Plays Pleasant : Arms and the Man - Candida - The Man of Destiny - You Never Can Tell

by Shaw, George Bernard; Laurence, Dan H.; McCormack, W. J.

• ISBN13: 9780140437942
• ISBN10: 0140437940
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-26
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Plays Pleasant(1898) comprises four comedies intended to amuse audiences but also to provoke them. Arms and the Man, set in the Balkan mountains, satirizes the romantic view of war and military heroism. Candidapresents the complicated relationship between a vicar, his wife, and her young admirer. You Never Can Tellis a light, witty look at an aging suffragette and her family. The Man of Destinyfeatures Napoleon Bonaparte at odds with English mores.

Author Biography

Goerge Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was one of the most prolific writers of the modern theater. He invented the modern comedy of ideas, expounding on social and political problems with a razor-sharp tongue. He won the 1925 Nobel Prize for literature. Dan H. Laurence is series editor for the works of Shaw in Penguin. W. J. McCormack is professor of literary history at Goldsmith's College, London.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Chronology	p. 1
Preface	p. 7
Arms and The Man: An Anti-romantic Comedy	p. 17
Candida: A Mystery	p. 91
The Man of Destiny: A Fictitious Paragraph of History	p. 161
You Never Can Tell: A Comedy	p. 209
Composition and Cast Lists	p. 317
Principal Works of Bernard Shaw	p. 321
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