Customer Reviews

Fanny's First Play

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Shaw explores the question whether people should enjoy themselves as best they can or comply with the laws of "respectability" as mandated by society. This is a variation of Shaw's feelings that the Nietzchean concept of the "superman" is correct. There are people who are above the general population because of their intellect and who are not obligated to comply with the rules that were written for the general population to control them from doing harm to themselves and others.

Shaw explores this issue in several ways. There are the generational gaps - the different perspectives of life - of Fanny and her father, Margaret and her parents, Bobby and his parents, and the servant Juggins and his family who are dukes and duchesses. There are other situations that raise the issue. Bobby and Margaret are engaged, but realize that they are unfit for one another. How can they comply with society's rules about breaking engagements? Shaw introduces a young man for Margaret and a young woman for Bobby who are interested in having fun, both have questionable character, and all four of them serve time in jail as a result of seeking to have fun. How do they and their parents handle their jail experience? Bobby's and Margaret's parent reconsider whether they have been living a proper life. Shouldn't they have fun as their children have? Did they waste their lives? Additionally, should people follow the requirements of religion as people generally understand them? Aren't they the same as the mandates of society, being developed for the general population and not for the "superman"?

The play is a story within a story. The above-described tale was written by Fanny who persuaded her father to have it produced privately before four celebrated critics. Fanny and the critics appear at the beginning and end of Shaw's work, as bookends to the humorous drama about Bobby, Margaret, and the others. Her life, as becomes clear in the second bookmark, mirrors what is in her play. Shaw reveals the views of the four critics about "Fanny's enterprise," and their views are humorous and ridiculous. One of the critics says he thinks the play was written by Shaw and all four make foolish remarks about the great writer.

This work is a wonderful jab in the eye at society's obsession with propriety. Though the customs have changed, the principle remains the same: we are all expected to behave a certain way around our peers, and we go out of our way to fit in and keep from being rejected.
Shaw takes this to an extreme, but still believable, level by giving us characters stuck so far in their rut of conformity that they put social norms above everything including the wellbeing of their own family members. He takes social conformity to the most absurd heights then shakes things up by adding a couple of scandalously non-conformist characters to the cast, bringing everything to a zany head.
Shaw is my favorite of the Victorian playwrights. His works were revolutionary in many ways. Use of humor was rare and exceptional for playwrights during that era, but Shaw was not afraid to make audiences laugh. He also tackled serious moral, political, and social issues in his plays at a time when sappy dramas were all the rage. He was truly bold and innovative and greatly contributed to dramatic art. He had an amazing gift, the ability to make people think while simultaneously making them laugh.
Reading Shaw's works are a genuine treat. All of his plays are fabulous. His characters are memorable, and his humor is brilliant.
This is a wonderful book, charming, significant, and insightful. I can't recommend it enough.

Oh my goodness! I could never put a weekly dinner with friends first if my child went missing and can't imagine anyone who ever would, but Shaw gives us a couple so deadened and trapped by tradition and routine that they can't see what really matters anymore, and the other couple is just as bad. We get to see bowing to social pressures at its saddest and most ridiculous in this hilarious look at a serious issue.

This story was smart and funny. I loved it and wanted more when it was over. I'll have to buy another one of his books. I just love his style.

I can't resist any chance I can get to peek into the mind of a genius, and Shaw was a true genius. This story was delightful and brilliant.

It's as thought provoking as it is entertaining.

This play is social commentary at its most hilarious and brilliant. Shaw attacks conformity with a vengeance and produces a masterpiece. He creates characters, which are the equivalent of parrots and zombies, because they are so bent on fitting in, then adds two outrageous characters to the mix. The result is like throwing a torch on a mountain of gunpowder. (Isn't that always the case when non-conformists begin to rouse the walking dead?)
Shaw points out the main danger of social conformity with great style and humor. That main danger is when custom clashes with conscience, and custom wins - when fitting in skews our priorities to the point where we put doing what's expected of us above doing the right thing.
George Bernard Shaw created numerous masterpieces over the span of his writing career. He has the distinction of being the only person to ever be awarded both an Oscar and the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was a very humble and conscientious man, a political activist and a vegetarian. His conscientiousness shows in his work by his inability to write meaningless fluff at a time when fluff dominated the stage. His trademark is his classic use of ample humor in dramas with serious subject matter. It takes a special kind of genius to be able to pull that off as flawlessly as he did.
This book is excellent. It's as thought provoking as it is entertaining. There are times when you can't help laughing out loud. You'll be better for reading it. His works just have that effect - they both enrich and uplift you.