Major Barbara
By Bernard Shaw
Cover: Bluegate Fields, from London: A Pilgrimage (1872), wood engraving by Gustave Doré (1832-1883) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (artist died 1883; published 1872)
Barbara Undershaft, a Salvation Army major, meets her estranged father, an arms manufacturer, and agrees to visit his model factory town if he will visit her shelter. The play pits her faith against his argument that poverty is the only real sin. This book uses the racial and other slurs of its period as written; the Book Guide explains these words where they occur.
Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.