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The sacred flame: A play in three acts
The Sacred Flame is the story about the misfortune of Maurice Tabret, previously a soldier of World War One who had returned home unscathed to marry his sweetheart Stella. Unfortunately, after only a year of marriage, Maurice is involved in a plane crash and left crippled from the waist down. The play commences some years later in Gatley House near London, home of Maurice's mother, Mrs. Tabret.
187 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1948
25 people want to read
About the author
W. Somerset Maugham
2,131 books6,116 followersWilliam Somerset Maugham was born in Paris in 1874. He spoke French even before he spoke a word of English, a fact to which some critics attribute the purity of his style.
His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage, Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays.
Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way.
During World War I, Maugham worked for the British Secret Service . He travelled all over the world, and made many visits to America. After World War II, Maugham made his home in south of France and continued to move between England and Nice till his death in 1965.
At the time of Maugham's birth, French law was such that all foreign boys born in France became liable for conscription. Thus, Maugham was born within the Embassy, legally recognized as UK territory.
His parents died early and, after an unhappy boyhood, which he recorded poignantly in Of Human Bondage, Maugham became a qualified physician. But writing was his true vocation. For ten years before his first success, he almost literally starved while pouring out novels and plays.
Maugham wrote at a time when experimental modernist literature such as that of William Faulkner, Thomas Mann, James Joyce and Virginia Woolf was gaining increasing popularity and winning critical acclaim. In this context, his plain prose style was criticized as 'such a tissue of clichés' that one's wonder is finally aroused at the writer's ability to assemble so many and at his unfailing inability to put anything in an individual way.
During World War I, Maugham worked for the British Secret Service . He travelled all over the world, and made many visits to America. After World War II, Maugham made his home in south of France and continued to move between England and Nice till his death in 1965.
At the time of Maugham's birth, French law was such that all foreign boys born in France became liable for conscription. Thus, Maugham was born within the Embassy, legally recognized as UK territory.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 9, 2020
From TIA:
The action takes place in 1929 at the Tabrets' home near London.
Maurice Tabret, the central character, is a young man dreadfully injured in an air crash, who for six years has been paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. His wife, Stella, with whom he had been passionately happy, has done her best to comfort him and make the best of their changed life; they now live with Maurice's mother, and there is a young Nurse who completes the trio of women whose concern is Maurice's well-being. But there is tension beneath the calm surface, especially with Stella, and the arrival of Maurice's brother, Colin, provokes a situation whose tragedy is exacerbated by the fact that everybody concerned means well.
Starring Sybil Thorndike with Jill Balcon and Carleton Hobbs
Adapted for radio by Peter Watts
Produced and directed by Graham Gauld
Maurice Tabret: John Graham
Dr Harvester: Stephen Jack
Mrs Tabret: Sybil Thorndike
Nurse Wayland: Jill Balcon
Alice: Jo Manning Wilson
Major Liconda: Carleton Hobbs
Stella Tabret: Pat Pleasance
Colin Tabret: Denis Goacher
https://archive.org/details/TheSacred...
The action takes place in 1929 at the Tabrets' home near London.
Maurice Tabret, the central character, is a young man dreadfully injured in an air crash, who for six years has been paralysed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. His wife, Stella, with whom he had been passionately happy, has done her best to comfort him and make the best of their changed life; they now live with Maurice's mother, and there is a young Nurse who completes the trio of women whose concern is Maurice's well-being. But there is tension beneath the calm surface, especially with Stella, and the arrival of Maurice's brother, Colin, provokes a situation whose tragedy is exacerbated by the fact that everybody concerned means well.
Starring Sybil Thorndike with Jill Balcon and Carleton Hobbs
Adapted for radio by Peter Watts
Produced and directed by Graham Gauld
Maurice Tabret: John Graham
Dr Harvester: Stephen Jack
Mrs Tabret: Sybil Thorndike
Nurse Wayland: Jill Balcon
Alice: Jo Manning Wilson
Major Liconda: Carleton Hobbs
Stella Tabret: Pat Pleasance
Colin Tabret: Denis Goacher
https://archive.org/details/TheSacred...
December 24, 2019
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doa0g...
Description: The Sacred Flame by W Somerset Maugham was broadcast on BBC Home Service Basic on 17th July 1965. Maurice, invalided following an air crash, is determined to remain cheerful. But his condition affects all those who are close to him.
'They tell me that one of these days they'll try operating again to see if they can put me right. But I know they're lying. I'm here for life.'
Adapted for radio by Peter Watts
Produced and directed by Graham Gauld
Maurice Tabret: John Graham
Dr Harvester: Stephen Jack
Mrs Tabret: Sybil Thorndike
Nurse Wayland: Jill Balcon
Alice: Jo Manning Wilson
Major Liconda: Carleton Hobbs
Stella Tabret: Pat Pleasance
Colin Tabret: Denis Goacher
June 21, 2020
Maurice Tabret, a permanent invalid, crippled "all smashed up" in a plane accident in the war, is looked after by Nurse Wayland, while the young and beautiful Stella, his wife, is kept away because Maurice is so devoted to her that he does not like she should have anything to do with the disgusting details of his illness.
Colin, his brother, comes home for a holiday from America and the inevitable happens. Stella is going to have a baby by him. (Maurice is incapable of having marital relations with his wife.) Mrs. Morris, the mother, seeing that disclosure will break: Maurice's heart, puts an end to his unendurable pain by giving him, as promised, an overdose of sleeping pills. She is shown as a very understanding and wise lady who makes due allowance for Stella's weakness. Chastity, she says, is not the whole of virtue. There are other constituents: kindness, courage, consideration for others, commonsense and humour.
Miss Wayland, who was determined to make trouble by" insistmg on an inquest, is so touched by the old lady's goodness that she decides to swear, if necessary, that it was she who left the sleeping pills by Maurice's bedside.
Colin, his brother, comes home for a holiday from America and the inevitable happens. Stella is going to have a baby by him. (Maurice is incapable of having marital relations with his wife.) Mrs. Morris, the mother, seeing that disclosure will break: Maurice's heart, puts an end to his unendurable pain by giving him, as promised, an overdose of sleeping pills. She is shown as a very understanding and wise lady who makes due allowance for Stella's weakness. Chastity, she says, is not the whole of virtue. There are other constituents: kindness, courage, consideration for others, commonsense and humour.
Miss Wayland, who was determined to make trouble by" insistmg on an inquest, is so touched by the old lady's goodness that she decides to swear, if necessary, that it was she who left the sleeping pills by Maurice's bedside.
February 8, 2026
Maugham gets people; he seems to know how we tick. Everything I’ve ever read of his - and I’ve read more than a little - is a masterclass in human nature and adroit storytelling, and ‘The Sacred Flame’ is no exception.
‘Mrs Tabret: What do any of us live for but our illusions, and what can we ask of others but that they should allow us to keep them’.
‘Mrs Tabret: What do any of us live for but our illusions, and what can we ask of others but that they should allow us to keep them’.
September 4, 2021
I quiet liked it.
January 24, 2024
Oyunun ötenaziyi işlemesi ilginç olsa da, çok derin bir oyun değil. Maugham yüzeysel yazmayı seviyor sanırım.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews