
The Constant Wife. A Comedy in Three Acts (New York: George H. Doran, 1926)The Constant Wife, a play by W. Somerset Maugham, was first produced on 1 November 1926 at the Ohio Theatre, Cleveland. Although the copyright states 1926, Stott registers April 1927 as the publishing date.
Constance the Constant But Unfaithful Wife
Constance Middleton, beautiful and equally tasteful, is married to John Middleton the surgeon. When the play opens, her mother Mrs. Culver and her sister Martha are busily…
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For Services Rendered. A Play in Three Acts by W. Somerset Maugham - First Edition
For Services Rendered (London: Heinemann, 1932)This post is about W. Somerset Maugham’s penultimate play, For Services Rendered, written more to please himself after his successful career was firmly established. After over eighty years, this play is to be put on stage once again in Nottingham to commemorate the First World War for the duration of one week.
For Services Rendered. A Play in Three Acts - Storyline
For Services Rendered was first produced at the Globe Theatre on 1 November 1932. It…
Marriages Are Made in Heaven by W. Somerset Maugham - The Venture. An Annual of Art and Literature
Marriages Are Made in Heaven (The Venture. An Annual of Art and Literature. London: John Baillie’s, 1903)Marriages Are Made in Heaven, W. Somerset Maugham’s first published play, a curtain-raiser, is relatively unknown except to familiar readers of his (his fans, that is). It was performed on 3 January 1902 at Schall und Rauch in Berlin in its German translation, done with the help of a friend according to Stott and by himself according to Calder, as Schiffbrüchig (“Shipwrecked”), produced by M…
Revised Free Ebooks Page - W. Somerset Maugham
Revised Page - Free eBooks by W. Somerset MaughamThis is a short post with announcement about a significant cosmetic change of my free ebooks page containing free access to W. Somerset Maugham's works.
Some time ago I revised quite dramatically the Free ebooks - Short Stories page, putting the stories in chronological order following their first publication dates.
Finally I found the time to do something similar to the page on novels by Maugham. The Internet Archive and the Open Library p…
Of Human Bondage, A Play by Vern Thiessen - Soulpepper Theatre
Of Human Bondage, a Play - Soulpepper TheatreFinally I am in the right place at the right time!
Of Human Bondage on stage, adapted by Vern Thiessen, directed by Albert Schultz, led by Gregory Prest and Michelle Monteith as Philip and Mildred. I admit that I had my doubts, as usual as one goes to one’s favourite work translated into another genre, and I admit that I have a very pleasant surprise.
A foggy day in Toronto. Greeting me when approaching the Union Station were a series of high-rise…
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The Explorer. A Melodrama in Four Acts by W. Somerset Maugham - First Edition
The Explorer. A Melodrama in Four Acts (London: Heinemann, 1912)The Explorer, a play by W. Somerset Maugham, was written as early as 1899 but wasn’t produced until 1908, forming one of the four plays presented simultaneously after the success triggered by Lady Frederick.
Like some of his other early works, Maugham used the same story to try out different genres. The play was novelized under an identical name and published in 1907.
The Explorer - Storyline
The play got good contemporary review…
Home and Beauty by W. Somerset Maugham - First Edition
Home and Beauty. A Farce in Three Acts (London: Heinemann, 1923)Home and Beauty by W. Somerset Maugham is a hilarious play, written when Maugham was staying at the sanatorium at Nordrach-on-Dee to recover from tuberculosis of the lungs, produced on August 30, 1919, and published in book form in 1923.
The story itself is an old tale. Maugham is able to draw out all the comedy from the ridiculous situation. It must be fun to see it on stage.
Home and Beauty - Storyline
From the very beginning Ma…
Loaves and Fishes (1924) by W. Somerset Maugham -- First Edition
Loaves and Fishes. A Comedy in Four Acts (London: Heinemann, 1924)Loaves and Fishes is a play by W. Somerset Maugham, written as early as 1903 but wasn’t produced until 1911. As a matter of fact, it was turned into a play from a novel of the same name written in 1902, and then a few years later, in 1906, it was again rewritten as a novel and became The Bishop’s Apron.
The story of Canon Spratte is a demonstration of Maugham’s resilience and determination to become a professional writer, workin…
Landed Gentry by W. Somerset Maugham
Landed Gentry. A Comedy in Four Acts (Chicago: The Dramatic Publishing Company, 1913)This post is about a play by W. Somerset Maugham. I possess a different copy this time. Instead of the first edition published by Heinemann, I have the US edition for a change. Moreover, I will show at the end of this post some photos published in The Play Pictorial, which are of interest to look at.
Landed Gentry - Storyline
The play was written in 1910 and performed in the same year, on October 15, at the D…
Lady Frederick by W. Somerset Maugham - First Edition
Lady Frederick (London: Heinemann, 1912)This post is about W. Somerset Maugham’s first successful play, Lady Frederick, which brought him the popularity and financial success that he had been working hard for for over ten years.
Lady Frederick - Turning Point for Maugham
Lady Frederick is the watershed of Maugham’s career as a writer. He had been struggling for upwards of ten years, writing from one subject to another, from novel to drama to travelogue to short stories, trying to find a niche…