Shaw Disarms the Man: War, Colonialism, and Theater in the 1890s

Abstract

The plays themselves are the 1931 Constable edition texts, presented in a clean, easy-to-read format that departs in several ways from Shaw’s own textual and typographical practices, for reasons that Eltis and general editor Brad Kent explain in a substantial note. Only the Mrs. Warren preface is included, probably for reasons having to do with volume length. That is a good choice: if you have to pick one among the three to print, that’s the one. The explanatory notes are excellent throughout. They offer the interested reader carefully selected excerpts from Shaw’s manuscript drafts and letters, as well as succinct summaries of historically relevant events and discourses. For example, one note for Mrs. Warren describes the so-called “White Slave Trade” moral panic fueled by W. T. Stead’s sensational (and journalistically suspect) reporting on English prostitution in little more than 250 words. Another cluster of notes makes the generationally specific feminism of Never’s Mrs. Clandon legible for readers, right down to her costume. When objectionable terms appear in the texts—such as an anti-Semitic trope used by Valentine—Eltis forthrightly explains but does not excuse them. For those seeking an affordable, well-edited volume that includes more than one of these early plays, it is an excellent choice, whether for the classroom or for personal study. As I write this, however, Eltis’s edition is not available for purchase outside the UK. Readers in other parts of the world should look forward to its eventual appearance on their bookshelves.