Works by George Bernard Shaw
Encyclopedia
Novels
| Title¹ | Written | Printed | First Publisher | Link |
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| Immaturity | October 1879 | 1930 (Ltd. Ed.), 1931 (Std. Ed.) | Constable and Company, Ltd., London | |
| The Irrational Knot | 1880 | 1885-8 | Our Corner (Annie Besant's Socialist Magazine) | s:The Irrational Knot |
| Love Among the Artists | 1881 | 1887-8 (Serial); 1932 (Book) | Our Corner (Annie Besant's Socialist Magazine) | s:Love Among the Artists |
| Cashel Byron's Profession Cashel Byron's Profession Cashel Byron's Profession is George Bernard Shaw's fourth novel. The novel was written in 1882 and after rejection by several publishers it was published in serialized form in a socialist magazine. The novel was later published as a book in England and the United States... |
1882 | 1885-6 (Serial); 1901 (Book) | To-Day (Henry Hyde Champion's Socialist periodical) | s:Cashel Byron's Profession |
| An Unsocial Socialist | 1883 | 1884 (Serial); 1887 (Book) | To-Day (Henry Hyde Champion's Socialist periodical) | s:An Unsocial Socialist |
¹All of the novels are included in The Standard Edition of the Works of Bernard Shaw;
a collection published by Constable and Company, Limited (London)
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Plays
| Title | Written | Premiere | Printed | Remarks | Links |
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| Passion Play | |
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Obscure fragment | |
| Un Petit Drame | |
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One act playlet | |
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| Widower's Houses | |
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First successful play | |
| The Philanderer The Philanderer The Philanderer is a play by George Bernard Shaw.It was written in 1893 but the strict British Censorship laws at the time meant that it was not produced on stage until 1902.... |
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Woman hunts; man is the prey. | |
| Mrs. Warren's Profession Mrs. Warren's Profession Mrs Warren's Profession is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893. The story centers on the relationship between Mrs Kitty Warren, a brothel owner, described by the author as "on the whole, a genial and fairly presentable old blackguard of a woman" and her daughter, Vivie... |
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Created public uproar because prostitution was realistically discussed | |
| Arms and the Man Arms and the Man Arms and the Man is a comedy by George Bernard Shaw, whose title comes from the opening words of Virgil's Aeneid in Latin:"Arma virumque cano" .... |
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In war and love, pragmatism beats bravado. | |
| Candida Candida (play) Candida, a comedy by playwright George Bernard Shaw, was first published in 1898, as part of his Plays Pleasant. The central characters are clergyman James Morell, his wife Candida and a youthful poet, Eugene Marchbanks, who tries to win Candida's affections. The play questions Victorian notions... |
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A woman chooses the man who needs her most over the one who loves her most |
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| The Man of Destiny The Man of Destiny The Man of Destiny is an 1897 play by George Bernard Shaw. It was published as a part of Plays Pleasant, which also included Arms and the Man, Candida and You Never Can Tell. Shaw titled the volume Plays Pleasant in order to contrast it with his first book of plays, Plays Unpleasant.... |
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Cherchez la femme. | |
| You Never Can Tell | |
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Comedy for comedy's sake | |
| The Devil's Disciple The Devil's Disciple The Devil's Disciple is an 1897 play written by Irish dramatist, George Bernard Shaw. The play is Shaw's eighth, and after Richard Mansfield's original 1897 American production it was his first financial success, which helped to affirm his career as a playwright... |
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A melodrama drawn from the American Revolution. Shaw's only full-length play with a solely American locale. |
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| The Gadfly: or The Son of the Cardinal |
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| Caesar and Cleopatra Caesar and Cleopatra (play) Caesar and Cleopatra, a play written in 1898 by George Bernard Shaw, was first staged in 1901 and first published with Captain Brassbound's Conversion and The Devil's Disciple in his 1901 collection, Three Plays for Puritans. It was first performed at Newcastle-on-Tyne on March 15, 1899... |
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The game is not romance but politics. | |
| Captain Brassbound's Conversion Captain Brassbound's Conversion Captain Brassbound's Conversion is a play by G. Bernard Shaw. It was published in Shaw's 1901 collection Three Plays for Puritans . The first American production of the play starred Ellen Terry in 1907.... |
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The lady's trustfulness can melt any villain's heart. | |
| The Admirable Bashville, or Constancy Unrewarded | |
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Derived from Cashel Byron's Profession but not a stage version of that novel |
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| Man and Superman Man and Superman Man and Superman is a four-act drama, written by George Bernard Shaw in 1903. The series was written in response to calls for Shaw to write a play based on the Don Juan theme. Man and Superman opened at The Royal Court Theatre in London on 23 May 1905, but with the omission of the 3rd Act... |
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Epic flight of a Socialist reformer hoping to escape a woman bent on marriage | |
| Don Juan in Hell: Act III of Man and Superman | |
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A dream sequence revises the Don Juan legend; it is often produced as a separate play. |
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| John Bull's Other Island John Bull's Other Island John Bull's Other Island is a comedy about Ireland, written by G. Bernard Shaw in 1904. Shaw himself was born in Dublin, yet this is the only play of his where he thematically returned to his homeland.... |
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An Irishman's view of Edwardian England | |
| How He Lied to Her Husband | |
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Satirizes Candida. The heroine, Aurora, strong as to flesh, finds her spirit weak. |
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| Major Barbara | |
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The online version includes the preface; click on "Essay as First Aid to Critics" |
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| Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction | |
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A one-act farce intended for cheap and easy productions to benefit The Actors' Orphanage |
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| The Doctor's Dilemma | |
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When the doctor can cure only one, either an artistic genius or a mundane but deserving friend, whom should he choose? | |
| The Interlude at the Playhouse | |
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Extremely humorous one-scene playlet | |
| Getting Married | |
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Matrimony from the Shavian point of view | |
| The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet. Sermon in crude melodrama | |
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Random acts of kindness help the world go down. | |
| Press Cuttings | |
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Burlesques the conservative male reaction to the threat of Women's Suffrage | |
| Fascinating Foundling: Disgrace to the author | |
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No in-laws, please! | |
| The Glimpse of Reality A Tragedietta |
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Reality in the 14th century, perhaps. | |
| Misalliance Misalliance Misalliance is a play written in 1909–1910 by George Bernard Shaw.Misalliance 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... |
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Supplement to Getting Married | |
| The Dark Lady of the Sonnets | |
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Fundraiser to help establish National Theatre as memorial for Shakespeare | |
| Fanny's First Play | |
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Shaw called it a "potboiler" | |
| Androcles and the Lion Androcles and the Lion (play) 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... |
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Martyrdom for fun and profit | |
| Overruled: A Demonstration | |
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Not an argument for or against polygamy | |
| Beauty's Duty | |
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There is no record of this playlet being staged. | |
| Pygmalion Pygmalion (play) Pygmalion: A Romance in Five Acts is a play by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. 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... |
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From guttersnipe to great lady, with lingering regrets. The basis for the classic musical My Fair Lady My Fair Lady My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe... . |
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| Great Catherine | |
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Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. | |
| The Music Cure | |
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Nonsense, Shaw called it. | |
| O'Flaherty, V. C. | |
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For an Irishman, war is a respite from the stress of homelife. | |
| The Inca of Perusalem | |
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An almost historical comedietta | |
| Augustus Does His Bit | |
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Satirizes bureaucrats | |
| Macbeth Skit | |
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Published in Educational Theatre Journal (1967) with an introduction by B. F. Dukore |
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Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress |
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Revolutionary romancelet | |
| Heartbreak House Heartbreak House Heartbreak House is a play written by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1919 and first played at the Garrick Theatre in 1920. According to A. C. Ward, the work argues that "cultured, leisured Europe" was drifting toward destruction, and that "Those in a position to guide Europe to safety... |
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Fantasia in the Russian manner on English themes | s:Heartbreak House |
| Back to Methuselah Back to Methuselah Back to Methuselah , by George Bernard Shaw consists of a preface and a series of five plays: In the Beginning: B.C. 4004 , The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas: Present Day, The Thing Happens: A.D. 2170, Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman: A.D. 3000, and As Far as Thought Can Reach: A.D... A Metabiological Pentateuch |
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«Preface» and 5 plays: «In the Beginning», «The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas», «The Thing Happens», «Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman» and « As Far as Thought Can Reach». | |
A Glimpse of the Domesticity of Franklin Barnabas. |
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First version of Back to Methuselahs Act II | |
| Jitta's Atonement | |
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Shaw's translation from German of a play by Siegfried Trebitsch | |
| Saint Joan Saint Joan (play) Saint Joan is a play by George Bernard Shaw, based on the life and trial of Joan of Arc. Published not long after the canonization of Joan of Arc by the Roman Catholic Church, the play dramatises what is known of her life based on the substantial records of her trial. Shaw studied the transcripts... |
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Shaw's soul shows between the lines | |
| The Apple Cart The Apple Cart The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza is a 1928 play by George Bernard Shaw. It is satirical comedy about several political philosophies which are expounded by the characters, often in lengthy monologue... |
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The flaws in democracy explored. | |
| Too True to Be Good | |
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Regarding the miseries of wealth. | |
| Village Wooing | |
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Comedietta for two voices | |
| On the Rocks | |
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Unrest during the Great Depression | |
| The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles | |
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The Useful Will Be Spared | |
| The Six of Calais | |
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No message, just a great story | |
| The Millionairess The Millionairess The Millionairess is a 1960 British romantic comedy film set in London, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers... |
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Earning money is a talent | |
| Arthur and the Acetone | |
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Broad satire of bureaucracy | |
| Cymbeline Refinished | |
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A revised Act V for Shakespeare's Cymbeline | |
| Geneva Geneva Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland... |
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A fancied page of history. | |
| In Good King Charles's Golden Days In Good King Charles's Golden Days In Good King Charles's Golden Days is a play by George Bernard Shaw, subtitled A True History that Never Happened.It was written in 1938-39 as an "educational history film" for film director Gabriel Pascal in the aftermath of Pygmalions cinema triumph... |
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A true history that never happened. | |
| The British Party System | |
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This playlet is Chapter III of Everybody's Political What's What? | |
| Buoyant Billions | |
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Comedy of no manners | |
| Farfetched Fables | |
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Shaw's thoughts simplified | |
| Why She Would Not | |
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Unfinished play. Shaw died while writing it. | |
Other works
{| class="wikitable"|-
! Title
! Written
! Printed
! Remarks
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| The Perfect Wagnerite
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| Philosophical commentary on Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen
Der Ring des Nibelungen is a cycle of four epic operas by the German composer Richard Wagner . The works are based loosely on characters from the Norse sagas and the Nibelungenlied...
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| Quintessence of Ibsenism
Quintessence of Ibsenism
The Quintessence of Ibsenism is an essay written in 1891 by George Bernard Shaw, providing an extended analysis of the works of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen and of Ibsen's critical reception in England...
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| Significantly expanded in 1913.
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| Commonsense About the War
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| The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism
The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism
The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism is a book written by the famous Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw. This book employs socialist and Marxist thought. It was written in 1928, and later re-released as the first Pelican Book in 1937....
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| Everybody's Political What's What
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