Major Barbara
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1905
- Form
- Comedy
- Language
- English
- Length
- Short · 150 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendMajor BarbaraPenguin Classics, 2000Standard text with Shaw's preface on the Gospel of St Andrew Undershaft.
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Barbara Undershaft, a major in the Salvation Army, is the daughter of the millionaire armaments maker Andrew Undershaft, whom she has not seen since childhood. He agrees to visit her East End shelter if she will visit his cannon works. When the Army accepts money from a distiller and from Undershaft himself, Barbara's faith collapses; at the model town of Perivale St Andrews her fiancé, a Greek scholar, agrees to inherit the business and Barbara resolves to save souls among the well-fed. Shaw's argument that poverty is the worst of crimes.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Major Barbara are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.