num_pages: 100
description: When Ellie Dunn joins a house-party at the home of the eccentric Captain Shotover, she causes a stir with her decision to marry for money rather than love, and the Captain's forthright daughter Hesione protests vigorously against the pragmatic young woman's choice. Opinion on the matter quickly divides and a lively argument about money and morality, idealism and realism ensues as Hesione's rakish husband, snobbish sister and Ellie's fiance—a wealthy industrialist—enter the debate. Written between 1916 and 1917 as war raged across Europe, Heartbreak House is a telling indictment of the generation responsible for the First World War. With its bold combination of high farce and bitter tragedy, Shaw's play remains an uncannily prophetic depiction of a society on the threshold of an abrupt awakening.
language: English
title: Heartbreak House a Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes
titlecomplete: Heartbreak House a Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes
characters: Ellie Dunn, Captain Shotover, Arthur Mangan, Billy Dunne, Lady Utterword, Mazzini Dunn, Randall Utterword, Nurse Guinness, Hector Hushabye, Hesione Hushabye
genres: 20th Century, Literature, British Literature, Classics, Irish Literature, Drama, Plays, Nobel Prize, Fiction, Theatre
ratings_count: 2433
publisher: Echo Library