Plays By George Bernard Shaw

George Bernard Shaw demanded truth and despised convention. He punctured hollow pretensions and smug prudishness—coating his criticism with ingenious and irreverent wit. In Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, and Man and Superman, the great playwright satirizes society, military heroism, marriage, and the pursuit of man by woman. From a social, literary, and theatrical standpoint, these four plays are among the foremost dramas of the age—as intellectually stimulating as they are thoroughly enjoyable. “My way of joking is to tell the truth: It is the funniest joke in the world.”—G. B. Shaw With an Introduction by Eric Bentley and an Afterword by Norman Lloyd

Presents four plays by George Bernard Shaw, incuding "Mrs. Warren's Profession," "Pygmalion," "Man and Superman," and "Major Barbara," each with an explanatory annotation, and includes information on the author and his work, a chronology, and a selected bibliography.

George Bernard Shaw was a satirical genius, ruthlessly exposing hypocrisy, and creating moral dilemmas for the reader to mull on. These are biting, witty, sometimes rude, highly intelligent plays. This collection of thirty-four of his plays is an Omnibus that will give hours of pleasure to the reader.

"Shaw saw himself and his dramatic translation of the Nietzschian Superman as the Modern and secularized realization of the ancient concept of poet-creator. He believed (as did Blake, Emerson, and Nietzsche) that the poet-creator had a genius which was the spiritual source of Vision and a Will-to-Power and that these two human faculties, in a Marxist-utopian sense, held the hope of humanity. The poet's quest into the unknown, as Shaw believed, begins with a revolutionary renunciation of inherited duty and worn illusions in order to find the freedom to create a new order of being. The poet's imagination will be the guide. The poet as prophet must herald the new state of being into words, and sometimes deeds: "To desire, to imagine, to will, to create ... in one word, to conceive." The poet's gift is a state of vision and the wherewithal and will to bring that Vision into being before the greater consciousness of humanity."--Cover.

George Bernard Shaw is one of the most famous and celebrated Irish playwrights and this new collection brings together the very best of his witty and entertaining comedies in one volume; Pygmalion, Major Barbara and Androcles and the Lion. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has a preface by Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench. Pygmalion was first performed in 1914 and was an instant hit which then inspired the hit musical and award winning film, My Fair Lady. It tells the story of Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, who tries to elevate a feisty flower girl out of her working-class roots and into high society. In Major Barbara, idealistic Barbara is a major in the Salvation Army, at odds with her millionaire father as they war over the best route to salvation. Androcles and the Lion is a clever retelling of the Bible story about a gentle Christian who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw. All three plays are not only wonderfully amusing, they also showcase Shaw's intense concerns about poverty, class and inequality.

"Man and Superman" is a four-act drama written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. It was written in response to a call for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme and became one of the greatest works in his heritage.