Three Plays for Puritans

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Exclusive to Penguin Classics: the definitive text of Shaw’s volume of three plays of ideas, The Devil’s Disciple, Caesar and Cleopatra, and Captain Brassbound’s Conversion—part of the official Bernard Shaw LibraryA Penguin ClassicShaw believed that theatre audiences of the 1890s deserved more than the hollow spectacle and sham he saw displayed on the London stage. But he also recognized that people wanted to be entertained while educated, and to see purpose mixed with pleasure. In these plays, Shaw employed traditional dramatic forms—Victorian melodrama, the history play and the adventure story—to turn received wisdom upside down. Set during the American War of Independence, The Devil's Disciple exposes fake Puritanism and piety, while Caesar and Cleopatra, a cheeky riposte to Shakespeare, redefines heroism in the character of the ageing Roman leader. And in Captain Brassbound's Conversion, an expedition in Morocco is saved from disaster by a lady explorer's skilful manipulation of the truth.