Major Barbara / Edition 1

by George Bernard Shaw, Elizabeth T. Forter

Overview

Andrew Undershaft, a millionaire armaments dealer, loves money and despises poverty. His energetic daughter Barbara, on the other hand, shows her love for the poor by working as a Major in the Salvation Army. She sees her father as just another soul to be saved. But when the Salvation Army needs funds to keep going, it is Undershaft who saves the day. is the Army right to accept money that has been obtained by 'Death and Destruction'? Barbara is forced to examine her moral assumptions. Is she tricked into the attempt to unite spiritual goodness with material power?

Full of lively comedy and sparkling debate, Major Barbara is also one of Shaw's most powerful and forward-looking plays. As Margery Morgan says, while Shaw was responding to 'a material and cultural situation that is now part of history', his work still has relevance 'in a period when new technologies drive the globalization of trade and the migration of populations ... and ancient forms of brutality and carnage have reappeared.'

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780882950884
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	01/15/1971
Series:	Crofts Classics , #10
Edition description:	1
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	4.91(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

George Bernard Shaw, known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. Elizabeth T. Forter is the author of Major Barbara, published by Wiley.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Principal dates in the life of Bernard Shaw xxxi

Preface to Major Barbara 1

Act I 42

Act II 68

Act III 109

Bibliography 151

Editorial Reviews

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)

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Publishers Weekly

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

“[Shaw] did his best in redressing the fateful unbalance between truth and reality, in lifting mankind to a higher rung of social maturity. He often pointed a scornful finger at human frailty, but his jests were never at the expense of humanity.” —Thomas Mann
 
“Shaw will not allow complacency; he hates second-hand opinions; he attacks fashion; he continually challenges and unsettles, questioning and provoking us even when he is making us laugh. And he is still at it. No cliché or truism of contemporary life is safe from him.” —Michael Holroyd
 
“In his works Shaw left us his mind. . . . Today we have no Shavian wizard to awaken us with clarity and paradox, and the loss to our national intelligence is immense.” —The Sunday Times
 
“He was a Tolstoy with jokes, a modern Dr. Johnson, a universal genius who on his own modest reckoning put even Shakespeare in the shade.” —The Independent
 
“His plays were superb exercises in high-level argument on every issue under the sun, from feminism and God, to war and eternity, but they were also hits—and still are.” —The Daily Mail

From the Publisher

Dakin Matthews has directed a production that has subtlety and energy. He finds thoughtful laughter in both the sharp epigrams ("The more destructive war becomes, the more fascinating we find it") and the personalities of Shaw's 1905 comedy of ideas. Again and again, a careful pause and a stressed phrase elicit an appreciative response from the live audience and make this challenging play accessible and enjoyable. Roger Rees stresses the intelligence and audacity of Andrew Undershaft, the munitions tycoon. Kirsten Potter depicts the strength and vulnerability of the title character, a saver of souls in the Salvation Army, whose view of life clashes with that of Undershaft, who is her father. An exceptional job—as good as any recording of any Shaw play. G.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

NOVEMBER 2008 - AudioFile