Mrs Warren's Profession

by Bernard Shaw, Brad Kent (Editor)

Overview

'Shaw's refusal to moralise about the sex trade, only about the system that supports it, provides the play with its dramatic tension and surprising modernity.' Guardian

Shaw's 1893 play centres on the mother and daughter relationship between Kitty Warren and her Cambridge-educated daughter, Vivie, who is currently enjoying a comfortable and financially untroubled life. Kitty's own upbringing was far from easy, however, and meant that she eventually had to make money through prostitution and then through the management of several brothels. When Vivie discovers that her mother brought her up and funded Vivie's Cambridge education on the money made from these pursuits, she is horrified and can barely cope. What's more, Vivie discovers that her mother's brothels are still in operation.

Students will find a wealth of information in this text to guide their studies: an extended introduction exploring the theatrical and historical context, critical reactions, background on the author, and stage history. It also includes Shaw's original Preface, and the play itself contains numerous notes and explanations throughout to aid students' understanding.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780713679946
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/17/2013
Series:	New Mermaids
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish playwright and critic, whose plays are famous for their wit, eloquence and interest in provocative ideas. Inspired mainly by the social dramas of Ibsen, he began to write plays of his own while working as an arts critic, though they were not performed until later. His play Mrs Warren's Profession was banned by the Lord Chamberlain until 1925. Unable to find commercial audiences for his plays, Shaw wrote extensive Prefaces for them, elaborating on the social and moral themes that they explore. Subsequent plays include Major Barbara, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House, Back to Methuselah, and Saint Joan. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1925, and an Academy Award in 1938, for the screenplay of the film adaptation of Pygmalion, a film which would later form the basis for My Fair Lady.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Bernard Shaw: A Brief Chronology
A Note on British Currency
A Note on the Text

Mrs Warren’s Profession

Appendix A: From Shaw’s Prefaces to Plays Unpleasant and Mrs Warren’s Profession

1. From the Preface to Plays Unpleasant (1930)
2. From the Preface to Mrs Warren’s Profession (1930)

Appendix B: The Expurgated Text of Mrs Warren’s Profession (1898)

Appendix C: Contemporary Reviews

1. St James’s Gazette (7 January 1902)
2. J.T. Grein, The Sunday Special (12 January 1902)
3. New York Times (31 October 1905)
4. New York Times (31 October 1905)
5. Manitoba Free Press (1 May 1907)
6. Glasgow News (11 April 1913)
7. Birmingham Gazette (28 July 1925)
8. The Times (29 September 1925)

Appendix D: Prostitution in Victorian England

1. From The Unknown Mayhew: Selections from the Morning Chronicle, 1849-50
2. From James Miller, Prostitution Considered in Relation to Cause and Cure (1859)
3. From Parliamentary Papers, 1865, XX, Children’s Employment Commission
4. From William Acton, Prostitution Considered in its Moral, Social, and Sanitary Aspects (1870)
5. From Alfred S. Dyer, The European Slave Trade in English Girls (1882)
6. From An Act to Make Further Provision for the Protection of Women and Girls [The Criminal Law Amendment Act] (1890)
7. From General [William] Booth, In Darkest England and the Way Out (1890)
8. From Clementina Black, Married Women’s Work (1915)

Appendix E: Incest

1. From the Old Testament: Leviticus 18. 6-18
2. From the House of Lords Debate on the Incest Bill (16 July 1903)
3. From the House of Commons Debate on the Incest Bill (26 June 1908)
4. From An Act to Provide for the Punishment of Incest (1908)

Appendix F: Censorship of the Stage

1. From An Act for Regulating Theatres, (1843)
2. A Memorandum from the Lord Chamberlain to the Examiner of Plays (1895)
3. “The Censorship of Plays,” The Times (29 October 1907)
4. From the Report from the Joint Select Committee of the House of Lords and the House of Commons (1909)

Appendix G: Vivie Warren’s Cambridge

1. Petitions and Resolutions on Degrees for Women (1896-97)
2. From the Senate Debate on Degrees for Women (March 1897)
3. The May 1897 Riots
4. An Undergraduate at Newnham College (1896-99)

Appendix H: The New Woman

1. From Grant Allen, “Plain Words on the Woman Question,” Fortnightly Review (October 1889)
2. From Sarah Grand, “The New Aspect of the Woman Question,” North American Review (March 1894)
3. From Alys W. Pearsall Smith, “A Reply from the Daughters,” Nineteenth Century (March 1894)

Select Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Banned for over 30 years, this cautionary tale ruthlessly dissects Victorian family relationships in all its uncompromising forms voyeuristically witnessing breathtaking snobbery, arrogance, attitudes to lower classes and an unsavoury disposition to money and status... In a world where perception, morality, money and status form the basis of how society frames itself Mrs Warren's Profession is a caustic, revelatory tale of dysfunction.” —Jackie Cobham, Daily Telegraph

“The real pleasure of Shaw's play...is just how modern it can feel, whether it is pricking the balloon of morality or hypocrisy” —Lyn Gardner, Guardian

From the Publisher