Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9780140481037
ISBN number: 0140481036
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 8
Printing Date: June 30, 1950
Publishing house: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Sale Popularity Level: 1109113
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Candida centers on a romantic triangle and parodies courtly love and the domestic drama of Ibsen. It abounds with classical allusions, the fervor of a religious revival, and poetic inspiration and aspirations.
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Rated by buyers 
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Peter Gahan's introduction to G.B. Shaw's play Candida in the new Penguin Classics edition shows an old favorite play in a very new light. Not only does Gahan read between the lines of the plot, he also draws the reader's attention to on-stage props, names, and even off-stage happenings, which might otherwise easily go unnoticed. He makes some truly amazing connections with a multitude of other works of art, such as Yeats' poetry, pre-Raphelite paintings, and Wagnerian opera. This new edition of Candida is worth buying for its introduction alone.
Rated by buyers 
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Like many writers at the turn of the 20th Century, Shaw was very much interested in "the woman question," for women were becoming increasingly independent and more of a challenge to men in both public and private spheres. Although he also addressed these issues in such other plays as PYGMALION and MAN AND SUPERMAN, CANDIDA is perhaps his clearest statement on the subject. Written in 1894, it is a statement that has proven timeless. It is easily among the favorite performance pieces of world theatre.
The plot is quite simple. The Rev. Morrell is a minister with a taste for reform--and he has had the good fortune to marry the perfect wife, a remarkable woman named Candida who has a talent for smoothing every path she encounters. One of the paths to which she has turned that talent is that of Marchbanks, a poetic young man who is the grip of all the emotional turmoil delayed adolescence implies. But Marchbanks has fallen in love with Candida, and when he informs her husband of this all hell breaks loose.
Throughout much of the play Morrell and Marchbanks engage in a series of brilliantly written duels over Candida, each of them espousing what Candida means to them and what they can give her, arguing through numerous philosophical issues in the process. But neither gentleman has actually troubled to consult Candida herself; when they eventually lay the issue before her and insist that she decide between them, she responds in a way that not only demonstrates how little they know of her, but how little they know about both women and the world in general.
The climax of the play has been dropping jaws in theatres for well over a hundred years and it seems likely that it will do so for at least a hundred more--and although Shaw presents his play as a comedy, it will be the rare husband who leaves it without a quick glance at his wife and the disturbed thought that like Candida, she may not be entirely what he has always believed her to be. Brilliantly written and reading as well on the page as it plays on the stage, CANDIDA is easily among the great plays of this or any other era; a personal favorite and very strongly recommended.
GFT, Amazon Reviewer
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