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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Drama / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Misalliance
Title: Misalliance
Author: George Bernard Shaw

Brief Summary:
Misalliance is a Shaw drama set in 1909 in the house of John Tarleton, of Hindhead, Surrey. The playis centered around a middle to upper class family and their close friends: Johnny Tarleton, the son; Bentley Summerhays, the economically blessed, however socially undeveloped friend of the family; Mr. Tarleton, owner of underwear company; Ms Tarleton; Hypatia, rebellious daughter of Tarletons; and Lord Summerhays, father of Bentley.This so called "average" family goes through a turn of events to turn it upside down and inside out revealing the secrets to each person's true character. They have unexpected guests that literally "drop" in for a visit; Mr. Tarleton meets fate with the end of a loaded gun, and love triangles and infidelity are everywhere. Deceit and power, parents versus the younger generation, and the male female power struggle are the main themes that run throughout the book. The unexpected is the only thing that stays predictable through the play. Shawdoes a very effective job of satirizing society's values, secrets, and powers with money. He uses the stereotypes of individuals to over dramatizethe characteristics within this very dynamic group of people.
The biggest obstacle in this book is getting past the introduction. Shaw uses more thanthe first half of his published work to set up and express his own feelings towards society's rituals and traditions. He digresses about his every thought; he holds nothing back. He touches on all the ideas that he will be satirizes in the play. After awhile, the repetitive criticism becomes monotonous, no matter how true his ideas may be.
Overall I believe Shaw effectively gets his point across in an entertaining manner.I would rate the play as a highly effective satire of the privileged society's false superiority.

Misalliance- A Debate in One Sitting
To be frank, I read the play Misalliance because it was a requirement for one of my classes. It was an interesting play to read, but overall I would not recommend it. The play's jokes, for the most part, weren't funny and the plot was dull excluding a few select parts that were tolerable. The only redeeming quality is that the characters of the play are quite interesting. The variety in personalities creates drama as each person gets on the nerve of the other people. The best drama was produced between the older characters vs. the younger characters. This is easily understood because what person hasn't had a conflict with their parents? I'm sure everyone has, which also makes the play easy to relate to. Even with the plays interesting characters and fascinating quarrels the play doesn't flow well from scene to scene. Scenes abruptly end and randomly start with almost little to no transition.
If you want to experience Shaw's Misalliance I would suggest not reading it because reading it doesn't capture his humor like the play being acted out live. Though if you do decide to see the play, be prepared to be bored out of your mind for the first half of it. The first half of the book is for getting to know the characters with the only humor coming in the latter portion.

A Book of Social Change
Misalliance, written by George Bernard Shaw, is a fascinating view of the relationship between parents and their children.The first half of the play is a tad dry or as Hypatia (the young daughter who seeks adventure) would put it; the play is filled with "talk, talk, talk".However with the help of an aeroplane things quickly change.

The introduction of a Polish acrobat (Lina) who is nothing like the other two women in the play, results in a strange but intriguing plot twist.The actions that ensue upon the arrival of Lina add action and liveliness to the play.From there the play takes off with crazy tales of love and lust and there is truly no way of telling how this will all end.

However great for readers, for what Shaw seems to lack in plot for the first half of the play, he makes up with interesting characters and with ideas that are important to address.He addresses not only the relationship between parent and child but he also shows how women are changing as they look to moveto liberate themselves from the control of men.This play shows the evolution of woman in society.Lina is seen as the woman of the future, Mrs. Tarleton is of the past and Hypatia, a woman in between the two, wants to change herself from the times of her mother to follow the footsteps of Lina.

A review of Misalliance
The play of Misalliance is centralized by the main idea of ¡¥How people live in the old world while waiting for the new world to come?¡¦ Also, surrounding the main idea, issues such as the interpenetration of parents and children¡¦s world, change in ideologies, social expectations verses personal desires...etc are raised in the play. Associated with these profound issues, Misalliance is filled with humors which will surely bring pleasure to readers. This play is packed with pace, humor, romance and concepts all in one; which not only expressed the author Bernard Shaw¡¦s beliefs thoroughly, but also bring supreme entertainment to readers. Being a youth myself and brought up in a traditional Chinese family, I find this play highly relevant to my life as I am constantly rebelling against my parents¡¦ will. This play truly brought out the minds of us new generation, and our opposition against traditional views. I recommend this book to readers of all ages, especially adolescents, for both deep reading and entertainment.

Misalliance Review
Misalliance is a play focused on the values and interactions among family.The play is based on the story and drama of two upper class families the Summerhays and Tarleton's.Throughout the play they discuss issues that are relevant to the time and heated topics that are not often discussed by families.The women such as Hypatia bring about issues of control and how they should lead their own lives while not letting a husband control their lives.The issue of older men cheating and chasing around younger women is another underlying topic throughout the play.Elderly married men from the play chase women around,while the women of the play try to go out on their own and establish their own being.

I enjoyed this play and found it to be interesting because a heated discussion is carried throughout the play.The drama and conflicts of the characters and issues in the play carry the discussion right up until the end.This discussion evolves and changes as each character is introducedwith their own beliefs.One thing I did not like about the play though was that the discussion was very lengthy and at times was not filled with anything exciting.Overall I would recommend this play to anyone who is looking for a discussion of family values and beliefs in one easy sitting.The humorous and social discussion that evolves throughout the play carries the book along and makes it an interesting story. ... Read more

Product 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. Amazon.com Review
When John Steinbeckwon the Nobel Prize in 1962, he feared that his career wasover. "I don't remember anyone doing any work after getting it,save maybe Shaw," he said. The fact that George Bernard Shawcontinued to produce memorable literature for an additional quarter ofa century after his 1925 Nobel Prize was a remarkable accent to anextraordinary career. His letters and journals, his highly regardedmusic and drama criticism, and the influential tracts that became thetrademark of the Fabian Socialists all served to keep Shaw's name inthe forefront of British social and intellectual movements. But it wasfrom his skill as a dramatist that Shaw was best able to skewer thehypocrisies and cruelties of the early part of the century. Withingeniously witty dialogue, Shaw succeeded brilliantly in exploringimportant social and economic themes. He called his first plays"unpleasant" and said that "their dramatic power isused to force the spectator to face unpleasant facts." Still,Shaw's dramatic works endure both as vividly entertaining theater andas important--and still-relevant--commentary on the humancondition.

This valuable collection containing six of Shaw's greatest playsoffers a representative sampling of his genius. Mrs. Warren'sProfession deals with the world's oldest craft and satirizesattitudes that still exist about sexual relations more than 100 yearsafter the play was written. Caesar and Cleopatra claims to bean improvement on the Shakespeare version, and Man and Supermanshows Don Juan as a sort of BertieWooster. Major Barbara takes a jab at religiousprofessionalism, and Heartbreak House explores thesuperficialities of the leisure class. The collection is rounded outby the ever-popular Pygmalion, which was the basis for theimmortal My FairLady. It would take many volumes to hold Shaw's entirebibliography, but for a delicious sampling at a very low price, thisbook is unique. The playwright would be pleased, too, at the book'saffordability: he so believed in economic parity that when awarded hisNobel, he accepted the honor but refused the money. --NancyStarr ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

George Bernard Shaw
A wonderful collection of Shaw's most famous plays. "Pymalion," for example, provided the story for that great film, "My Fair Lady," a classic 1960's production with Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews. I don't know anyone who has not enjoyed that story and film. Now's your chance to read Shaw's fine play that inspired the movie. Yet you have 7 other plays to enjoy in this collection. If you enjoy the Theatre,Broadway plays especially, you'll have plenty of enjoyable reading in this anthology of eight excellent G.B. Shaw plays. Shaw lived to be 96 and was self-educated, brilliant and influential playwright. Please purchase and enjoy this collection. I bought a perfectly fine used copy. Plays are fun to read, and don't bother reading the stage directions, just focus on the dialogue.
Most plays run 80 to 100 pages. You can easily read a play in one sitting or over the course of a few nights of bedtime reading, providing enjoyment and a "break" from novels. As for me, novels, short stories, biographies, autobiographies,poetry, plays, non-fiction are all included in my reading choices.Do open yourself to a wide range of reading. Turn off the television and read, read, read~! ... Read more

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Bernard Shaw was a prolific author of book reviews, novels, plays, criticism, essays, and correspondence. Throughout his voluminous writings, proverbs occur repeatedly. This book is a comprehensive index to proverbs in Shaw's writings. Introductory material discusses Shaw's use of proverbs, and the bulk of the volume is a key-word listing of proverbs in Shaw's works. Index entries cite the page numbers of Shaw's works in which the proverbs appear. ... Read more

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The Devil's Disciple A Melodrama in Three Acts; Like several of Shaw's early plays, The Devil's Disciple first produced in 1897 and published in his collection Three Plays for Puritans in 1901 takes an existing popular theatrical form, in this case melodrama, and adapts it to serve Shaw's dramatic purposes. In the preface to Three Plays for Puritans he writes: It does not contain a single even passably novel incident. Every old patron of the Adelphi [a theatre which specialized in melodrama] pit would recognize the reading of the will, the oppressed orphan finding a protector, the arrest, the heroic sacrifice, the court martial, the scaffold, the reprieve at the last moment, as he recognizes beefsteak pudding on the bill of fare at his restaurant. As well as using the stock devices of melodrama, Shaw writes in the preface that he unashamedly borrowed from previous works, Mrs Dudgeon being drawn from Mrs Clennam in Dickens's Little Dorrit and Dick Dudgeon's willingness to go the gallows for another man deriving from Sidney Carton's sacrifice in A Tale of Two Cities. The play was given its first production in the United States and was successful there. When it was produced in England it had little success, the main reason probably being that the plot involves a British military defeat. Melodrama was attractive to Shaw at the beginning of his dramatic career because it incorporated certain ideals, attitudes, beliefs, values, which an audience would accept virtually without question but which he aimed to undermine. Thus he retains the form of melodrama but radically alters the content, his aim being to tackle the large numbers of shams, repressions, sentimentalities, insincerities, and ideal with which, he claims, the English identify and take pride in. Two of the ideals that Shaw sets out to attack in this play are the ideal of the family and the ideal of marriage. The main character of The Devil's Disciple, Dick Dudgeon, is in revolt against the ideal of the family to the extent that he has rejected his own family. Identifying with the devil has prevented his spirit being taken over by his mother's life-denying religion. In the preface Shaw claims that it is the failure of marriage or the family that creates the idealization of them because idealists refuse to accept the reality of that failure and substitute ideals in place of the reality. Mrs Dudgeon is an idealist of this type, a person for whom marriage and the family have failed but who endeavours to hide this fact by turning them into ideals. She refused to marry the man she loved, Dick's uncle Peter, because he was irreligious and instead married a man she didn't love because he was god-fearing, but she refuses to recognize that this act destroyed any chance of a happy marriage and family life and condemns Peter and her son for their refusal to conform. The setting of the play is New Hampshire in 1777 at the time of the American Revolution. In the first act Dick Dudgeon's father has died and the action culminates in the reading of his will. Much to his mother's consternation, a former will is revoked in order that the house and the land belonging to it be left to Dick Dudgeon, the eldest son. At the end of the act Dudgeon asserts that he is rightfully called the Devil's Disciple much to the horror of Judith, the wife of the minister, Anthony Anderson. The second act is set in Anderson's house. Dudgeon calls at the minister's invitation. He is warned that he may be in danger as his uncle has been hanged by the British army. When the minister has to leave because he is summoned to go to Mrs Dudgeon who has been taken ill, Dudgeon and Judith are left alone together. The British come to the house to arrest Anderson but mistake Dudgeon for him. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An excellent play on many levels
This is an excellent play on many levels. The story, similar in a few respects to Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities, is, among other things, about a man's willingness to give up his life for another. However, where Dickens's story ends with the decision, Shaw's play focuses on the reactions of various people and the community to that decision.

The play and especially Shaw's Afterword reveals what really caused the British defeat at Saratoga. General Burgoyne would have won the battle if a rather stupid British official in London had not decided to leave his office for a holiday before signing the order for General Howe to leave New York and join him. Had the order been signed and Howe joined Burgoyne, Burgoyne would have had sufficient forces to beat the Americans. Without Howe's forces, he was very badly outnumbered.

Shaw uses this play to show again, as he did in other plays, that war is improper, gentlemanly character can be silly, and in his opinion, Christian practices are wrong.

The main characters are depicted very well. The "Devil's Disciple," although he eschews Christianity, shows good moral behavior, bravery, and a sense of humor. The minister realizes that Christianity will not save America, and he takes the field as a soldier. His wife is overwhelmed by the "Devil's Disciple," falls in love with him, and does all she can to save him.
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"Man and Superman" is George Bernard Shaw's response to the request of his fans to write a Don Juan themed play. This four-act drama often preformed without or with an abbreviated version of the lengthy third act can be seen as a simple comedy of manners or, as Shaw had intended, something quite more, an exposition of Nietzsche's philosophical ideas of the "Superman." "Man and Superman" is considered to be one of Shaw's greatest works, a masterpiece of dramatic literature. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Revolutions; Social change; Revolution; Reference / Handbooks ... Read more

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This novel was written in the year 1880 only a few years after I had exported myself from Dublin to London in a condition of extreme rawness and inexperience concerning the specifically English side of the life with which the book pretends to deal. ... Read more

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The Man of Destiny. please visit www.valdebooks.com for a full list of titles ... Read more

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Maxims for Revolutionists by George Bernard Shaw
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Originally published in 1922. This volume from the Cornell University Library's print collections was scanned on an APT BookScan and converted to JPG 2000 format by Kirtas Technologies.All titles scanned cover to cover and pages may include marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Only a bravura performance
Shaw called this short comedy a "bravura piece," meaning that it was written for an actress to hand her a chance to give a startling performance before an audience in a brief twenty minutes or so play. Shaw said that his actress performed well, but he only received one comment on the play. The person was satisfied that it was not too long. The critique seems justified. There is nothing of any significance in the play, no new message; it is funny, but not that funny.

The story is about a revolution in a country that had been ruled with a heavy hand by monarchs for a long time. The people finally revolted and there are about a half dozen different revolutionary parties with different agendas. The story focuses on two people: a somewhat silly sycophantic general who had obeyed the rulers his entire life and wanted to continue to do so, and the daughter of the monarch who realizes that the cruel monarchy has to be replaced. The general does not know what to do. The princess does, and she also knows who should take the lead.

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Product Description
This collection of remarkable quotations is a gem of discerning wisdom, lovely thoughts, and astute wit gleaned from the words of two great writers, George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde.
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