Pygmalion, Androcles, Overruled – Bernard Shaw (1916)

S$53.00

Pygmalion, Androcles, Overruled – Bernard Shaw (1916)

S$53.00

Title: Androcles and the Lion, Overruled and Pygmalion
Author: Bernard Shaw
Publisher: Brentano’s, 1916
Condition: Hardcover. Uncut pages, slightly tanned edges. Name inscription to fly page. Text clean, binding tight.

SKU: shaw-androcles Categories: ,

Title: Androcles and the Lion, Overruled and Pygmalion
Author: Bernard Shaw
Publisher: Brentano’s, 1916
Condition: Hardcover. Uncut pages, slightly tanned edges. Name inscription to fly page. Text clean, binding tight.

About Androcles and the Lion (from Wikipedia):

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 portrays Androcles to be one of the 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.

The short play is printed with a preface that includes a long examination of the Gospels by Shaw, in which Shaw analyzes the Bible and proclaims his findings. In summary, Shaw states that Jesus was a benevolent genius (in areas ranging from moral to social to economic) who eventually bought into popular ideas of his divinity and impending martyrdom. Shaw goes on to state that the teachings of Jesus were lost with his crucifixion, and that the Christian churches that followed are instead based on the teachings and philosophies of Paul or Barabbas. The preface is longer than the play itself.

About Overruled:

George Bernard Shaw’s one-act play follows two couples as they decide whether to follow the social moirés of the time or their hearts.

About Pygmalion (from Wikipedia):

Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological character. It was first presented on stage to the public in 1912.

Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador’s garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women’s independence.

About George Bernard Shaw (from Wikipedia):

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. He was also an essayist, novelist and short story writer. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable. Issues which engaged Shaw’s attention included education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege.