Mrs. Warren's Profession [Paperback]

George Bernard Shaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 13, 2002

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

astonishing range of associated documents, provides an invaluable resource for students --Jean Chothia, University of Cambridge --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From the Back Cover

One of Bernard Shaw's early plays of social protest, Mrs Warren's Profession places the protagonist's decision to become a prostitute in the context of the appalling conditions for working class women in Victorian England. Faced with ill health, poverty, and marital servitude on the one hand, and opportunities for financial independence, dignity, and self-worth on the other, Kitty Warren follows her sister into a successful career in prostitution. Shaw's fierce social criticism in this play is driven not by conventional morality, but by anger at the hypocrisy that allows society to condemn prostitution while condoning the discrimination against women that makes prostitution inevitable. This Broadview edition includes a comprehensive historical and critical introduction; extracts from Shaw's prefaces to the play; Shaw's expurgations of the text; early reviews of the play in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain; and contemporary contextual documents on prostitution, incest, censorship, women's education, and the "New Woman." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: IndyPublish (June 13, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1404319417
• ISBN-13: 978-1404319417
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,351,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Savage Social Satire of Economics and Hypocrisy, June 5, 2004

By 

Gary F. Taylor "GFT" (Biloxi, MS USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mrs. Warren's Profession (Hardcover)

Although it was written in the late 1800s, censorship issues kept George Bernard Shaw's MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION off the stage for close to a decade, and it did not debut publically on the London stage until about 1900. Even after this delay, moralists denounced it as a scandalous play--and it remained controversial well into the mid-20th Century.

The basic story concerns a pragmatic young woman, Vivie, who has spent her life in boarding schools, seeing her mother only on rare occasions. Upon graduation, she now directly confronts her mother and learns the bitter truth: Mrs. Warren is a former prostitute who has risen to the rank of a high class madam, and all of Vivie's education has been built on the profits of her profession. But the play takes an unexpected twist, for instead of sensationalizing or sentimentalizing prostitution, Shaw gives us Mrs. Warren as a business woman who took the only opportunity available to her and through commonsense and a strong work ethic parlayed her meager beginnings into a fortune of note.

The obvious reason for public outcry against the play was Shaw's refusal to condemn Mrs. Warren for prostitution; less obvious but more powerful is the fact that Shaw condemns virtually every character and the society in which they move as grossly hypocritical. It is an incredibly hypocritical society that has forced Mrs. Warren to decide between the virtue of starvation and the sin of success; while easily the most sympathetic role in the play, Mrs. Warren emerges as a garden-variety hypocrite of limited insight; and while we may admire Vivie for her clarity of thought and apparent virtue, she emerges as a young woman of such ferocious self-determination that she is ultimately difficult to like.

MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION was among Shaw's earliest plays, and it pales a bit in comparison to his later, more theatrically sophistocated works; consequently it is seldom revived today. Even so, it is a powerful example of the new style Shaw would forge in theatre, a dark comedy overflowing with complex ideas and wickedly funny ironies. Shaw's tone of voice is both distinct and unique, he reads from the page as well as he plays on the stage, and he would exert a profound influence on drama throughout the 20th Century. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You can't help but root for Vivie!, February 5, 2010

By 

Kylie Edwards (North America) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mrs Warren's Profession (Paperback)

In this wonderful play Shaw brilliantly takes on a forbidden subject that got him into trouble back in his day but that's now praised as an excellent and insightful masterpiece. I must agree that it is truly excellent even though the subject it takes on is a very uncomfortable one even now.

You can't help but root for Vivie as she cleverly deals with the hypocritical rogues around her in this hilarious tale.

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mrs. Warren's Profession, June 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Mrs. Warren's Profession - starring Shirley Knight, Kaitlin Hopkins, and Dakin Matthews (Audio Theatre Series) (Audio Cassette)

Shaw does a wonderful job at showing her "job" without having to tell you. It gives it more of an off limits feel for the job and also makes the listener feel like they are there. Powerful and compelling.