Three Plays for Puritans (Bernard Shaw Library)

by Michael Billington (Introduction), George Bernard Shaw (Author), Dan Laurence (Editor), George Bernard Shaw (Author), George Bernard Shaw (Author), Michael Billington (Introduction), George Bernard Shaw (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2006

  $3.25

  Shaw believed that theatre audiences of the 1890s deserved more than the hollow spectacle and sham he saw displayed on the London stage. But he also recognized that people wanted to be entertained while educated, and to see purpose mixed with pleasure. In these three plays of ideas, Shaw employed traditional dramatic forms - Victorian melodrama, the history play and the adventure story - to turn received wisdom upside down. Set during the American War of Independence, The Devil's Disciple exposes fake Puritanism and piety, while Caesar and Cleopatra , a cheeky riposte to Shakespeare, redefines heroism in the character of the ageing Roman leader. And in Captain Brassbound's Conversion , an expedition in Morocco is saved from disaster by a lady explorer's skilful manipulation of the truth.

• Used

  Paperback
  1970

  $3.25

• New

  Paperback
  2006

  $13.85

  Shaw believed that theatre audiences of the 1890s deserved more than the hollow spectacle and sham he saw displayed on the London stage. But he also recognized that people wanted to be entertained while educated, and to see purpose mixed with pleasure. In these three plays of ideas, Shaw employed traditional dramatic forms - Victorian melodrama, the history play and the adventure story - to turn received wisdom upside down. Set during the American War of Independence, The Devil's Disciple exposes fake Puritanism and piety, while Caesar and Cleopatra , a cheeky riposte to Shakespeare, redefines heroism in the character of the ageing Roman leader. And in Captain Brassbound's Conversion , an expedition in Morocco is saved from disaster by a lady explorer's skilful manipulation of the truth.