Three British drawing room comedies that challenge both the class structure of British society and the status of women. The author manages to question the role of upper crust women as nothing but pretty wives by mouthing all the standard jargon in support of that; by constant repetition, it becomes ridiculous. Writing at the same time as George Bernard Shaw, Maugham covers many of the same social issues. The plays are a bit wordier than contemporary theatre; longer speeches were the norm, and exposition that would now be regarded as unnecessary was common back then. This does have the decided advantage of making the work easier to understand; you aren't having to read the characters' minds. ( )