Candida

Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.5

Word count: 145K words
Chapters: 15

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Candida by Bernard ShawAuthor: Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950,Language: Finnish, Class: PR: Language and Literatures: English literature, Release Date: Aug 16, 2017

Editor's review

Candida is a play by Bernard Shaw (1856–1950); the edition released by Project Gutenberg here is in Finnish. Shaw is known for his problem plays, using witty dialogue to put marriage, gender roles, and family power on the table. Candida centers on a woman and the men around her; the tension lies less in external conflict than in the clash of ideas and emotional probing in the characters' speech. When reading the play, focus on the layers of dialogue: who speaks, who evades, who convinces himself—all reveal Shaw's observation of middle-class family ethics. As a public-domain ebook, its value lies in giving readers low-threshold access to Shaw's play in another language, and it is also useful for translation studies or comparing versions in different languages. Note that the text is in Finnish, so readers without Finnish will find it hard to use directly; it suits those with Finnish and an interest in Shaw's drama or translation studies.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers with Finnish who want to read Shaw's plays
Scholars studying multilingual translations or translation strategies in Shaw's works
Readers interested in late nineteenth-century problem plays who can read Finnish
Language and literature students needing public-domain foreign-language play texts

Not a good fit for

Readers who can read only Chinese or English, not Finnish
Readers hoping for Shaw's original English play
Readers seeking novel-style narrative and plot development

Reading tips

Read the character list and scene descriptions first to clarify relationships before the dialogue.
Break long speeches by speaker and note the layers of argument.
If you know English, read alongside Shaw's English original to see the translator's choices.
After finishing, revisit key conversations to trace shifts in the characters' positions.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this Shaw's original English play?

No. The Candida text released by Project Gutenberg is in Finnish—a Finnish version of Shaw's play, not the English original. Readers who want the English play need to find an English public-domain edition elsewhere.

Can I read this without knowing Finnish?

It is very difficult to read directly. The text is in Finnish; without the language, understanding dialogue and relationships will be a major obstacle. Consider a Chinese translation or the English original, with related research materials.

Is this play suitable for classroom use?

It can serve as textual material in courses with Finnish-language background or translation studies, for discussing translation choices and dramatic dialogue. In general literature courses taught in Chinese or English, pair it with a translation or the English original.

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About the author

Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950 Author

Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was an Irish playwright and critic. Public information about the details of his life is limited, yet his works have had a profound influence. The collection here contains 53 of his works, covering drama, criticism, and discursive essays. His representative works include Pygmalion, Mrs. Warren's Profession, Man and Superman, Candida, Caesar and Cleopatra, Major Barbara, and Arms and the Man. His plays often use witty, sharp dialogue to explore such issues as social class, gender relations, moral hypocrisy, and idealism, combining comic tension with argumentative force to form a distinctive style of drama of ideas. Shaw was skilled at presenting conflicts of ideas through exchanges between characters, turning the stage into a place of public discussion and exerting an important influence on the development of modern English-language drama.