Plays: Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, Saint Joan, Too True to Be Good

by George Bernard Shaw

Presents the texts of four plays with contemporary and modern critical essays and notes on the playwright

Genres: Plays, Drama, Classics, Irish Literature

494 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

About the author

George Bernard Shaw stands as one of the most prolific and influential intellectuals of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a man whose literary output was matched only by his fervent commitment to social reform. Rising from a modest background in Dublin to become a global icon of letters, Shaw redefined the purpose of the stage, transforming it from a place of mere entertainment into a forum for rigorous intellectual debate and moral inquiry. His unique "Shavian" style—characterized by sharp-witted dialogue, paradoxical reasoning, and a relentless assault on Victorian hypocrisy—ensured that his voice resonated far beyond the footlights. As a playwright, critic, and philosopher, he remains a singular figure in history, being one of only two individuals to have been honored with both a Nobel Prize in Literature and an Academy Award. This rare crossover of high-art recognition and mainstream cinematic success speaks to his versatility and the enduring relevance of his narratives. His dramatic work, which includes over sixty plays, often tackled the most pressing issues of his day, from the rigid structures of the British class system to the complexities of gender roles and the ethical dilemmas of capitalism. In masterpieces like Pygmalion, he used the science of phonetics to demonstrate the artificiality of class distinctions, a theme that would later reach millions through the musical adaptation My Fair Lady. In Man and Superman, he delved into the philosophical concepts of the "Life Force" and the evolution of the human spirit, while Major Barbara forced audiences to confront the uncomfortable relationship between religious idealism and the industrial military complex. Beyond his theatrical achievements, Shaw was a foundational force in political thought, serving as a leading light of the Fabian Society. His advocacy for gradual socialist reform, rather than violent revolution, helped shape the trajectory of modern British politics and social welfare. He was instrumental in the creation of the London School of Economics, an institution that continues to influence global policy and economic theory. Shaw was also a formidable critic, whose reviews of music and drama set new standards for the profession, characterized by an uncompromising honesty and a deep knowledge of the arts. His personal lifestyle was as distinctive as his writing; a committed vegetarian, teetotaler, and non-smoker, he lived with a disciplined focus that allowed him to remain productive well into his ninth decade. He was a man of contradictions, often engaging in provocative public discourse that challenged the status quo, even when his views sparked intense controversy. His fascination with the "Superman" archetype and his occasional support for authoritarian figures reflected a complex, often elitist worldview that sought the betterment of humanity through radical intellectual evolution. Despite these complexities, his core mission was always rooted in a profound humanitarianism and a desire to expose the delusions that prevented society from progressing. He believed that the power of the written word could strip away the masks of respectability that hid social injustice, and his plays continue to be staged worldwide because the human foibles he satirized remain as prevalent today as they were during his lifetime. By blending humor with gravity and intellect with accessibility, Shaw created a body of work that serves as both a mirror and a compass for modern civilization. His legacy is not just in the scripts he left behind, but in the very way we think about the intersection of art, politics, and the individual’s responsibility to the collective good. He remains the quintessential public intellectual, a man who never feared to speak his mind or to demand that the world become a more rational and equitable place.

Reviews

[Jacob Hurley · Rating 3 out of 5]

All of Shaw's plays, by design, start with the basic formula of characters intensely archetyping their economic classes and then proceed into dramas of relationships and personal philosophies that demonstrate this nature: in Major Barbara the adroit Victorian middle class family is swept away by the schizoid figure of their returned Nietzschean father, and become eager arms dealers; in Heartbreak House a convoluted wealthy family reevaluate their entire lives after the arrival of an eligible bachelorette of the lower class and some attaches. The essays in this old Norton Critical try to paint Shaw as a more iconoclastic marxist, with overeager but noncommital ties to socialist economics, as well as an enthusiast of music, whose convoluted plays develop their plot and tone shifts with the sensibility of a string quartet (allegedly). It's hard to take this very seriously, with the overly serious attitude towards anglo marriage games and misunderstood bits&pieces of philosophical theorizing, and resembles to me more of an audenesque goon than a crypto-Poundian analyist (whatever that's worth to you). They're entertaining all the same ... also attached is the histrionically sentimental Saint Joan, which ageing atheist Shaw felt the need to write, and the latter day Too True To Be Good, an all-over-the-place schizophrenic take on his own formula, about the degeneration of religion and institutions, all taking place in the same unhinged mood as the middle act of Man And Superman.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Major Barbara — Shaw (1/08)
Saint Joan — Shaw (2/08)
Heartbreak House — Shaw (2/08)
Too True to Be Good — Shaw (3/08)

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Major Barbara: -

A delightful look at various prevalent notions and hypocrisies of the times - and realities as they are. Salvation Army, church, politics as a career, ethics of business; niceties of law that might make one illegitimate in UK or at least in England but not in Australia, much less anywhere else in the world; and inheritance vs competance, when it is about running a business.

US, particularly NRA of US (as in gun lobby) seem to have adopted the creed of one of the characters in this to an extent that poor Mr. Shaw could never have imagined - "seem to" being the key here. But on the other hand, who knows, he would perhaps have said that neither NRA of US nor he were wrong, and that any society that allows such happenings without curbing them with laws that made sense and protected children perhaps deserved the grief they allowed the arms manufacturers and dealers to let loose on them. And really US has much that is legal in US but illegal in Europe in many countries, or at least those that matter. Germany for example has outlawed any organisations or pictures to do with their past horror - but not US where those proliferate; so guns too, and the consequent stupidity of innocent persons and your own children massacred in their own homes and schools.

Gun lobby of US - and much else of the world - might claim they follow this very intelligent writer for ethics, but if you look at it with a scrutiny, actually, no they don't; they are doing precisely what the writer cautions against, that is, mixing politics and business - for example in deciding who they will or will not sell to (or allow to carry arms), whether on personal level in the country (men get license easlily, women don't, even though they are far more in need of self defence, whether from personal attackers or home robbers and so on), or on global level about nations and gangs (here there is no need of examples - they are far too obvious, well known), therefore making it a mess - or at least helping politics do so.

That said, this is of course an extrememly intelligent play as almost everything written by this writer is; this one deals with an arms dealer and the possible social embarrassment his family with aristocratic connections must go through - his son requires that the father help him without allowing it to be known, since he needs to have a social status - and various issues around the question, morality vs. arms manufacturer.
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Heartbreak House: -

I found it confusing then - perhaps that was the intention of the writer after all, to confuse the reader for once.
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Saint Joan: -

An inspired young woman, a young country girl without education, saved France - from foreign invasion as much as from destruction and chaos - and the then powers had her not only imprisoned and tortured, but burnt alive in public, for fear they will lose their power, their straglehold over people.

Few intellectuals have either bothered - or really have had the courage - to set matters straight, down even on paper, much less pay the homage due to the young woman who seems to have had more courage than the generations of men since then.

Shaw is amongst those very few men who did not lack the courage to write about Joan of Arc.

Saint she was, and a true heroine, whether any human authorities - with any institutional power and claims to any other source of authority - say so or otherwise.

Jeanne D'Arc was as much the mother of the nation of France as was Elizabeth I of England (even Britain for that matter), and that is not a small achievement for a human. Indeed seeing the amount of obstacle one has to question if these figures were human or a higher being cloaked in human.

One wonders if anyone would have the courage to compare the two (spiritually) tall figures, who were executed by the same empire, for very similar reasons - being heroic about liberating their own people, and with claims of direct connection of their souls to higher realms - one was crucified two millennia ago in west Asia, the other burnt alive a few centuries ago in France.

Divine after all is beyond time and space and geography, empires and institutions, and most certainly beyond gender.

[Winmonroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Major Barbara, 8/10

Covering religion, economics, war, and morality, this play is about a family whose estranged father made a fortune manufacturing and selling weapons. The father returns to the family and much of the action centers around his tension with his daughter Barbara, a major in the Salvation Army, a religious movement attempting to help and convert the poor and wretched. While interesting and well written the play does not have all of the power of some of Shaw's other plays - at the end we still feel vexed about where we should stand and on what basis. Some of Shaw's best writing also comes in the form of stage directions introducing a character, perhaps making it better to read that to see performed. All together it is a good story, diving deep into the hypocrisy of many moralists and the relationship between material and spiritual well being.

Heartbreak House, 9/10

While Heartbreak House contains and begins with some of the social commentary that features more prominently in some of his works, it turns his attention to more personal matters. Heartbreak House is a story about the household of a Captain Shotover, who apparently sold his soul to the devil in Zanzibar, and his "demon daughters," as they twist and confound the lives of their husbands and guests. Their madhouse becomes a stage for a kind Nietzsche-an self-exploration that like Ibsen's Master Builder brings the reader along the trip to madness and like Camus find some affirmation in the absurd. Yet all this spiritual complexity happens in the context of what might be one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Heartbreak House is a dark and wonderful play.

Saint Joan, 7/10

Written shortly after the canonization of Joan of Arc, Shaw wrote this "tragedy without villains," which chronicles the rise and fall of Joan of Arc. In the preface Shaw writes: "There are no villains in the piece. Crime, like disease, is not interesting: it is something to be done away with by general consent, and that is all [there is] about it. It is what men do at their best, with good intentions, and what normal men and women find that they must and will do in spite of their intentions, that really concern us."

The play is a strange kind of tragedy where evil is less a particular person than a general cowardice in the face of a broken system where individuals seem to know better but cannot be bothered to do anything about it. Joan is prideful and presumptuous, but her sincerity is more than simplicity and cuts through social airs and pretense. Shaw leaves much of the individualistic focus of Heartbreak House for more direct social commentary, the sentiment of which can be summed up in the following line from the play: "But it is a terrible thing to see a young and innocent creature crushed between these mighty forces, the Church and the Law."

Too True To Be Good, 7/10

The last play in my norton collection of Shaw's plays is strange, but altogether thought provoking and funny. The play is motivated by a sickly well to do child who finds nourishment and health in abandoning her overprotective mother for a life with thieves. The subtitle is "A Collection of Stage Sermons by a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature," gives a sense of the play's form, mostly lectures and debates from various characters trying to find their way through life by peeling back the pleasantries of manners, morality, and social conscience in order to have a franker conversation about needs, desires, and aspirations. The result is a play that seems a bit meandering plot-wise, but also continuously intellectually stimulating.

Critical essays 8/10
These selection of critical essays in this addition are excellent. Gassner on Shaw and Modernism and Kaye of Shaw and Political Economics stand out, but overall they offer a rich source of perspective, analysis, and discussion for the reader who, like me, finishes Shaw desperate to discuss his plays only to realize no one I know reads 100 year old plays...

[Jason Fiore · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the Norton Critical Editions. I have my local used book store notify me when they get one in. The editor is generally an academic whose scholarly interest is in the author being covered. All of the Norton Critical Editions have documents that help you appreciate the work, both in the context of the period in which it was written and now. They also include helpful footnotes geared to undergraduates, who might not be all that familiar with cultural references.

This book admirably holds to the tradition of Norton Critical Editions. Warren S. Smith did a magnificent job selecting appropriate papers / documents for the Backgrounds and Criticism section. These documents really do help you appreciate these plays.

I read Major Barbara in college. I decided to read Saint Joan because I was taking an adult education class, "Religion on Trial", that had a class where we discussed the evolution of the story of Joan of Arc. I ended up dumping the class because the teacher really didn't know what she was talking about and allowed her very strong leftist / feminazi political views color her scholarship. The class and class discussion was worthless, but this book (which wasn't assigned) made all the difference.

If you have any interest in Shaw or any of these plays, choose this above all other versions. If you want to study these plays or Shaw in greater depth, this book will give you the background you need so that you can dive right into the serious scholarship.

Thank you, Norton Critical Editions.

[Scott Cox · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of plays (Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, Saint Joan, Too True to be Good) includes some of Bernard Shaw's most challenging works. This specific collection is made even more valuable by the background and criticism included in the back of the book; they bring considerable enlightenment to Shaw's socialist thought and artistic craft. Most of the plays deal with poverty & social-response, religion, politics & power, albeit with Shaw's characteristic humor. The only thing better than reading these plays, is to see them acted!

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Contains "To True to Be Good," the main character of which is a parody of T. E. Lawrence. Also has three essays on this play: "The Last Plays of Bernard Shaw: Dialectic and Despair," "The Two Sides of 'Lawrence of Arabia': Aubrey and Meek, and "The 'Pentecostal Flame' and the 'Lower Centers."

[Miriam]

Contains 4 plays: Major Barbara, Heartbreak House, Saint Joan, Too True to be Good.
Shaw identified the main character in Too True to be Good to be modeled after his friend T. E. Lawrence.