Bernard Shaw's Plays : Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, Saint Joan, and Too True to Be Good [Paperback]

George Bernard Shaw (Author), Warren S. Smith (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393099423 | ISBN-13: 978-0393099423 | Publication Date: December 1970

Required College Reading

Product Details

• Paperback: 494 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (December 1970)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393099423
• ISBN-13: 978-0393099423
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,531,819 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A "Heartbreaking" Separation, December 22, 2001

By 

T. C. Blake (Burbank, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bernard Shaw's Plays : Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, Saint Joan, and Too True to Be Good (Paperback)

Having read the criticism by another online reviewer that "Saint Joan" is misleading, I wondered if we had read the same play. So I had a look at this book and the problem is obvious: no prefaces! Shaw's plays are meant to be read with his prefaces and they shouldn't be separated. Shaw himself intentionally wrote in that mode, noting at one point, "I would give six of the plays that Shakespeare did write for one of the prefaces he ought to have written." That's a little extreme, but the point is taken, and I believe that the general reasoning is valid. Shaw's complete plays with prefaces run to six volumes or so. Take that kind of route if you can; you'll be well rewarded with edification and entertainment.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shaw is hilariously one of the most thoughtful playwrites, April 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Bernard Shaw's Plays : Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, Saint Joan, and Too True to Be Good (Paperback)

I think that Shaw is generally misread in this part of the twentieth century. In particular, Too Good to be True, is highly outdated, and therefore highly incomprehensible. That makes it even funnier, and more enjoyable to think about. In every one of these plays, Shaw more or less, in different ways, concludes that the world is coming to an end. The death in the Doctors Dilema, the Dynamite in Major Barbara, The depression and outright declaration that "The world...is falling down, down, into the abyss" in Too Good to be True, and the war and sort of joke of war in Saint Joan, not to mention the portrayal of a Saint, all relate to that dire, but humorous topic. I especially recommend Too Good to be True. Featuring a measles microbe and the Union of Socially Federated States, this is an excellent read.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Shaw: Self-contradicting Superman

, September 5, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: Bernard Shaw's Plays : Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, Saint Joan, and Too True to Be Good (Paperback)

A bundle of baffling contradictions, G. B. Shaw is a dogmatist's nightmare. Anyone expecting to mimic this sometimes-feminist, sometimes-philosophical playwright has bought one ticket to a wild ride.

"The Doctor's Dilemma," "Major Barbara" and "Heartbreak House" are good examples -- particularly when peppered by his own commentary, appendices and introductions. Without discussing the literary merits of his work - each play is a good read, a thrilling suspense and a small surprise - Shaw's best asset is not his politics, but his sense of humor.

Example:

"That any sane nation, having observed that you could provide for the supply of bread by giving bakers a pecuniary interest in baking for you, should go on to give a surgeon a pecuniary interest in cutting off your leg, is enough to make one despair of political humanity." [from the introduction to "The Doctor's Dilemma"]

Sure, Shaw thinks he's God's gift to philosophy. And believe you me, he's no Nietzsche. However, it's a lot better bet that he'll make you laugh.