Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes – Bernard Shaw

Condition : Good.
Penguin, 1980, Vintage Paperback – Drama – 160pp.

Ellie Dunn, her idealistic father, and her pompous fiancé arrive at the once-stately home of eccentric old Captain Shotover, his sultry daughter, and her husband.
This hilarious comedy by Shaw is set in a country house symbolising comfortable Edwardian England and is filled with provocative ideas about war and peace, sex and love, and politics and power.

First published in 1919 and first played at the Garrick Theatre in November 1920. According to A. C. Ward, the work argues that “cultured, leisured Europe” was drifting toward destruction, and that “Those in a position to guide Europe to safety failed to learn their proper business of political navigation”. The “Russian manner” of the subtitle refers to the style of Anton Chekhov, which Shaw adapts.

In the preface to the play Shaw acknowledges his debt to Chekhov, in particular to The Cherry Orchard.