Dan H. Laurence's Books

Unpublished Shaw

By: Bernard Shaw,Dan H. Laurence

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SHAW 16 contains twenty-nine unpublished pieces by Shaw written between 1877 and 1950. The most significant is a ten-page draft synopsis of Man and Superman (the original manuscript draft of the play has been lost) in a contemplated five-act version, providing scholars with a hitherto unavailable ur-text. Equally important for the biographical and artistic insights they offer are the early literary efforts found in Shaw's first opus notebook, including an extended narrative-verse fragment of 1877 set in Dublin; a polemic (his first) on oakum picking and prison conditions; a criticism of organists and orchestral conductors; and an attempted evaluation of contemporary arts and letters in 1878. We find Shaw, through the persona of a female narrator, creating in his own image a fictional memoir of the young Hector Berlioz; offering an ironic vindication of housebreakers (in anticipation of Heartbreak House); exploring the seamy side of the prizefight ring; examining "exhausted" genres of Victorian art in 1880; defining the "true signification of the term Gentleman"; lecturing on Socialism and the family and on realism as the goal of fiction; and penetratingly considering the future of marriage in a rejected book review, one of four included in the volume. The dimensions of Shaw's political views may be examined through nearly a dozen commentaries on politics and on war and peace, ranging from the Boer War (an 1899 draft letter to the press, "Why Not Abolish the Soldier?") and 1903 municipal elections to U.S. Liberty Loans, the Italo-Abyssinian War, "how to talk intelligently" about the Second World War, and the implications of the hydrogen bomb in the nuclear age. For good measure, the volume concludes with two brief playlets, previously unrecorded. The editors have arranged these pieces individually or grouped by theme and genre as near to chronological order as possible, and the reader is brought closer to the original manuscripts by the retention of Shaw's stylistic and spelling inconsistencies, and by transliteration of the shorthand notations he frequently inserted between lines or in the margins. Each text is supplemented by an editorial note providing its provenance and a detailed physical description of the manuscript.

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Page Count

264

Publisher

Penn State Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0271015772

ISBN 13

9780271015774

Plays Extravagant

Too True to be Good, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, The Millionairess

By: Dan Laurence,George Bernard Shaw

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Plays Extravagant

Too True to be Good, The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles, The Millionairess

By: Dan Laurence,George Bernard Shaw

This is a collection of the plays of George Bernard Shaw that includes "The Millionairess", "Too True to be Good" and "The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles".

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Page Count

314

Publisher

Penguin UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

0141963727

ISBN 13

9780141963723

The Medieval Peasant House in Midland England

By: Nat Alcock,Dan Miles

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The Medieval Peasant House in Midland England

By: Nat Alcock,Dan Miles

The aim of this lavishly illustrated book is to provide an in-depth study of the many medieval peasant houses still standing in Midland villages, and of their historical context. In particular, the combination of tree-ring and radiocarbon dating, detailed architectural study and documentary research illuminates both their nature and their status. The results are brought together to provide a new and detailed view of the medieval peasant house, resolving the contradiction between the archaeological and architectural evidence, and illustrating how its social organisation developed in the period before we have extensive documentary evidence for the use of space within the house. Nat Alcock and Dan Miles' work on Medieval Peasant Houses in Midland England has been nominated for the 2014 Current Archaeology Research Project of the Year.

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Page Count

337

Publisher

Oxbow Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

1782977147

ISBN 13

9781782977148

Plays Political

The Apple Cart, On the Rocks, Geneva

By: Dan Laurence,George Bernard Shaw

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Plays Political

The Apple Cart, On the Rocks, Geneva

By: Dan Laurence,George Bernard Shaw

While some of Shaw’s earlier plays are still performed, his later plays, such as the ones in this volume, are barely known. As the collective title indicates, the themes here are political; yet, frankly, it is doubtful how seriously we can now take Shaw as a political thinker. Despite writing in the 1930s, he has little to say of the nature of totalitarianism: although he satirises Fascist dictators in “Geneva”, the satire is disappointingly mild. Neither did Shaw appear to foresee (on the evidence of these plays, at least) the imminent collapse of the British Empire.But it is Shaw the dramatist rather than Shaw the political philosopher who still holds our attention – even in plays as explicitly political as these. He had a sharp intellect and a quirky sense of humour, and his dialogue still glints and sparkles: he couldn’t write a dull line if he tried. No matter how serious the themes he addresses, the crispness of his writing and his lightness of touch still scintillate.Shaw seems, perhaps unfairly, out of fashion nowadays. But even in these lesser-known works, he demonstrates his matchless ability, still undimmed, to provoke and to entertain.

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485

Publisher

Penguin UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

0141963719

ISBN 13

9780141963716

The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet and Fanny's First Play

By: Dan Laurence,George Bernard Shaw

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The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet and Fanny's First Play

By: Dan Laurence,George Bernard Shaw

‘A tearing, flaring, revivalist drama’ was how Desmond MacCarthy described The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet. Set in America’s Wild West and aptly subtitled ‘A Sermon in Crude Melodrama’, this single-act play concerns the conversion of a horse thief desperate to ‘keep the devil’ in him and die game. Published in 1909, it brought Shaw into conflict with the Lord Chamberlain of England, who banned it on the grounds of alleged blasphemy, and it was twelve years before the play was performed in a London theatre. In an interview Shaw commented, ‘I am sorry that Fanny’s First Play has destroyed the cherished legend that I am an unpopular playwright ... for the first time I have allowed a play of mine to run itself to death ... And the worst of it is it will not die.’ First performed in 1911, the play is a delightful farce in which Shaw debates some of his favourite subjects: middle-class morality, marriage, parents and children and women’s rights. And, deliberately concealing his authorship, Shaw took the opportunity to satirize contemporary drama critics who, he claimed, ‘do not know dramatic chalk from dramatic cheese when it is no longer labelled for them.’

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Page Count

216

Publisher

Penguin UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

0141963697

ISBN 13

9780141963693

Androcles and the Lion

By: Dan Laurence,George Bernard Shaw

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Androcles and the Lion

By: Dan Laurence,George Bernard Shaw

Androcles and the Lion is a 1912 play written by George Bernard Shaw. Androcles and the Lion is Shaw's retelling of the tale of Androcles, a slave who is saved by the requited mercy of a lion. In the play, Shaw makes Androcles out to be one of many Christians being led to the Colosseum for torture. Characters in the play exemplify several themes and takes on both modern and supposed early Christianity, including cultural clash between Jesus' teachings and traditional Roman values.

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Page Count

165

Publisher

Penguin UK

Published Date

ISBN 10

0141963662

ISBN 13

9780141963662

Plays Pleasant

By: George Bernard Shaw

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Plays Pleasant

By: George Bernard Shaw

Exclusive to Penguin Classics: the definitive text of Shaw’s volume of “pleasant” plays, Arms and the Man, Candida, The Man of Destiny, and You Never Can Tell—part of the official Bernard Shaw Library A Penguin Classic One of Bernard Shaw’s most glittering comedies, Arms and the Man is a burlesque of Victorian attitudes to heroism, war and empire. In the contrast between Bluntschli, the mercenary soldier, and the brave leader, Sergius, the true nature of valour is revealed. Shaw mocks deluded idealism in Candida, when a young poet becomes infatuated with the wife of a Socialist preacher. The Man of Destiny is a witty war of words between Napoleon and a “strange lady,” while in the exuberant farce You Never Can Tell a divided family is reunited by chance. Although Shaw intended Plays Pleasant to be gentler comedies than those in their companion volume, Plays Unpleasant, their prophetic satire is sharp and provocative. This is the definitive text prepared under the editorial supervision of Dan H. Laurence. The volume includes Shaw’s Preface of 1898.

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Page Count

340

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0140437940

ISBN 13

9780140437942

Plays Unpleasant

By: George Bernard Shaw

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Plays Unpleasant

By: George Bernard Shaw

Exclusive to Penguin Classics: the definitive text of Shaw’s volume of “unpleasant” plays, Widowers’ Houses, The Philanderer, and Mrs. Warren’s Profession—part of the official Bernard Shaw Library A Penguin Classic 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 fiancée 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. This is the definitive text under the editorial supervision of Dan H. Laurence. This volume includes Shaw’s prefaces, cast lists from the first productions of the plays, and a list of his principal works.

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Page Count

324

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0140437932

ISBN 13

9780140437935

Man and Superman

By: George Bernard Shaw

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Man and Superman

By: George Bernard Shaw

Exclusive to Penguin Classics: the definitive text of the first great twentieth-century English play and a classic exposé of the eternal struggle between the sexes—part of the official Bernard Shaw Library A Penguin Classic After the death of her father, Ann Whitefield becomes the joint ward of two men: the respectable Roebuck Ramsden and John Tanner, author of “The Revolutionist’s Handbook.” Believing marriage would prevent him from achieving his higher intellectual and political ambitions, Tanner is horrified to discover that Ann intends to marry him, and he flees to Spain with the determined young woman in hot pursuit. The chase even leads them to the underworld, where the characters’ alter egos discuss questions of human nature and philosophy in a lively debate in a scene often performed separately as “Don Juan in Hell.” In Man and Superman, Shaw combined seriousness with comedy to create a satirical and buoyant exposé of the eternal struggle between the sexes. This is the definitive text produced under the editorial supervision of Dan H. Laurence. The volume also includes Shaw’s preface of 1903 and his appendix, “The Revolutionist’s Handbook”; the cast list from the first production of Man and Superman; and a list of his principal works.

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294

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0140437886

ISBN 13

9780140437881

Man and Superman

A Comedy and a Philosophy

By: Bernard Shaw

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Man and Superman

A Comedy and a Philosophy

By: Bernard Shaw

A lifetime of happiness! No man alive could bear it: it would be hell on earth' After the death of her father, Ann Whitefield becomes the joint ward of two men: the respectable Roebuck Ramsden and John Tanner, author of 'The Revolutionist's Handbook'. Believing marriage would prevent him from achieving his higher intellectual and political ambitions, Tanner is horrified to discover that Ann intends to marry him, and flees to Spain with the determined young woman in hot pursuit. The chase even leads them to the underworld, where the characters' alter egos discuss questions of human nature and philosophy in a lively debate in a scene often performed separately as 'Don Juan in Hell'. In Man and Superman, Shaw combined seriousness with comedy to create a satirical and buoyant exposé of the eternal struggle between the sexes. This is the definitive text under the editorial supervision of Dan H. Laurence. This volume includes Shaw's Preface of 1903 and his appendix, 'The Revolutionist's Handbook', the cast list from the first production of Man and Superman and a list of his principal works.

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Page Count

264

Published Date

ISBN 10

014045019X

ISBN 13

9780140450194

Book's by Dan H. Laurence

Unpublished Shaw

Unpublished Shaw

Plays Extravagant

Plays Extravagant

The Medieval Peasant House in Midland England

The Medieval Peasant House in Midland England

Plays Political

Plays Political

The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet and Fanny's First Play

The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet and Fanny's First Play

Androcles and the Lion

Androcles and the Lion

Plays Pleasant

Plays Pleasant

Plays Unpleasant

Plays Unpleasant

Man and Superman

Man and Superman

Man and Superman

Man and Superman

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