Heartbreak House George Bernard Shaw Will Jonson 9781507812303 Books
Download As PDF : Heartbreak House George Bernard Shaw Will Jonson 9781507812303 Books
When Ellie Dunn joins a house-party at the home of the eccentric Captain Shotover, she causes a stir with her decision to marry for money rather than love, and the Captain's forthright daughter Hesione protests vigorously against the pragmatic young woman's choice. Opinion on the matter quickly divides and a lively argument about money and morality, idealism and realism ensues as Hesione's rakish husband, snobbish sister and Ellie's fiancé - a wealthy industrialist - enter the debate. Written between 1916 and 1917 as war raged across Europe, ‘Heartbreak House’ is a telling indictment of the generation responsible for the First World War. With its bold combination of high farce and bitter tragedy, Shaw's play remains an uncannily prophetic depiction of a society on the threshold of an abrupt awakening.
Heartbreak House George Bernard Shaw Will Jonson 9781507812303 Books
Ironically, I detest Shaw, and having read a good bloc of his plays and mini-book prefaces to his plays, I detest his plays in general. Shaw's dramatic characters are invariably one dimensional megaphones, put on stage to popularize either his own idiosyncratic ideas, or-this in his prefaces-to trumpet his own peerless genius in coming up with these ideas. His opinion of mankind in general is barely, if at all, charitable, his being thoroughly convinced that the ignorant masses are and have been manipulated and treated as a potter would wet clay by their opportunistic, soulless elite, be they kings, democratic politicos, professors, clergymen, or big businessmen, since the beginning of time. His opinions and purported sparks of polemical genius can usually be narrated in one quarter the number of words it takes to write them out, and are obviously intended to point to his own writing-creative genius. He reviled Shakespeare (who he always managed to misspell) out of sheer envy; he desired to occupy the top spot of English/Western world drama that was unfortunately already occupied by the Bard of Avon. He admired Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler as needed correctives to the sad, feckless world of post-World War I Western democracy and capitalism. And, by 1940, he had written himself out, in plays at least, and with a decade more of life in him, he had few more ideas to peddle an increasingly alien world, no longer-if ever-hanging on his every too-well enunciated syllable. All this being said, however, the Penguin Classics edition of "Heartbreak House" is a splendid, and a very affordable buy for anyone curious about the drama and polemical prose of this man. The well-written introduction by David Hare makes splendid reading, and argues almost convincingly for Shaw's still-active relevance in the world of ideas and of the stage. If you want to defeat an enemy, or someone whose ideas you revile, you must get to know him through and through, and this necessity is well satisfied by this Penguin Classics edition of this play, along with their full line of Shaw's not at all timeless dramatic productions.Product details
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Tags : Heartbreak House [George Bernard Shaw, Will Jonson] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. When Ellie Dunn joins a house-party at the home of the eccentric Captain Shotover, she causes a stir with her decision to marry for money rather than love,George Bernard Shaw, Will Jonson,Heartbreak House,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1507812302,DRAMA European English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh
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Heartbreak House George Bernard Shaw Will Jonson 9781507812303 Books Reviews
Bernard Shaw is a great playwright. In this particular play he exposes the shortcomings of English upper classes. They only think of mariage, business, politics, but England is in fact a drunken skipper, a skipper on which every sailor and even the captain are drunk with rum and unable to see the danger coming up and to deal with it. So the skipper is condemned to break on the rocks. England in the same way is condemned to break on the rocks because no one, in the upper classes, thinks beyond their interest. This catastrophe coming up is shown by some kind of supernatural explosion at the end of the play and the members of these upper classes admire the event as being beautiful and they are totally unable to cope. The picture given by Shaw of England is particularly pessimistic. Their is no future and no hope for that country. Along the way he discusses important issues such as the liberation of women within their enslavement and their power is nothing but hypnotism or drowning men in a sea of words and charm. The only sane man in the play is the captain, with an allusion to Whitman, « Captain my captain », who sees the catastrophes coming and is unable to convince his own daughters or their husbands and friends that they have to control the boat if they don't want it to capsize. But does he really want to convince them ?
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Merely a warning about the Dover Thrift Edition of "Heartbreak House" Practically every page has omitted apostrophes and/or added spaces wit hin wor ds. For me, it quickly became tiresome.
(Of course it's possible - though unlikely - that I just got a bad copy from a one-time printing glitch. Your call.)
Heartbreak House by George Bernard Shaw. Published by MobileReference (mobi).
This is a fascinating, fast-paced comedy with dark undertones about a bankrupt society. It is set in the late nineteenth - early twentieth century, but the issues turn out to be very contemporary the question of capitalism, security vs. adventure, gender roles. I recommend it!
Ironically, I detest Shaw, and having read a good bloc of his plays and mini-book prefaces to his plays, I detest his plays in general. Shaw's dramatic characters are invariably one dimensional megaphones, put on stage to popularize either his own idiosyncratic ideas, or-this in his prefaces-to trumpet his own peerless genius in coming up with these ideas. His opinion of mankind in general is barely, if at all, charitable, his being thoroughly convinced that the ignorant masses are and have been manipulated and treated as a potter would wet clay by their opportunistic, soulless elite, be they kings, democratic politicos, professors, clergymen, or big businessmen, since the beginning of time. His opinions and purported sparks of polemical genius can usually be narrated in one quarter the number of words it takes to write them out, and are obviously intended to point to his own writing-creative genius. He reviled Shakespeare (who he always managed to misspell) out of sheer envy; he desired to occupy the top spot of English/Western world drama that was unfortunately already occupied by the Bard of Avon. He admired Stalin, Mussolini and Hitler as needed correctives to the sad, feckless world of post-World War I Western democracy and capitalism. And, by 1940, he had written himself out, in plays at least, and with a decade more of life in him, he had few more ideas to peddle an increasingly alien world, no longer-if ever-hanging on his every too-well enunciated syllable. All this being said, however, the Penguin Classics edition of "Heartbreak House" is a splendid, and a very affordable buy for anyone curious about the drama and polemical prose of this man. The well-written introduction by David Hare makes splendid reading, and argues almost convincingly for Shaw's still-active relevance in the world of ideas and of the stage. If you want to defeat an enemy, or someone whose ideas you revile, you must get to know him through and through, and this necessity is well satisfied by this Penguin Classics edition of this play, along with their full line of Shaw's not at all timeless dramatic productions.
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