SHAW

Widowers' Houses by George Bernard Shaw Act I

Act II→

In the garden restaurant of a hotel at Remagen on the Rhine, on a fine afternoon in August in the eighteen-eighties. Looking down the Rhine towards Bonn, the gate leading from the garden to the riverside is seen on the right. The hotel is on the left. It has a wooden annex with an entrance marked Table d'Hote. A waiter is in attendance.

A couple of English tourists come out of the hotel. The younger, Dr Harry Trench, is about 24, stoutly built, thick in the neck, close-cropped and black in the hair, with undignified medical-student manners, frank, hasty, rather boyish. The other, Mr William de Burgh Cokane, is older probably over 40, possibly 50 an ill-nourished, scanty-haired gentleman, with affected manners; fidgety, touchy, and constitutionally ridiculous in uncompassionate eyes.

COKANE [on the threshold of the hotel, calling peremptorily to the waiter] Two beers for us out here. [The waiter goes for the beer.] Cokane comes into the garden]. We have got the room with the best view in the hotel, Harry, thanks to my tact. We'll leave in the morning and do Mainz and Frankfurt. There is a very graceful female statue in the private house of a nobleman in Frankfurt. Also a zoo. Next day, Nuremberg! finest collection of instruments of torture in the world.

TRENCH All right. You look out the trains, will you? [He takes out a Continental Bradshaw, and tosses it on one of the tables].

COKANE [baulking himself in the act of sitting down] Pah! the seat is all dusty. These foreigners are deplorably unclean in their habits.

TRENCH [buoyantly] Never mind : It dont matter, old chappie. Buck up, Billy, buck up. Enjoy yourself. [He throws Cokane into the chair, and sits down opposite him, taking out his pipe, and singing noisily]

Pour out the Rhine wine: let it flow

Like a free and bounding river.....

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.
"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it" - George Bernard Shaw

Shaw's place to pen black comedy

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable. Shaw examined education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege.


"Why appeal to the mob when ninetyfive per cent of them do not understand politics, and can do nothing but mischief without leaders? And what sort of leaders do they vote for? For Titus Oates and Lord George Gordon with their Popish plots, for Hitlers who call on them to exterminate Jews, for Mussolinis who rally them to nationalist dreams of glory and empire in which all foreigners are enemies to be subjugated."

Works by George Bernard Shaw

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of George Bernard Shaw's writings.

[edit]Novels

Title¹	Written	Printed	First Publisher	Link
Immaturity	October 1879	1930 (Ltd. Ed.), 1931 (Std. Ed.)	Constable and Company, Ltd., London	*
The Irrational Knot	1880	1885-8	Our Corner (Annie Besant's Socialist Magazine)	s:The Irrational Knot
Love Among the Artists	1881	1887-8 (Serial); 1932 (Book)	Our Corner (Annie Besant's Socialist Magazine)	s:Love Among the Artists
Cashel Byron's Profession	1882	1885-6 (Serial); 1901 (Book)	To-Day (Henry Hyde Champion's Socialist periodical)	s:Cashel Byron's Profession
An Unsocial Socialist	1883	1884 (Serial); 1887 (Book)	To-Day (Henry Hyde Champion's Socialist periodical)	s:An Unsocial Socialist

¹All of the novels are included in The Standard Edition of the Works of Bernard Shaw;
a collection published by Constable and Company, Limited (London)

---

[edit]Plays

Title	Written	Premiere	Printed	Remarks	Links
Passion Play	1878			Obscure fragment
Un Petit Drame	1884		1958	One act playlet
Widower's Houses	1892	1892	1893	First successful play	s:Widowers' Houses
The Philanderer	1893		1898	Woman hunts; man is the prey.	s:The Philanderer
Mrs. Warren's Profession	1894	1895	1898	Created public uproar because prostitution was realistically discussed	s:Mrs. Warren's Profession
Arms and the Man	1894	1894	1898	In war and love, pragmatism beats bravado.	[1]
Candida	1895	1897	1898	A woman chooses the man who needs her most over the one who loves her most	s:Candida
The Man of Destiny	1895	1899	1898	Cherchez la femme.	s:The Man of Destiny
You Never Can Tell	1896	1896	1998	Comedy for comedy's sake	s:You Never Can Tell
The Devil's Disciple	1897	1897	1901	A melodrama drawn from the American Revolution. Shaw's only full-length play with a solely American locale.	s:The Devil's Disciple
The Gadfly: or The Son of the Cardinal		1898
Caesar and Cleopatra	1898	1906	1901	The game is not romance but politics.	s:Caesar and Cleopatra
Captain Brassbound's Conversion	1899	1900	1901	The lady's trustfulness can melt any villain's heart.	s:Captain Brassbound's Conversion
The Admirable Bashville, or Constancy Unrewarded	1901	1903	1909	Derived from Cashel Byron's Profession but not a stage version of that novel	s:The Admirable Bashville
Man and Superman	1903	1905	1903	Epic flight of a Socialist reformer hoping to escape a woman bent on marriage	s:Man and Superman
Don Juan in Hell: Act III of Man and Superman	1903	1907	1903	A dream sequence revises the Don Juan legend; it is often produced as a separate play.	s:Man and Superman
John Bull's Other Island	1904	1904	1907	An Irishman's view of Edwardian England	s:John Bull's Other Island
How He Lied to Her Husband	1904	1904	1907	Satirizes Candida. The heroine, Aurora, strong as to flesh, finds her spirit weak.	s:How He Lied to Her Husband
Major Barbara	1905	1905	1907	The online version includes the preface; click on "Essay as First Aid to Critics"	s:Major Barbara
Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction	1905	1905	1905	A one-act farce intended for cheap and easy productions to benefit The Actors' Orphanage	s:Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction
The Doctor's Dilemma	1906	1906	1911	When the doctor can cure only one, either an artistic genius or a mundane but deserving friend, whom should he choose?	s:The Doctor’s Dilemma
The Interlude at the Playhouse	1907	1907	1907	Extremely humorous one-scene playlet	s:The interlude at the Playhouse
Getting Married	1908	1908	1911	Matrimony from the Shavian point of view	s:Getting Married
The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet. Sermon in crude melodrama	1909	1909	1911	Random acts of kindness help the world go down.	s:The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet
Press Cuttings	1909	1909	1909	Burlesques the conservative male reaction to the threat of Women's Suffrage	s:Press Cuttings
Fascinating Foundling: Disgrace to the author	1909	1928	1926	No in-laws, please!	[2]
The Glimpse of Reality A Tragedietta	1909	1927	1926	Reality in the 14th century, perhaps.	[3]
Misalliance	1910	1910	1914	Supplement to Getting Married	s:Misalliance
The Dark Lady of the Sonnets	1910	1910	1914	Fundraiser to help establish National Theatre as memorial for Shakespeare	s:Dark Lady of the Sonnets
Fanny's First Play	1911	1911	1914	Shaw called it a "potboiler"	s:Fanny's First Play
Androcles and the Lion	1912	1913	1914	Martyrdom for fun and profit	s:Androcles and the Lion
Overruled: A Demonstration	1912	1912	1916	Not an argument for or against polygamy	s:Overruled (Shaw)
Beauty's Duty	1913		1934	There is no record of this playlet being staged.	[4]
Pygmalion	1912-13	1913	1914	From guttersnipe to great lady, with lingering regrets. The basis for the classic musical My Fair Lady.	s:Pygmalion
Great Catherine	1913	1913	1919	Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.	s:Great Catherine
The Music Cure	1913	1914	1926	Nonsense, Shaw called it.	s:The Music Cure
O'Flaherty, V. C.	1915	1917	1920	For an Irishman, war is a respite from the stress of homelife.	s:O'Flaherty, V.C.
The Inca of Perusalem	1916	1916	1919	An almost historical comedietta	s:The Inca of Perusalem
Augustus Does His Bit	1916	1916	1919	Satirizes bureaucrats	s:Augustus Does His Bit
Macbeth Skit	1916		1967	Published in Educational Theatre Journal (1967) with an introduction by B. F. Dukore
Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress	1917	1918	1919	Revolutionary romancelet	s:Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress
Heartbreak House	1913-19	1920	1919	Fantasia in the Russian manner on English themes	s:Heartbreak House
Back to Methuselah A Metabiological Pentateuch	1918-20	1922	1921	«Preface» and 5 plays: «In the Beginning», «The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas», «The Thing Happens», «Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman» and « As Far as Thought Can Reach».	s:Back to Methuselah
A Glimpse of the Domesticity of Franklin Barnabas.	1920	1960	1932	First version of Back to Methuselah's Act II
Jitta's Atonement	1922	1929	1926	Shaw's translation from German of a play by Siegfried Trebitsch
Saint Joan	1923	1923	1924	Shaw's soul shows between the lines	[5]
The Apple Cart	1929	1929	1930	The flaws in democracy explored.	[6]
Too True to Be Good	1931	1932	1932	Regarding the miseries of wealth.	[7]
Village Wooing	1933	1934	1934	Comedietta for two voices	[8]
On the Rocks	1933	1933	1934	Unrest during the Great Depression	[9]
The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles	1934	1935	1936	The Useful Will Be Spared	[10]
The Six of Calais	1934	1934	1936	No message, just a great story	[11]
The Millionairess	1934	1936	1936	Earning money is a talent	[12]
Arthur and the Acetone	1935		1936	Broad satire of bureaucracy	[13]
Cymbeline Refinished	1937	1937	1938	A revised Act V for Shakespeare's Cymbeline	[14]
Geneva	1938	1938	1939	A fancied page of history.	[15]
In Good King Charles's Golden Days	1939	1939	1939	A true history that never happened.	[16]
The British Party System	1944	Never	1944	This playlet is Chapter III of Everybody's Political What's What?	[17]
Buoyant Billions	1947	1949	1947	Comedy of no manners	[18]
Farfetched Fables	1948-50	1950	1951	Shaw's thoughts simplified	[19]
Why She Would Not	1950			Unfinished play. Shaw died while writing it.	[20]

[edit]Other works

Title	Written	Printed	Remarks	Links
The Perfect Wagnerite	1883	1898	Philosophical commentary on Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen	[21]
Quintessence of Ibsenism	1891	1891	Significantly expanded in 1913.
Commonsense About the War	-	1914	-
The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism	-	1928	-
Everybody's Political What's What	-	1944	-	-