Widowers' Houses. A Comedy
- London: Henry and Co, 1893
London: Henry and Co, 1893. Very Good. London: Henry and Co., 1893. First Edition. Octavo; publisher's dark olive gilt-lettered cloth; xix,[5],126,[2]pp. Very minor shelf-wear, spine a bit cocked and gilt lettering very slightly flaked, endpapers browned, else a Very Good, still quite brilliant and fresh copy. "Being Number One of the Independent Theatre Series" (upper cover).
The author's first play to be staged, at the Royalty Theatre in 1892. The piece, collected in Shaw's aptly-titled 1898 collection "Plays Unpleasant," opens with an unapologetic Author's Preface in which Shaw informs the reader "It is not my fault...that my art is the expression of my sense of moral and intellectual perversity rather than of my sense of beauty," closing with the line "I am no novice in the current critical theories of dramatic art; and what I have done I have done on purpose" (pp. xviii-xix).
The author's first play to be staged, at the Royalty Theatre in 1892. The piece, collected in Shaw's aptly-titled 1898 collection "Plays Unpleasant," opens with an unapologetic Author's Preface in which Shaw informs the reader "It is not my fault...that my art is the expression of my sense of moral and intellectual perversity rather than of my sense of beauty," closing with the line "I am no novice in the current critical theories of dramatic art; and what I have done I have done on purpose" (pp. xviii-xix).