The play, My Fair Lady, was a delightful comedy

It's loverly, loverly, loverly! I couldn't stop reading it. I've seen the movie aout a gazillion times, and I have three recordings of "My Fair Lady" (The Original Broadway Cast and London Cast, both with Julie Andrews, and the movie Soundtrack), and the book is just what I needed. I could often quote the movie, and as my friend Mishi said, I'm "a perfect Eliza!", but the book's just wonderful. It's going to help me do this on stage one day . . .

George Bernard Shaw takes the title for this play from the opening life of Virgil's epic poem the "Aeneid," which begins "Of arms and the man I sing." Virgil glorified war and the heroic feats of Aeneas on the battlefield. However, Shaw's purpose in this play is to attack the romantic notion of war by presenting a more realistic depiction of war, devoid of the idea that such death and destruction speaks to nobility. Still, "Arms and the Man" is not an anti-war drama, but rather a satirical assault on those who would glorify the horrors or war.

Shaw develops an ironic contrast between two central characters. The play begins with accounts of the glorious exploits of Major Sergius Saranoff, a handsome young Bulgarian officer, in a daring cavalry raid, which turned the war in favor of the Bulgarians over the Serbs. In contrast, Captain Bluntschil, a professional soldier from Switzerland, acts like a coward. He climbs up to a balcony to escape capture, he threatens a woman with a gun, and he carries chocolates rather than cartridges because he claims the sweets are more useful on the battlefield.

In the eyes of Raina Petkoff, the young romantic idealist who has bought into the stories of battlefield heroism, Saranoff is her ideal hero. However, as the play proceeds, we learn more about this raid and that despite its success, it was a suicidal gesture that should have failed. Eventually Saranoff is going to end up dead if he continues to engage in such ridiculous heroics. Meanwhile, we realize that Bluntshcil has no misconceptions about the stupidity of war and that his actions have kept him alive.

"Arms and the Man" is an early play by Shaw, first performed in 1894, the same year he wrote "Mrs. Warren's Profession." The ending is rather tradition for comedies of the time, with all the confusion between the lovers finally getting cleared up and everybody paired up to live happily ever after. The choice of a young woman as the main character, who ultimately rejects her romantic ideals to live in the real world, is perhaps significant because serving in the army and going to war is not going to happen. Consequently, her views are not going to be colored by questions of courage in terms of going to war herself. I also find it interesting that this play understands the horrors of war given that it was the horrors of World War I that generally killed the romantic notion of war in Britain.

This particular volume offers up "A Facsimile of the Holograph Manuscript," which gives Shavian scholars a chance to look over the original manuscript and think deep thoughts over changes and corrections. Certainly of interest to any devote of Shaw, but those looking for some new critical insight will probably find the bones of this one have been picked clean long ago.

An intesting book about the story of the narrow minded puritans fighting back against the british army ,once a great powerful one. A great book espescilly when the army are made out to be fools. A well written book of life in 1777.

THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA is one of Shaw's most biting critical commentaries...this time on doctors. Shaw hated doctors, as a result of a botched operation on his foot, so here he portrays them as a group of ignorant, bull-headed windbags. All, that is, except for one doctor, who has actually found a cure for tuberculosis. The "dilemma" in the title is whether to use the cure on a talented young painter who is a moral and ethical sleazebag, or on an upstanding middle-aged physician who is a good soul, albeit a boring and relatively mundane one. All this is complicated by the fact that the doctor is in love with the painter's wife! The biggest problem with the play is that it has lost some of its impetus in the last century. Antibiotics can now cure tuberculosis, and the medical profession is far more restricted in its use of "experimental" treatments than it was then. However, Shaw's wit and invective is still poignant even at the end of the twentieth century. A must-read for Bernard Shaw enthusiasts....

Since Chesterton and Shaw so vehemently disagreed with each other on many topics, one would expect this quick text to be filled with antagonism. Instead, it is a delightful explanation of Shaw's background, biography and beliefs, told in a gentle, light-hearted manner. Chesterton shows a great respect for his adversary, while making clear his own views through quite a few of the one-sentence quotables for which he is well known.

"Great Expectations" is one of the best classics ever written. Dickens' flare for writing is exquisite; wonderous; fantastic! He is looked on as a great author; rightfully so. Books such as "Great Expectations," "A Tale of Two Cities," "David Copperfield," and "A Christmas Carol" sets Dickens apart from the crowd.

King's book deals with the performance of Arthur Conan Doyle's short play "A Story of Waterloo" by eminent Victorian actor Henry Irving and a devastating review of this production written by George Bernard Shaw in 1895. The play is about an old and feeble soldier who has played a heroic role at Waterloo and pathetically dies while reliving his finest hour, thereby bringing the house down (in the theatre, that is). King uses this intersection of two remarkable theatrical careers to consider the Victorians' retrospective glance at the Napoleontic wars, the nature of Irving's performance, which by modern standards would be inconceivably sentimental, Irving's relation to his audience, Shaw's development as a critic and playwright, Irving's leading lady Ellen Terry and her son, the theatre director, designer and Irving acolyte Edward Gordon Craig. An instructive and entertaining read for anyone with a broad interest in the theatre and (cultural) history. Highly accessible, but marred by some unnecessary excursions into academic obscurities that the opening chapters had led me to believe were going to be avoided. Still, fascinating stuff.

it is not technical skill book. but if you have a think about adapted physical education, it would be interesting. it say that a boy with C.P. enjoy ski at first. only story, but it will move you.

This is a reprint of Cohen's 1949 book. (Sansom wrote the foreward.) While amended in some respects by later work, there is a great deal here that is valuable and unique. Cohen provided much of the economic information for the U.S. Strategic Survey reports on Japan; this is much more detailed and comprehensive in most respects.

This book has been written by long time St Bernard fanciers and conformation judges, the Gwilliams of Coatham Kennels, England. Listed in the contents are subjects not previously included or only briefly touched on in other St Bernard books. The addition of a Hereditary Disorders/Conditions chapter is a bonus, as are the sections on Weaning and Socialisation. Feeding Tables which list the St Bernards daily requirements and the function of individual vitamins and minerals (including the results of deficiency or excess of these), are comprehensive. The aged St Bernard and Temperament are also covered in this responsibly written book. An American section, State by State, ensures that this book crosses the Atlantic. This book is right up there with the best St Bernard books I own.