Too True to Be Good

One of Shaw's most unpredictable comedies begins in a sick room, with a monstrous microbe, a pale patient, an overbearing mother, and a peculiar nurse. Indeed, the nurse forthwith lets in her sweetie, a robber who is secretly ordained because his father is an atheist. Instead of just stealing the patient's pearls, they decide to kidnap the patient and she gaily assents. In Act II the nurse masquerades as a countess and the rich patient as a backward island native. We meet aristocracy and plebe alike. And it is the plebeian army private who takes command when the group find themselves under attack and distress. In the third act the nurse makes up to the sergeant and it seems they will hit it off maritally. The robber has his say and his atheist father has to confess that determinism does not work, and he has lost his faith. The patient and her mother hang out their laundry, and Shaw punctures the aplomb of the British establishment. Published with the famous preface.