I have yet to read anything by Shaw that I didn't like and this play was no exception. There were several parts of this play that had me laughing out loud. One of my favourites is when Raina is trying to show Bluntschli that she is not an ignorant country girl, but a civilized person:Raina: You shewed great ignorance in thinking that it was necessary to climb up the balcony...There is a flight of stairs inside to get up and down by.The Man (Bluntschli): Stairs! How grand! You live in great luxur...

When Shaw first presented his Arms and the Man to British audiences in 1894, he was capping off his pet project of waking up young audiences to the necessities of social reform and a wide-awake, realistic grappling with the jingoistic attitude of the Victorian Old Guard, which now had to be discarded as Europe armed its military to the teeth.The bloodbath of Trench Warfare was to commence in exactly twenty years’ time, and Shaw was playing Casandra to Europe’s sleeping Trojans. Of course it didn...

Arms and the Man (1894) by drama great George Bernard Shaw is a little lighter than his usual comedy written during the height of his powers. It may be his first great play. He’s known for having great dialogue, with at least one or two combatively provocative characters, but this one if lighter and funnier than most. It’s an anti-war comedy that takes place during the Bulagrian-Serbin War of 1885, involving a Bulgarian woman, Raina, whose fiance, Sergius, is a soldier, though one night she find...

One of my favorite read-alouds from one of my theater literature classes in college. It was nearly impossible to read without cracking up, which we had to do, as it was supposed to be good training for dealing with stage nonsense. It was certainly more fun than "Woyzeck." Who expects 18 year old kids to understand "Woyzeck?"

If I had reviewed and rated this 45 years ago it would have received a much higher rating. Rereading it now, I am amused and also somewhat chagrined. Shaw is clever and the comedy is sweet, but not nearly so great as I remembered it. This is a spoof on the military, upper class mannerisms, and romance. It seems to be an attempt to compete with The Importance of Being Ernest but does not succeed, in my humble opinion. Oscar Wilde is much better.

Arms and the Man, George Bernard ShawThe play takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War. Its heroine, Raina Petkoff, is a young Bulgarian woman engaged to Sergius Saranoff, one of the heroes of that war, whom she idolizes. On the night after the Battle of Slivnitza, a Swiss mercenary soldier in the Serbian army, Captain Bluntschli, climbs in through her bedroom balcony window and threatens to shoot Raina if she gives the alarm. When Russian and Bulgarian troops burst in to search the house...

Arms and the Man is Bernard Shaw’s first great play. It is filled with witty and amusing dialogue, a diverting and well-constructed plot, and charming, well differentiated characters. A perfect light comedy designed to amuse the most jaded audience, it is also a deadly serious play that launches a fierce attack on one of the most destructive beliefs of Shaw’s (and any other) time: that war is heroic and magnificent, and that the gallant soldier is the supreme icon of manhood, something to be est...

Wow! Pure pleasure. 5 golden stars!😁😁I rarely delve into plays. But this one was suggested to me by my friend. So thank you Ananya for recommending as well as lending me this book. I absolutely loved it.At its heart this is a fantastic love story. But it also portrays how pointless and futile wars are. It's a really hilarious read, each dialogue is fascinating and equally witty, especially those between Raina and Bluntschi. The character of Bluntschi is very interesting and overwhelming. Oh my d...

In the opening scene of Arms and the Man, which establishes the play’s embattled Balkan setting, young Raina learns of her suitor’s heroic exploits in combat. She rhapsodizes that it is “a glorious world for women who can see its glory and men who can act its romance!” Soon, however, such romantic falsifications of love and warfare are brilliantly and at times hilariously unmasked in a comedy that reveals George Bernard Shaw at his best as an acute social observer and witty provocateur.– From th...

Oh yes... & NOW the Nobel Prize seems more than adequate for Shaw.It is awesome to see how Shaw has honed his skill considerably (both "Widower's Houses" and "Mrs. Warren's Profession", written a few years before this one, are slightly more pedantic and the characters are less likeable, albeit, antiromantic/real). "Arms and the Man" is finally where we see the full roundedness of all the immoral characters--though this one finally has a man who is less interested in war than surviving it--who is...

Having loved Pygmalion, I wanted to try something else from Shaw.Arms and the Man seems at first just a charming comedy full of humour, but under the guise of entertaining us this is really a witty satire deconstructing the romantic concepts of military heroism and love.The play, which was produced in 1894 and published in 1898, takes place at the end of a short Bulgarian-Serbian war. A lady shelters a war-weary Swiss mercenary who surprises her with his admission to fearing death and to preferr...

Added 6/16/13.I watched "Arms and the Man" via a Netflix DVD (1987). It stars Helena Bonham Carter.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0862646/http://dvd.netflix.com/Movie/Arms-and...I did not read the original a play (a comedy) by George Bernard Shaw:Arms and the Man (1894).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_and...The story takes place during the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian War."Bonham's character hides a soldier in her "chambers" and the story goes on from there. It's a bit wordy and melodramatic but I suppos...

Do you question the value of war? How do you view heroes? Do you believe a man in uniform is smarter, braver, and more manly than the one who isn't in uniform? Read how Shaw portrays wars, heroes, and the man in uniform. I found this satirical comedy by Shaw to be hilarious. Others might not. I can't wait to see it performed!

Another entry in my Shaw reading project. One of the most charming, witty romantic comedies ever written with an irreverent twist.Stuck in a backwater town, Raina Petkoff craves more out of life. Having read every book in the library, including all the romance novels, she’s sure there is more in store for her­ ­~~ she wants adventure, she wants love, she wants to get out of town. So, when a charming Swiss soldier on the hop from the battlefield clambers into her bedroom, what’s a clever, practic...

Reinventing the War Hero6 December 2015 If we don't count the National Theatre version of Man and Superman that I watched in the cinema this would be the first Shavian play that I have seen performed (though I would add the word live considering the National Theatre version was videoed and then distributed around the world, which I have to say is really cool because it means that I get to see some awesome productions that I would not normally get to see – though I did end up missing out on the B...

Teaching Bernard ShawPaper presented at Kerala University, TrivandrumMarch 1999Teaching the plays of George Bernard Shaw to the undergraduate students of Kerala state, India is not an easy task. Taking into consideration the poor exposure to English literature that the students have got during the twelve years of their schooling, any piece of literature poses a serious challenge before the teacher.The undergraduate students of Kerala are not very well exposed to English literature. In the high s...

I remember back to 1991 when the United States began bombing Iraq in what was then called the Persian Gulf War. (Is it now the first Iraq War?) I could not bear to watch it on television, so I sat on my living-room floor and sobbed and sobbed. I was pregnant with my second daughter, Laura, at the time, and I knew that pregnant mothers like me were suffering in a war that neither of us had any control over. I remember the jingoism and the puffed-up patriotism that allowed people to romanticize wa...

What a great play. While it makes fun of the military, the chocolate-cream soldier is one I would follow into battle. If you enjoy snooty people getting their due, and love winning out, enjoy. The satire is as pointed today as it was in the 1890s.

I'll be honest, I only decided to read Arms and the Man because of the Bulgarian setting and characters. Very rarely do you read about Bulgaria in western literature, and when I discovered that one of the most famous playwrights in the world had written a play set in Bulgaria? I immediately knew I had to read it.I really liked it. I could relate a lot to Raina, the main character. There were also some funny moments, which I enjoyed.The only reason I've given it 4 stars instead of 5 is because......

The best compliment that I can give George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man is that, when I assigned it at the beginning of May, most of my Honors British Literature class read it. I suppose you can only really understand the weight of that compliment if you have attempted to teach high school seniors a few weeks before graduation. (They generally don't have the attention span to finish writing "Don't ever change" in their friends' yearbooks.) But Shaw's play somehow got and kept their attention....