Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes Hare David-Intro Book

Set during a house party at the eccentric household of Captain Shotover and his daughter Hesione, this comedy of manners takes a probing look at the conflict between old-fashioned idealism and the realities of the modern age. Heartbreak House was Shaw's favorite play.

Author Bio: George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was one of the most prolific writers of the modern theater. He invented the modern comedy of ideas, expounding on social and political problems with a razor-sharp tongue, yet never sacrificing the comic vitality that ensures regular revivals of his plays. He also wrote several important political works, including The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism.

Dan H. Lawrence, edited Shaw's Collected Letters, his Collected Plays with their Prefaces, and Shaw's Music and (with Daniel Leary) The Complete Prefaces. He is Series Editor for the works of Shaw in Penguin.

David Hare is a playwright and director. His plays include Plenty, The Secret Rapture, and Via Dolorosa.

Revealing Shaw in all his many guises--playwright of ideas, master of comedy, maker of epigrams, teacher, critic, philosopher, poet--this novel is a devastating commentary on World War I and a scathing portrait of British upper-class life. The play presents a world of moral and spiritual blight. Reprint.