A businessman, who fels himself to be hardworking and competence, is hown to be merely following in his father's footsteps in a business that does not require much innovation. Similarly, he is contemplating a marriafge which is in accord with his class and station. When confronted by by a wildly different woman who has an independent income, and a good deal of popular appeal, he is easily thrown into a confused state. His sister, being more of a clear thinker, choses a mate who is not quite what he seems. Thus, confusion and hijinks ensue. ( )

I listened to this full cast audiobook edition (courtesy of the LATW website) and read along in my Kindle omnibus "The Plays of Shaw". If I hadn't been reading along, I wouldn't have realized that this audiobook edition is slightly abridged. In the end, the difficulty of matching the two editions was too much trouble so I listened to the audio then went back and read the text.

I did like the cast of the audiobook and understand why most of the cuts were made but I found the original play funnier (plus, I like Shaw's stage directions & commentary). I would put the written text at 4* while this audiobook edition was only 3.5*. ( )

A quirky play which examines relationships and the consequences of relationships. It gets high marks for the ability to recognize the stifling nature of the role women were forced into prior to the mid-century successes of the women's movement. Also to be valued are the names he has given his characters, names which fit the character so nicely it's like they were born for those names. Downsides are the typical wordiness of Victorian-era authors, which works in some places and not in others. There are definitely times when the long-winded speeches of the characters begin to pall; other times, they flow along smoothly and pull the reader along. The play twits the aristocracy without managing to write them off as totally hopeless, and in fact, his aristocracy in this play come off somewhat better than his wealthy merchant class. It lacks some of the charm of other Shaw works, but is still a solid entry. ( )