Major Barbara

In this sparkling comedy, originally staged in 1905, Andrew Undershaft, a millionaire armaments dealer, loves money and despises poverty. His energetic daughter Barbara, however, is a devout major in the Salvation Army. She sees her father as just another soul to be saved. But when the Salvation Army needs funds to keep going, it is Undershaft who saves the day.

Author Biography: George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was one of the most prolific writers of the modern theater. He invented the modern comedy of ideas, expounding on social and political problems with a razor-sharp tongue. He won the 1925 Nobel Prize for literature.

Author Biography: Dan H. Laurence edited Shaw's Collected Letters, his Collected Plays with Their Prefaces, Shaw's Music, and (with Daniel Leary) The Complete Prefaces. He is series editor for the works of Shaw in Penguin.

Author Biography: Margery Morgan is emeritus reader in English of Lancaster University.