Landed Gentry

At Kenyon-Fulton, a Somersetshire estate where inherited grandeur hides private ruin, W. S. Maugham's Landed Gentry turns a drawing-room comedy into a biting study of class, marriage, and moral hypocrisy. Claude Insoley rules his household with cold authority, while his wife Grace, elegant but increasingly distraught, finds herself trapped among servants, guests, and a family that measures worth by birth, money, and obedience. When gamekeeper Gann's daughter Peggy returns from London "in trouble," Claude insists she must be dismissed, even if it means sacrificing a loyal servant and his family. As tensions rise, Grace's resentment of country life and her loveless marriage erupts in sharp exchanges with Helen Vernon, Edith Lewis, and the formidable Mrs. Insoley, whose social ambitions and ruthless judgments dominate the house. The arrival of Archibald and the awkward Cobbett adds comic friction, but the play's wit only sharpens its emotional sting. Grace's uneasy intimacy with Cobbett, her fury at Claude's principles, and Gann's desperate pleas for mercy drive the drama toward a painful reckoning, where duty, desire, and compassion collide beneath polished civility. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.