Saint Joan (New Mermaids) - Softcover

Bernard Shaw

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0713679964 ISBN 13: 9780713679960

Publisher: Methuen Drama, 2008

Synopsis

'What other judgment can I judge by but my own?' Charting the meteoric rise and fall of Joan of Arc and her mission to drive the English from France, Shaw's Saint Joan draws directly on the medieval records to cut through the sentiment that characterized previous literary treatments of her story. A powerful example of a new kind of history play, its staging of dissent and social constraint, personal responsibility and female assertion, as well as fervent adherence to a cause, gave it a powerful modernity in its own day and continuing resonance in ours. Acclaimed internationally, this instant modern classic propelled Shaw to the Nobel Prize for 1925. This new edition includes Shaw's definitive text and full Preface and provides the most comprehensive scholarly treatment of the play to date, featuring commentary on: * the historical and theatrical context * the development of the text and stage-worthiness of the play * correlation of the dialogue with the records of Jeanne D'Arc's trial * an international stage history * an appendix identifying the historical models for the characters

About this title

From the Back Cover:

'Everything she did was thoroughly calculated; and though the process was so rapid that she was hardly conscious of it, and ascribed it all to her voices, she was a woman of policy and not of blind impulse'

With Saint Joan, Shaw reached the height of his fame as a dramatist. In this magnificent play he distilled many of the ideas he had been trying to express in earlier works on the subjects of politics, religion and creative evolution. Fascinated by the story of Joan of Arc, but unhappy with the way she had traditionally been depicted, Shaw wanted to remove 'the whitewash which disfigures her beyond recognition'. He presents a realistic Joan: proud, intolerant, naive, foolhardy, always brave -- a rebel who challenged the conventions and values of her day. As Imogen Stubbs writes, 'All Joans are relevant but some Joans are more relevant than others -- I think Shaw's Saint Joan is the right one to be received by the twenty-first century'.

The definitive text under the editorial supervision of Dan H. Laurence

About the Author:

The Editor, Jean Chothia, is a Fellow of Selwyn College and Reader in Drama and Theatre in the University of Cambridge. Her books include Forging a Language: A Study of the Plays of Eugene O'Neill; English Drama of the Early Modern Period, 1890-1940, and, as editor, 'The New Woman' and Other Emancipated Woman Plays.

About this edition

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0713679964
• ISBN 13: 9780713679960
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208
• Editor: Jean Chothia