Bernard Shaw

Misalliance (eBook, PDF)

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

Misalliance is a play written in 1909–1910 by George Bernard Shaw. The play takes place entirely on a single Saturday afternoon in the conservatory of a large country house in Hindhead, Surrey in Edwardian era England. It is a continuation of some of the ideas on marriage that he expressed in 1908 in his play, Getting Married. It was also a continuation of some of his other ideas on Socialism, physical fitness, the Life Force, and "The New Woman": i.e. women intent on escaping Victorian standards of helplessness, passivity, stuffy propriety, and non-involvement in politics or general affairs. Shaw subtitled his play A Debate in One Sitting, and in the program of its first presentation in 1910 inserting this program note: "The debate takes place at the house of John Tarleton of Hindhead, Surrey, on 31 May 1909. As the debate is a long one, the curtain will be lowered twice. The audience is requested to excuse these interruptions, which are made solely for its convenience." Misalliance is an ironic examination of the mating instincts of a varied group of people gathered at a wealthy man's country home on a summer weekend. Most of the romantic interest centers on the host's daughter, Hypatia Tarleton, a typical Shaw heroine who exemplifies his lifelong theory that in courtship, women are the relentless pursuers and men the apprehensively pursued. Hypatia is the daughter of newly-wealthy John Tarleton who made his fortune in the unglamorous but lucrative underwear business. She is fed up with the stuffy conventions that surround her and with the hyperactive talk of the men in her life. Hypatia is engaged to Bentley Summerhays, an intellectually bright but physically and emotionally underdeveloped aristocrat. Hypatia is restless with her engagement as the play starts, even as it is revealed she has also had a proposal of engagement from her betrothed's father, Lord Summerhays. She has no desire to be a nurse to the elderly and is in no hurry to be made a widow. She longs for some adventure to drop out of the sky, and it does ... an aircraft crashes through the roof of the conservatory to close the end of the first act. At the beginning of Act II, it is revealed that the aircraft brings two unexpected guests. The pilot, Joey Percival, is a handsome young man who immediately arouses Hypatia's hunting instinct. The passenger, Lina Szczepanowska, is a female dare-devil of a circus acrobat whose vitality and directness inflame all the other men at the house-party. Read this complete famous novel for further story....

Produktdetails

• Verlag: iOnlineShopping.com
• Erscheinungstermin: 10. März 2019
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9788832538984
• Artikelnr.: 55448550

Autorenporträt

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish literary genius, he earned his name as prestigious dramatist, literary critic, socialist and political spokesman. He was born on 26 July 1856 Dublin, Ireland, youngest child of a middle class family. His father George Carr Shaw was a civil servant and a failed business man and his mother Lucinda Elizabeth Gurley Shaw was a singer. Due to his father's alcoholism family suffered a lot, his mother left the home with his sister and went London. Shaw studied at Wesleyan Connextional School, Dublin's Central Model School and Dublin English Scientific and Commercial Day School. Due to poverty he first worked as a junior clerk, at the 15 years of age. In 1876, he visited London and lived with his mother and sister. He chose journalism and writing as his career. Through his comical and humorous plays, he mostly wrote on existing social issues and exploitation of the working middle class that he faced himself. He wrote 60 plays based on social themes. In 1925, for his work Pygmalion he got Nobel Prize for literature later for it's film adaptation he received Oscar Award. His notable world-class Pygmalion, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, Candida, Arms and The Man, Saint Joan, Caesar and Cleopatra etc. At the age of 94, on 2 November 1950, George Bernard Shaw died.