Plays Unpleasant
Widowers' Houses; The Philanderer; Mrs Warren's Profession
Introduction by - David Edgar
Penguin Classics
Paperback
: 07 Sep 2000
£10.99
Synopsis
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 fiancee 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 Craven - who 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.Reviews
» Submit a reviewCritic Review:
These plays, as David Edgar says, deal with ‘the conflict between youthful ideals and economics realities, the drawbacks of promiscuity and the perils of matrimony, the duties of women to others and themselves, the necessity for and the costs of revolt. What could be more eternal than that?’
Table of contents
Preface
Plays Unpleasant
Widowers' Houses
The Philanderer
Mrs. Warren's Profession
Principal Works of Bernard Shaw
