3 Review(s)

About The Book: Heartbreak House, play in three acts by George Bernard Shaw, published in 1919 and produced in 1920. The play’s subtitle, “A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes,” acknowledges its resemblance to Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. The action takes place in the decidedly bohemian household of the elderly Captain Shotover, a dabbler in mysticism. The time, to judge from the zeppelin attack that provides the climax, is World War I, although no direct reference is made to the conflict. The characters—including Shotover’s daughters, Hesione and Lady Utterword, Hesione’s husband, Hector, and sundry others—play out their petty deceptions and grand philosophies oblivious of the momentous changes approaching. This combination of eccentrics gives rise to heated discussions of social theory, sexual conflict, and other typically Shavian subjects. About The Author: George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 1880s to his death and beyond. He wrote more than sixty plays, including major works such as Man and Superman (1902), Pygmalion (1913) and Saint Joan (1923). With a range incorporating both contemporary satire and historical allegory, Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.