Robert A. Gaines is Professor Emeritus at Auburn University Montgomery, USA, and holds a PhD from Indiana University. He has spent thirty-five years in university positions including Professor, Administrator, and Director of Theatre. His research interests are in classical theatre production, as are his publications, including John Neville Takes Command: The Story of the Stratford Shakespearean Festival. He has been a member of the International Shaw Society since its inception in 2004.

Preamble; Robert A. Gaines.- 1. Shaw's Early Writings: A Prelude to the Playwright; Richard Farr Dietrich.- 2. The "Mystical Union" De-Mystified: Marriage in Plays Unpleasant; L.W. Conolly.- 3. The Pragmatic Partnerships of the Plays Pleasant; Jennifer Buckley.- 4. Three Plays for Puritans: Decoy Marriages and Social Contracts; Lawrence Switzky.- 5. Not Really a Philanderer; Rodelle Weintraub.- 6. Shaw's Salvation Trilogy: Man and Superman, John Bull's Other Island, Major Barbara; Michel Pharand.- 7. Marriage and Mating in the plays of Bernard Shaw and Granville Barker 1908-1911; Peter Gahan.- 8. Ruled by Autonomy: Women's Evolving Material Choices from The Doctor's Dilemma (1906) to Pygmalion (1914); Ellen Ecker Dolgin.- 9. From Elle to Eve: the Quintessence of Marriage in Shaw's Heartbreak House, The Bolshevik Empress and Back to Methuselah; Audrey McNamara.- 10. Beyond /Married Love/: Shaw, Stopes, and Female Desire in the Drama between the Wars, 1923-1934; D.A. Hadfield.- 11. Definitions of Marriage: Village Wooing, On the Rocks and The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles: A Vision of Judgment; Jean Reynolds.- 12. Matrimonial Partnerships and Politics in Three Late Plays: In Good King Charles's Golden Days: A True History that Never Happened, The Apple Cart: A Political Extravaganza, and Geneva: Another Political Extravaganza; Matthew Yde.- Appendix A: Divorce Decrees, Divorce Rates per 1,000 Married Couples, And Petitions for Judicial Separation (England and Wales) 1851-1987.- Appendix B: Marriage and Divorce: Liturgy and Legislation; Edited by L.W. Conolly.- Bibliography; Edited by Michel Pharand.- Index; Compiled by D. A. Hadfield.-

This book combines the insights of thirteen Shavian scholars as they examine the themes of marriage, relationships and partnerships throughout all of Bernard Shaw's major works. It also connects Shaw's own experiences of love and marriage to the themes that emerge in his works, showing how his personal relationships in and out of matrimonial bonds change the ways his characters enter and exit marriages and misalliances. While providing a wealth of new analysis, this collection of essays also leaves lingering questions for the reader to spark continuing dialogue in both individual and academic settings.