The immense success of Mr Somerset Maugham is not too hard to analyse. Any good journalist can give the reason of it, any good playgoer recognise the reason at sight. He knows his time. (p. 95)
[To be abreast of his time in such a way that he is a hair's-breadth ahead of it] is the safe place for the playwright to be; and that is Maugham's normal position. He has the right journalistic flair in playmaking; he is as up-to-date as you please, but never "advanced"; he takes the world as he will find it to-morrow morning, not as he may find it next year…. He succeeds by manner rather than by matter. What he says lies lightly enough upon the playgoer's mind. There have been, I think, no Maugham-controversies, as there have been Shaw-controversies. No one ever lost a night's sleep, nor lived a new life next day, for seeing one of his plays. His strength is in technique, and it is as technician that I would chiefly consider him.
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