Major Barbara [Paperback]

George Bernard Shaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2009

In this controversial work Shaw appears to criticize Christianity and the Salvation Army. George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin in 1856. Before becoming a playwright he wrote music and literary criticism. Shaw used his writing to attack social problems such as education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege. Shaw was particularly conscious of the exploitation of the working class. In Major Barbara a woman who has committed herself to work with the Salvation Army faces the dilemma that its support must come from the corrupt rich, a realization which shatters her faith. She finally finds a code by which she can live.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. The classic Shaw play is interpreted by this extremely talented cast of 12 performers, which mounts a rousing, unforgettable show complete with incredibly well-produced and realistic sound effects that capture everything from doors creaking open, bustling crowds on city streets and impatient horses ready to trot. Roger Rees as the elder Undershaft and Kirsten Potter as his daughter Barbara are standouts. The two play off each another very well and offer some truly memorable arguments that are the cornerstone of the story. The engaging cast sweeps listeners off to the cobblestone streets of old England. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 10 Up—This live theater production of George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara examines newsworthy questions about war, morality, and salvation. Set in pre-World War I London, the play opens as Lady Britomart brings together her adult children—Barbara, Sarah, and Stephe—with their long-estranged father, munitions mogul Andrew Undershaft. It appears that Undershaft will disinherit his children because his company has a tradition of giving the arms factory to a capable adult born out of wedlock. The children prefer to forgo their fortune, especially Barbara who has risen through the ranks of the Salvation Army. Barbara and her fiancé, Adolphus Cusins, face a dilemma when generous donations from Undershaft and a liquor manufacturer are the only way their organization can help London's poor. When it's learned that Cusins' parents aren't married under English law, Undershaft offers him the arms business. Will Cusins lose Barbara if he chooses the inheritance? Can he bring true reform if he owns the arms used for strife? The conclusion leaves some questions unanswered. Listeners may find it distracting that occasionally the audience responds to action not reflected in the script. The cast of 12 keeps the action lively and the dialogue crisp. It would have been helpful for teachers to have the CD case list the acts by track. Despite the serious topics, and sometimes protracted conversations on morality, this adaptation of Shaw's comedy has many thoroughly British, humorous moments. A supplemental purchase for high school library's supporting a British literature curriculum.—Barbara S. Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 100 pages
• Publisher: Book Jungle (February 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 143850943X
• ISBN-13: 978-1438509433
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,021,471 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Shaw, George Bernard

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poverty's a crime, April 28, 2004

By 

A.J. (Maryland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Major Barbara (Dover Thrift Editions) (Paperback)

So says Andrew Undershaft, the extremely wealthy owner of a tremendously successful English armaments business, in George Bernard Shaw's play "Major Barbara." Undershaft, whose self-proclaimed religion is his wealth and his industry, inherited the business from a long line of Andrew Undershafts, each of whom was a foundling adopted by the corresponding previous Andrew Undershaft. This is not to say that the Undershafts don't marry and have families -- the current Andrew Undershaft has married the aristocratic Lady Britomart and has three children by her; he just doesn't let them have anything to do with the family business, preferring to stick to the tradition of bringing in an outsider to perpetuate the Andrew Undershaft dynasty.

Indeed, Undershaft feels that poverty is the primordial crime from which all other crimes -- burglary, murder -- spring, and that it is better to give a poor man a job so he can afford to live rather than spend public money on methods of punishing him should he violate the law in his efforts to afford to live. Undershaft moralizes when he speaks, but in actuality he scoffs at what he considers ordinary Christian morals of the kind professed by his daughter Barbara, who has joined the Salvation Army in her fervid desire to help the poor and has attained the rank of major. She works at a shelter doling out bread and milk to the downtrodden and trying to find work for the unemployed, but her real goal is to bring them to "salvation" by raising them to a higher state of spirituality. When her fiance, a scholar of Greek named Adolphus Cusins, who by a certain twist of logic happens to be his own cousin, reveals himself to be a foundling, Undershaft decides he's found his heir.

Although the play reflects the perspectives that Shaw, as a Socialist, had on the effects of poverty on morality and society, he doesn't seem to take sides with his characters and instead lets them be funny within the context of their respective social classes. His idle rich characters are lovably comical, like the mentally vapid trio of Undershaft's son Stephen (who wouldn't know what to do with his father's armaments business even if he were qualified to inherit it), daughter Sarah, and her fiance Charles Lomax. His impoverished characters -- those who come to the Salvation Army shelter for handouts -- can be honorably industrious like Peter Shirley or pugnacious and troublesome like Bill Walker. If Undershaft, for all his willingness to feed his fortune by manufacturing items that shed the blood of millions, represents the right way to fix poverty and Barbara the wrong way, why is the play named after her? I think it's possibly because her morality is one with which most theatergoers of the day could identify, while Undershaft's is idiosyncratic to say the least.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars comedic masterpiece, August 27, 2001

By 

W. K. Miller "kenmiller32" (NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Major Barbara (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

The playwright uncovers the debate about war and pacifism. Shaw also illuminates the poverty industry, and shows that all money is tainted. The play is a vehicle for a debate on philosophies, the burning issues of the day. Shaw shows that the audience can laugh and think, in the same play. Probably Britain's best known playwright, after Shakespeare, Shaw shines in Major Barbara

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gun-Running has Changed but not that Much, February 13, 2006

By 

Max A. Lebow (Philadelphia, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Major Barbara (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

"Major Barbara" is a morality tale of a young woman, a Major in the Salvation Army, who finds her work supported by an arms dealer. Surprisingly, the arms dealer in the play, Undershaft, is witty, urbane, generous, industrious, and ruthless. He has some of the same rationalizations for what he does that contemporary arms dealers still use. He does not kill anyone. He does not start wars. He is in business. He creates jobs. If he did not do it, someone else would. Everyone does it, including governments. Poverty is the crime. Industry, including making armaaments, is the cure.

So, not much has changed. The world of the play is a complex web of moral ambiguity, hiding the most murderous of crimes. Or, are they really crimes at all? You be the judge.

This is a play worth reading. But if you are interested in the morals, or lack of them, in gun-running, and don't like reading plays, try "Lord of War," the film with Nicholas Cage.