Androcles and the Lion

Title

en_US Androcles and the Lion

Description

en_US This is a hardbound book (hard cover)

en_US Bernard Shaw

Creator

en_US Shaw, Bernard

Date

2016-01-22T21:18:36Z

en_US 2015-04

en_US 1929

Date Available

2016-01-22T21:18:36Z

Date Issued

en_US 1929

Abstract

en_US Encyclopedia Britannica says this about the play: 'a drama consisting of a prologue and two acts by George Bernard Shaw, performed in Berlin in 1912 and published in 1916. Using the Roman story of Androcles, Shaw examines true and false religious exaltation, combining the traditions of miracle play and Christmas pantomime into a philosophical farce about early Christianity. The play’s central theme, recurrent in Shaw, is that one must have something worth dying for—an end outside oneself—to make life worth living. I am happy to find this early copy, even though it is not a first edition. As I wrote earlier of a Penguin edition, I am delighted at last to have the opportunity to read the play. (The book contains some one hundred pages of stuff--mini-essays?--before the play starts, and a few pages of explanation after it.) Androcles is a Christian Greek tailor, known for his sorcery with animals, whom he loves dearly. He exists within a strong cast of characters including his wife Megaera, a rather handsome pampered slattern; Ferrovius, the fierce fighter; Lavinia, the beautiful, forthright, sometimes doubting believer; the Roman Captain; and the Emperor. As Shaw constructs it, the play becomes an examination of allegiances and motives around the question of imperialism. Here, as in the Penguin edition, Shaw writes here without apostrophes in his contractions.

Identifier

en_US 10523 (Access ID)

uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/75137

Language

en_US eng

Publisher

en_US Constable and Company

en_US London

Subject

en_US PR5363.A86 1929

en_US Book containing one fable

en_US Title Page Scanned

Type

en_US Book, Whole