Maugham's unerring hold over audiences and readers is amply demonstrated by the five plays in this selection. Sheppey, his last and one of his very best, is the comedy of a Cockney barber who wins a sweepstake. The Sacred Flame gives an unusual note of noir-ish suspense to a moving drama of protective maternal love. The Circle, widely regarded as Maugham's masterpiece, deals wittily with the dilemma of a woman intent on leaving her pompous husband. In The Constant Wife, an abrasive, war-between-the-sexes comedy, his heroine is an early feminist. Our Betters, whose London opening was delayed through fear of lawsuits, exposes the amoral society of an English aristocracy funded by American heiresses.