Judge, 1922-11-11 · page 12 of 36
Judge — November 11, 1922 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
# "East of Suez" - Judge Magazine Page This page promotes W. Somerset Maugham's play "East of Suez," starring Florence Reed. The content is a plot synopsis rather than satire. The story concerns "Daisy," a mixed-race (half-Chinese, half-English) character described as morally corrupt with a predatory attraction to Englishmen. The synopsis follows her serial seduction of multiple men—presented as a comedic pattern of infidelity ("two up and one to go"). The crude humor relies on racist and sexist stereotypes: the "immoral mixed-race woman" trope and the femme fatale archetype. Her eventual downfall (a man "blew off his roof," ending in her breakdown) reinforces period attitudes about female promiscuity as destructive. This reflects early 20th-century theatrical entertainment's casual deployment of racist caricatures and misogynistic narratives as comedy. Modern readers should recognize this as reflecting deeply problematic period attitudes now recognized as offensive.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Daisy was half Chinese, half English, and all bad. She had an uncontrollable lean- ing towards Englishmen in white ducks Having married one, she con- tracted what one might call the habit, and very soon thereafter came down with a relapse. This made her two up and one to go by W. Somerset Maugham Starring Florence Reed Leonard Mudie and Miss Reed Believing that it is better to have loved them all than never to have loved at all, she fed the poor fish in the aquarium while she angled for the one in the pool But not all good things come in threes. Daisy overplayed her third shot. The man she wanted blew off his roof, and the curtain falls on Daisy muttering broken china into the sleeve of her kimono