The Circle (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: W. Somerset Maugham
- First Published: 1921
- Type of Plot: Comedy of manners
- Time of Work: 1919
- Setting: Dorset, England
- Principal Characters: Arnold Champion-Cheney, Elizabeth, Edward “Teddie” Luton, Clive Champion-Cheney, Lord Porteous, Lady Catherine “Kitty” Champion-Cheney
- Genres: Drama, Comedy, Comedy of manners
- Subjects: Love or romance, Manners or customs, 1910’s, England or English people, Upper classes, Duty, Nobility
- Locales: Dorset, England
The Play
The Circle is set in the fashionable drawing room of Aston-Adey, the Champion-Cheneys’ house in Dorset. Elizabeth, the hostess, has invited Arnold’s mother, Lady Kitty, and her companion, Lord Porteous, for a visit. Feeling awkward about greeting the mother who abandoned him and his father thirty years before, Arnold prefers to talk about his elegant furniture rather than prepare himself for the meeting. As he and Elizabeth await their guests, they learn that Arnold’s father, Clive, has unexpectedly returned from Paris and is on the estate, in the cottage...
[The entire page is 2238 words long]
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