Saint Joan, Major Barbara, Androcles & the Lion

by George Bernard Shaw

With Saint Joan, Shaw reached the height of his fame as a dramatist. Fascinated by the story of Joan of Arc (canonized in 1920), but unhappy with "the whitewash which disfigures her beyond recognition," he presents a realistic Joan: proud, intolerant, naïve, foolhardy, always brave-a rebel who challenged the conventions and values of her day.

Genres: Drama, Plays, Irish Literature

479 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

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

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The prefaces are far better than the plays themselves.

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 5 out of 5]

St. 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.

Sunday, September 13, 2009.
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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 easily, women don't, even though they are far more in need of self defense, 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 extremely 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.

Monday, September 14, 2009.
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Androcles And The Lion:-

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Sunday, February 23, 2014.
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[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

While "Major Barbara" and "Androcles" are forgettable takes on religious hypocrisy and "salvationism," "Saint Joan" is a wonderful and straight account of the famous French warrior (I rank it with Candida and Man and Superman as my favorite Shaw plays). The special quality of the play is that Shaw writes it in a sincere effort to be objective and factual, thus providing human elements to the traditional "villains" of the story and also recognizing Joan's own faults.

But the real value in this book comes from the prefaces he wrote to each play, which in some cases are longer than the plays themselves and in all cases revolve around GBS's specific brand of atheo-communism. As always, I recommend reading the preface after its respective work (I'll never understand why authors feel the need to discuss major characters, plot elements and themes before you're supposed to have read the book. . . shouldn't that be in the afterword/postscript/appendix?).

Even though I didn't much care for the short and mostly trivial "Major Barbara" or "Androcles," I greatly enjoyed their prefaces. In the former, Shaw defends his position that poverty is the greatest sin of all since all others stem from it, and thus it should be the first problem addressed in any civilized society. In the preface to "Androcles," which is at least twice as long as the actual play, Shaw reviews all of the information we know about Jesus (going very thoroughly through each gospel and all of their discrepancies) and then explains in detail why he was not a divine prophet but rather a radical communist reformer. He then goes on to explain why we should take him up on his suggestions in the modern day. "Saint Joan's" preface was the least impressive of them all, which is appropriate considering the play can stand on its own. Shaw essentially talked about how he arrived to believe that Joan was as he had depicted in the play.

I don't agree with everything Shaw says even though I'm quite attracted by his intellect, wit, and clarity of thought. He's certainly not the most humble of fellows, and I understand that he was pretty well loathed in his day mainly for this reason. But it's hard to deny that the man was a first-rate freethinker and came up with not only some pretty original ideas, but also original ways in which to express them artistically. If nothing else, he had a very unique way of expressing his unique viewpoints, and it's evident even in lesser plays like "Major Barbara" and "Androcles."

Not Bad Reviews

@pointblaek

[Erik Graff · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd already read Saint Joan and Androcles and the Lion when I picked this up, cheap, to replace the softcover editions on the shelves. For the sake of completeness and because I generally like Shaw, I read Major Barbara between these covers.

[Kerrytusc]

Saint Joan. Major Barbara. Androcles and the lion by Bernard Shaw (1956)

[Julia · Rating 1 out of 5]

meh. Not really great at all, and the prefaces dragged on forever, unnecessarily.