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جزاء خدماتهم
For Services Rendered sheds a harrowing light on provincial middle-class England after the First World War.
The play was first performed at the Globe Theatre in London in 1932.
The play was first performed at the Globe Theatre in London in 1932.
187 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1933
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About the author
W. Somerset Maugham
2,138 books6,136 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 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 29, 2020
اول مسرحية اقراءها لسومرست موم ، تصف الحياة في ريف انجليزي في منزل عائلة المحامي اردزلي بعد الحرب العالمية الاولي
المسرحية تتحدث عن اثر الحرب والخسارة التي حدثت للمجتمع ممثلة في عائلة اردزلي ومن كان مستفيد بوجود الحرب وندم علي انتهائها
المسرحية تتحدث عن اثر الحرب والخسارة التي حدثت للمجتمع ممثلة في عائلة اردزلي ومن كان مستفيد بوجود الحرب وندم علي انتهائها
September 8, 2013
uncomfortable reading indeed.
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April 8, 2020Maugham is a second-rate writer with a first-rate mind. (I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds right.) The first two plays are rather tragic, the third is a "farce" that runs out of gas in the third act – I hate to admit – and ultimately becomes a crypto-homosexual love story (as I suspected from the beginning). "The Letter" takes place "on a plantation in the Malay Peninsula." Opening this book at random:
Eva: He was everything in the world to me.
Ardsley: My dear, what an exaggerated way to speak. You ought to have more sense of your age.
Eva: He loved me and I loved him.
Ardsley: Don’t talk such nonsense.
Eva: He was everything in the world to me.
Ardsley: My dear, what an exaggerated way to speak. You ought to have more sense of your age.
Eva: He loved me and I loved him.
Ardsley: Don’t talk such nonsense.
January 27, 2023
Had to read for university as we're performing it.
November 29, 2023
this play feels very close in tone to 'but it still goes on' for me.
while it mentions the war, and the effect that it has had on the character's lives, the focus is on 1930s britain and the state that the world is in now. this play is awash with superfluous and unhappy women, and unstable, unsatisfied men.
eva is ignored and mocked when she finally stands up for herself and refuses to spend every day playing chess - a game she hates - and caring for her family. lois is bombarded by the men of the play as they fight for her affection, and none of them are particularly appealing. edith is trapped in an unhappy marriage purely maintained with nostalgia for better times. its bleak.
it does feel like maugham is centrally concerned with women in this play, which i found very interesting. while the men have suffered - collie's financial troubles, sydney's blindness, howard's alcoholism - we also see the aftermath, the way the women are forced to pick up the pieces.
very interesting play.
while it mentions the war, and the effect that it has had on the character's lives, the focus is on 1930s britain and the state that the world is in now. this play is awash with superfluous and unhappy women, and unstable, unsatisfied men.
eva is ignored and mocked when she finally stands up for herself and refuses to spend every day playing chess - a game she hates - and caring for her family. lois is bombarded by the men of the play as they fight for her affection, and none of them are particularly appealing. edith is trapped in an unhappy marriage purely maintained with nostalgia for better times. its bleak.
it does feel like maugham is centrally concerned with women in this play, which i found very interesting. while the men have suffered - collie's financial troubles, sydney's blindness, howard's alcoholism - we also see the aftermath, the way the women are forced to pick up the pieces.
very interesting play.
September 22, 2021
On my system this needs to be 4 stars as it is my 3rd reading and I will, no doubt, read it again. Two warnings:
- the most obvious, these are plays and reading a script is not to everyone's taste
- the other, perhaps also obvious, they were written in the 1930's so some of the language and attitudes portray those of the time. These are most problematic in "The Letter" with it's faux Chinese "accent" and in "Lady Frederick" with it anti semitism.
With that proviso, they are wonderful period pieces, with plots and characters that are recognisable today.
- the most obvious, these are plays and reading a script is not to everyone's taste
- the other, perhaps also obvious, they were written in the 1930's so some of the language and attitudes portray those of the time. These are most problematic in "The Letter" with it's faux Chinese "accent" and in "Lady Frederick" with it anti semitism.
With that proviso, they are wonderful period pieces, with plots and characters that are recognisable today.
January 14, 2025
had to read for acting but i throughly enjoyed it.
May 18, 2017
Written in 1932 For Services Rendered is Somerset Maugham's incisive state-of-the-nation play - written fifteen years on from the end of WW1.
Set in late summer 1932 in Kent, the Ardsley family seem to be managing their lives very well but in reality each of them is fighting for survival. The Ardsley children are facing unpromising futures: Ethel is married to a former officer who is not quite the man she hoped he'd be; Eva is unmarried and approaching 40, martyring herself to the cause of their brother Sydney; Sydney has been blinded in the war; and Lois, at 27, is single and without a hope of marrying in the English backwater the family live in.
The family must go through a seismic shift in order to survive. The younger generation can no longer live their lives in the blueprint of the older generation, they must find a new way of living. England is changing, falling apart, and must begin again.
The play is particularly extraordinary viewed in retrospect as the lessons of WW1 are written so clearly across the lives of the characters who, less than a decade later, would find themselves at war again.
Set in late summer 1932 in Kent, the Ardsley family seem to be managing their lives very well but in reality each of them is fighting for survival. The Ardsley children are facing unpromising futures: Ethel is married to a former officer who is not quite the man she hoped he'd be; Eva is unmarried and approaching 40, martyring herself to the cause of their brother Sydney; Sydney has been blinded in the war; and Lois, at 27, is single and without a hope of marrying in the English backwater the family live in.
The family must go through a seismic shift in order to survive. The younger generation can no longer live their lives in the blueprint of the older generation, they must find a new way of living. England is changing, falling apart, and must begin again.
The play is particularly extraordinary viewed in retrospect as the lessons of WW1 are written so clearly across the lives of the characters who, less than a decade later, would find themselves at war again.
March 15, 2018
Another play read for my dissertation. This one is set 15 years after WWI, and the people are still living with the effects of the war. It was a decent source of information for my dissertation... but enjoyment-wise not that great. I wouldn't recommend reading this play, and I could imagine the play being rather boring if you were to see a production of it...
December 11, 2019
This play looks at the breakdown of society following The Great War. The title could refer to the situation of almost everyone involved in the play. The scenes here involve a single family and their acquaintances and the vision each has of themselves in the new reality of the day. It is actually quite good and well worth the time of a quiet reading.
March 5, 2022
"تُنسى كأنك لم تكن"
اعتقد أن هذه الجملة تنطبق عمن نجوا من الحرب ظاهريًا في هذه المسرحية.
الحروب لا تنتهي حينما تكف كل دولة عن محاربة الأخرى، يظل أثرها مستمرًا على من كانوا فيها وتطول أيضًا من يتعاملون معهم...
اعتقد أن هذه الجملة تنطبق عمن نجوا من الحرب ظاهريًا في هذه المسرحية.
الحروب لا تنتهي حينما تكف كل دولة عن محاربة الأخرى، يظل أثرها مستمرًا على من كانوا فيها وتطول أيضًا من يتعاملون معهم...
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March 4, 2010I loved 'For Services Rendered'. But my favorite from this is 'Home and Beauty'. I am totally biased towards Maugham.
September 8, 2013
From BBC Radio 4 - Saturday Drama:
Written in 1932 For Services Rendered is Somerset Maugham's incisive state-of-the-nation play - written fifteen years on from the end of WW1.
Written in 1932 For Services Rendered is Somerset Maugham's incisive state-of-the-nation play - written fifteen years on from the end of WW1.
September 20, 2013
لو كان أخد منها الفلوس ؟؟ بس للكاتب رأي آخر
November 18, 2019
رائعة للغاية بداية موفقة مع سلسلة روائع المسرح العالمى اتمنى ان تكون باقى السلسلة فى مستوى مقارب من جودة النص وعذوبة الترجمة
April 12, 2020
مسرحية جميلة و خفيفة بصراحة مقدرتش اسيب الكتاب من غير ما اخلصها أسلوب الترجمة شيق جداً ❤
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews