Читать книгу The Unknown; A Play in Three Acts - W. Somerset Maugham - Страница 4

Table of Contents

 Colonel Wharton

 Major Wharton (John)

 Mrs. Wharton

 Mrs. Littlewood

 Rev. Norman Poole

 Mrs. Poole

 Sylvia Bullough

 Dr. Macfarlane

 Kate

 Cook

The action of the play takes place at the Manor House, Stour, in the County of Kent.

The author ventures to suggest to the readers of this play that he makes no pretensions to throw a new light on any of the questions which are discussed in it, nor has he attempted to offer a solution of problems which, judging from the diversity of opinion which they have occasioned, may be regarded as insoluble. He has tried to put into dramatic form some of the thoughts and emotions which have recently agitated many, and for this purpose he has chosen the most ordinary characters in the circle with which, owing to his own circumstances, he is best acquainted. But because it is a good many years since he was on terms of intimate familiarity with a parish priest, and he was not certain how much the views of the clergy had changed, the author has put into the mouth of the Rev. Norman Poole phrases from Dr. Gore’s “The Religion of the Church,” and from a sermon by Dr. Stewart Holden. Since it is impossible in a play to indicate by quotation marks what is borrowed, the author takes this opportunity to acknowledge his indebtedness for the Rev. Norman Poole’s most characteristic speeches.