Book description
Shaw began writing MAN AND SUPERMAN in 1901 and determined to write a
play that would encapsulate the new century's intellectual
inheritance. Shaw drew not only on Byron's verse satire, but also on
Shakespeare, the Victorian comedy fashionable in his early life, and
from authors from Conan Doyle to Kipling. In this powerful drama of
ideas, Shaw explores the role of the artist, the function of women in
society, and his theory of Creative Evolution.
As Stanley Weintraub says in his new introduction, this is "the
first great twentieth-century English play" and remains a classic
expos of the eternal struggle between the sexes.
Dublin-born George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an active
Socialist and a brilliant platform speaker. He was strongly critical
of London theatre and closely associated with the intellectual revival
of British drama.
Dan H. Laurence has edited Shaw's COLLECTED LETTERS and COLLECTED
PLAYS with their Prefaces. He was Literary Advisor to the Shaw Estate
until his retirement in 1990.
Professor Stanley Weintraub teaches at the Institute of Arts and
Humanistic Studies at Penn State University.
