The complete texts of works by the distinguished playwright includes such classic theatrical plays as Mrs. Warren's Profession, Arms and the Man, Pygmalion, Major Barbara, Man and Superman, Caesar and Cleopatra, and Androcles and the Lion.
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When John Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize in 1962, he feared that his career was over. "I don't remember anyone doing any work after getting it, save maybe Shaw," he said. The fact that George Bernard Shaw continued to produce memorable literature for an additional quarter of a century after his 1925 Nobel Prize was a remarkable accent to an extraordinary career. His letters and journals, his highly regarded music and drama criticism, and the influential tracts that became the trademark of the Fabian Socialists all served to keep Shaw's name in the forefront of British social and intellectual movements. But it was from his skill as a dramatist that Shaw was best able to skewer the hypocrisies and cruelties of the early part of the century. With ingeniously witty dialogue, Shaw succeeded brilliantly in exploring important social and economic themes. He called his first plays "unpleasant" and said that "their dramatic power is used to force the spectator to face unpleasant facts." Still, Shaw's dramatic works endure both as vividly entertaining theater and as important--and still-relevant--commentary on the human condition.
This valuable collection containing six of Shaw's greatest plays offers a representative sampling of his genius. Mrs. Warren's Profession deals with the world's oldest craft and satirizes attitudes that still exist about sexual relations more than 100 years after the play was written. Caesar and Cleopatra claims to be an improvement on the Shakespeare version, and Man and Superman shows Don Juan as a sort of Bertie Wooster. Major Barbara takes a jab at religious professionalism, and Heartbreak House explores the superficialities of the leisure class. The collection is rounded out by the ever-popular Pygmalion, which was the basis for the immortal My Fair Lady. It would take many volumes to hold Shaw's entire bibliography, but for a delicious sampling at a very low price, this book is unique. The playwright would be pleased, too, at the book's affordability: he so believed in economic parity that when awarded his Nobel, he accepted the honor but refused the money. --Nancy Starr
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5.0 out of 5 stars
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This review is from: George Bernard Shaw: Selected Plays (Hardcover)
A wonderful collection of Shaw's most famous plays. "Pymalion," for example, provided the story for that great film, "My Fair Lady," a classic 1960's production with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. I don't know anyone who has not enjoyed that story and film. Now's your chance to read Shaw's fine play that inspired the movie. Yet you have 7 other plays to enjoy in this collection. If you enjoy the Theatre,Broadway plays especially, you'll have plenty of enjoyable reading in this anthology of eight excellent G.B. Shaw plays. Shaw lived to be 96 and was self-educated, brilliant and influential playwright. Please purchase and enjoy this collection. I bought a perfectly fine used copy. Plays are fun to read, and don't bother reading the stage directions, just focus on the dialogue.
Most plays run 80 to 100 pages. You can easily read a play in one sitting or over the course of a few nights of bedtime reading, providing enjoyment and a "break" from novels. As for me, novels, short stories, biographies, autobiographies,poetry, plays, non-fiction are all included in my reading choices.Do open yourself to a wide range of reading. Turn off the television and read, read, read~!
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