The 7 best george bernard shaw plays for 2024

Finding the best george bernard shaw plays suitable for your needs isnt easy. With hundreds of choices can distract you. Knowing whats bad and whats good can be something of a minefield. In this article, weve done the hard work for you.

Best george bernard shaw plays

Product	Features	Editor's score	Go to site
	George Bernard Shaw's Plays (Norton Critical Editions)		Go to amazon.com
	Saint Joan (Penguin Classics)		Go to amazon.com
	Bernard Shaw's Plays: Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, Saint Joan, Too True to Be Good; (Norton Critical Editions)		Go to amazon.com
	Pygmalion and Three Other Plays (Barnes & Noble Classics)		Go to amazon.com
	Plays Unpleasant (Penguin Classics)		Go to amazon.com
	Plays Pleasant (Penguin Classics)		Go to amazon.com
	George Bernard Shaw: Selected Plays		Go to amazon.com

1. George Bernard Shaw's Plays (Norton Critical Editions)

Feature

W W Norton Company

Description

This collection presents a cross-section of Shaw's most important theater workMrs. Warren's Profession, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, and Pygmalion.

Each play is fully annotated.

"Contexts and Criticism" features all-new material on the author and his work, from traditional critical readings to more theorized approaches, among them essays on Shaw's Fabianism and his alleged feminism. Contributors include Leon Hugo, Sally Peters, Tracy C. Davis, John A. Bertolini, Stanley Weintraub, and J. Ellen Gainor.

A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are included.

2. Saint Joan (Penguin Classics)

Feature

Penguin Books

Description

A Penguin Classic

With Saint Joan, Shaw reached the height of his fame as a dramatist. Fascinated by the story of Joan of Arc (canonized in 1920), but unhappy with "the whitewash which disfigures her beyond recognition," he presents a realistic Joan: proud, intolerant, nave, foolhardy, always bravea rebel who challenged the conventions and values of her day.

3. Bernard Shaw's Plays: Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, Saint Joan, Too True to Be Good; (Norton Critical Editions)

Description

Presents the texts of four plays with contemporary and modern critical essays and notes on the playwright

4. Pygmalion and Three Other Plays (Barnes & Noble Classics)

Feature

Used Book in Good Condition

Description

&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RPygmalion and Three Other Plays&&L/I&&R, by &&LB&&RGeorge Bernard Shaw&&L/B&&R, is part of the &&LI&&R&&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R&&L/I&&Rseries, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics&&L/I&&R: &&LDIV&&R

• New introductions commissioned from today's top writers and scholars
• Biographies of the authors
• Chronologies of contemporary historical, biographical, and cultural events
• Footnotes and endnotes
• Selective discussions of imitations, parodies, poems, books, plays, paintings, operas, statuary, and films inspired by the work
• Comments by other famous authors
• Study questions to challenge the reader's viewpoints and expectations
• Bibliographies for further reading
• Indices & Glossaries, when appropriate

All editions are beautifully designed and are printed to superior specifications; some include illustrations of historical interest. &&LI&&RBarnes & Noble Classics &&L/I&&Rpulls together a constellation of influencesbiographical, historical, and literaryto enrich each reader's understanding of these enduring works.&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&R&&L/P&&R&&LP style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"&&RHailed as a Tolstoy with jokes by one critic, &&LB&&RGeorge Bernard Shaw&&L/B&&R was the most significant British playwright since the seventeenth century. &&LI&&RPygmalion&&L/I&&R persists as his best-loved play, one made into both a classic filmwhich won Shaw an Academy Award for best screenplayand the perennially popular musical &&LI&&RMy Fair Lady&&L/I&&R. &&L/P&&R&&LP&&R&&LI&&RPygmalion&&L/I&&R follows the adventures of phonetics professor Henry Higgins as he attempts to transform cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a refined lady. The scene in which Eliza appears in high society with the correct accent but no notion of polite conversation is considered one of the funniest in English drama. Like most of Shaws work, &&LI&&RPygmalion&&L/I&&R wins over audiences with wit, a taut morality, and an innate understanding of human relationships. &&LP&&RThis volume also includes &&LI&&RMajor Barbara&&L/I&&R, which attacks both capitalism and charitable organizations, &&LI&&RThe Doctors Dilemma&&L/I&&R, a keen-eyed examination of medical morals and malpractice, and &&LI&&RHeartbreak House&&L/I&&R, which exposes the spiritual bankruptcy of the generation responsible for the bloodshed of World War I.&&L/P&&R&&LP&&R&&LB&&RJohn A. Bertolini&&L/B&&R is Ellis Professor of the Liberal Arts at Middlebury College, where he teaches dramatic literature, Shakespeare, and film. He has written &&LI&&RThe Playwrighting Self of Bernard Shaw&&L/I&&R and articles on Hitchcock, and British and American dramatists. Bertolini also wrote the introduction and notes to the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of Shaws &&LI&&RMan and Superman and Three Other Plays&&L/I&&R.&&L/P&&R&&L/DIV&&R&&L/DIV&&R

5. Plays Unpleasant (Penguin Classics)

Description

A Penguin Classic

With Plays Unpleasant, Shaw issued a radical challenge to his audiences' complacency and exposed social evils through his dramatization of the moral conflicts between youthful idealism and economic reality, promiscuity and marriage, and the duties of women to others and to themselves. His first play, Widowers' Houses, depicts Harry Trench's dilemma on learning that the inheritance of his fiance comes from her father's income as a slum landlord. In The Philanderer, charismatic Leonard Charteris proposes marriage to Grace, while he is still involved with the beautiful Julia Cravenwho is not inclined to give him up so easily. And in Mrs. Warren's Profession, Vivie Warren is forced to reconsider her own future when she discovers that her mother's immoral earnings funded her genteel upbringing.

6. Plays Pleasant (Penguin Classics)

Description

A Penguin Classic

One of Bernard Shaws most glittering comedies, Arms and the Man is a burlesque of Victorian attitudes to heroism, war and empire. In the contrast between Bluntschli, the mercenary soldier, and the brave leader, Sergius, the true nature of valour is revealed. Shaw mocks deluded idealism in Candida, when a young poet becomes infatuated with the wife of a Socialist preacher. The Man of Destiny is a witty war of words between Napoleon and a strange lady, while in the exuberant farce You Never Can Tell a divided family is reunited by chance. Although Shaw intended Plays Pleasant to be gentler comedies than those in their companion volume, Plays Unpleasant, their prophetic satire is sharp and provocative.

7. George Bernard Shaw: Selected Plays

Feature

Used Book in Good Condition

Description

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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