Arms and the Man - Couverture souple

Shaw, George Bernard

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 058253254X ISBN 13 : 9780582532540

Editeur : Prentice Hall Press, 1964

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Here, this famous play by the Nobel Prize winner great author, George Bernard Shaw, has been presented by differentiating the dialogues with darker color from the descriptions within the brackets in a different/lighter color in italics. The punctuations within the brackets are deleted and the m space (.) after the names of characters is replaced by colon (:) to streamline the flow. Arms and the Man, a humorous play which shows the futility of war and deals with the hypocrisies of human nature in a comedic fashion was first produced on April 21, 1894 at the Avenue Theatre, and published in 1898. Arms and the Man was one of Shaw's first commercial successes. When he was called onto stage after the curtain, he received enthusiastic applause and cheers but one audience member booed. Shaw replied, "My dear fellow, I quite agree with you, but what are we two against so many?" The story springs up during the 1885 Serbo—Bulgarian War and its heroine, Raina Petkoff, is a young Bulgarian woman engaged to Major Sergius Saranoff, whom she idolizes. One night, a Swiss mercenary soldier in the Serbian army, Captain Bluntschli, climbs in through her bedroom window and threatens to shoot Raina if she gives the alarm. When Russian/Bulgarian troops burst in to search the house for him, Raina hides him so that he won't be killed. In a conversation after the soldiers have left, Bluntschli's attitude towards war and soldiering shock her, especially when he tells her that he does not carry pistol cartridges but chocolate. When the search is over, Raina and her mother Catherine sneak Bluntschli out of the house, disguised in an old housecoat of Major Petkoff. The war ends with a peace treaty and Sergius returns to Raina, but also flirts with her insolent servant girl Louka, who is engaged to Nicola, the Petkoff's manservant. Raina begins to find Sergius both foolhardy and tiresome, but she hides it. Bluntschli unexpectedly returns so to give back the old housecoat, but also to see her. Raina and her mother are shocked, especially when her father and Sergius reveal that they have met Bluntschli before and invite him to stay for lunch. Left alone with Bluntschli, Raina realizes that he sees through her romantic posturing, but that he respects her as a woman, as Sergius does not. She tells him that she had left a photograph of herself in the pocket of the coat, inscribed "To my chocolate—cream soldier", but Bluntschli says that he didn't find it and that must still be in the coat pocket. Sergius challenges Bluntschli to a duel, but Bluntschli avoids fighting and Sergius and Raina break off their engagement. Raina's father, Major Paul Petkoff, discovers the portrait in the pocket of his housecoat, but Raina and Bluntschli trick him by removing the photograph before he finds it again in an attempt to convince him that his mind is playing tricks on him, but Petkoff is determined to learn the truth and claims that the "chocolate—cream soldier" is Sergius. After Bluntschli reveals the whole story to Major Petkoff, Sergius proposes marriage to Louka; Nicola quietly and gallantly lets Sergius have her, and Bluntschli, recognising Nicola's dedication and ability, offers him a job as a hotel manager. While Raina is now single, Bluntschli protests that being 34 years of age he is too old for her, believing her to be 17; upon learning that she is in fact 23, he immediately proposes marriage and proves his wealth and position by listing his inheritance from the telegram. Raina, having realized the hollowness of her romantic ideals, protests that she would prefer her poor "chocolate—cream soldier" to this wealthy businessman. Bluntschli says that he is still the same person, and the play ends with Raina proclaiming her love for him and Bluntschli, with Swiss precision, both clearing up the major's troop movement problems and informing everyone that he will return to be married to Raina exactly two weeks from Tuesday.

Biographie de l'auteur

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, 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 with a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable. Influenced by his reading, he became a dedicated socialist and a charter member of the Fabian Society, a middle-class organization established in 1884 to promote the gradual spread of socialism by peaceful means. In 1898, he married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a fellow Fabian, whom he survived. They settled in Ayot St Lawrence in a house now called Shaw's Corner. Shaw died there, aged 94, from chronic problems exacerbated by injuries he incurred by falling from a ladder. He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Academy Award (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (an adaptation of his play of the same name), respectively. He refused all other awards and honours, including the offer of a knighthood.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Prentice Hall Press
• Date d'édition: 1964
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 058253254X
• ISBN 13: 9780582532540
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 118
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible