Man and Superman Summary
George Bernard Shaw

Man and Superman Summary

Epistle Dedicatory to Arthur Bingham Walkly

The printed play includes a dedication, in the form of a letter (epistle), addressed to Arthur Bingham Walkly, a drama critic and Shaw's friend of fifteen years, who, according to the letter, had once asked Shaw why he did not write a Don Juan play. The dedication defends the play's "preaching" tone, and sets out the premise of the play as "the natural attraction of the sexes," to be distinguished from a play about love or marriage. The rest of the rather long and digressive letter explains that Don Juan is a philosopher who follows his instincts, along with some of his theories. This is a play admittedly designed for "a pit of philosophers" as audience.

Act I

Respectable Roebuck Ramsden and brash John Tanner are shocked to discover they must share jointly the guardianship of Ann Whitefield, whose father has just died. Tanner's anarchistic book The Revolutionist's Handbook and Pocket... View more of the Man and Superman Summary