У.С. Моэм «Записка»: от новеллы к пьесе
W.S. Maugham The Letter: from a short story to a play

Summary/Abstract: The Letter (1924) is one of the most famous short stories written by W.S. Maugham. It is included in the collected stories The Casaurina Tree. Similar to Maugham’s other works of this collection, The Letter shows the fate of Europeans. The plot of this story is complicated by a detective line which brings some dramatic effect in the narration. It makes the author turn the story into the play in 1925, correcting the finale and adding some new characters. It should be noted that the detective line is ousted here by a melodramatic dominant; therefore the genre of the play can be considered as melodrama. Both the short story and the play are based on an actual case of Ms. Proudlock, who supposedly shot William Steward when he attempted to rape her. Found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging, she was pardoned by the sultan of Selangor, but went mad in prison, was sent back to England and died in an insane asylum.

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