Mrs. Warren's Profession: A Quick Read edition E-BOOK

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This Quick Read edition includes both the full text and a summary for each chapter.

- Reading time of the complete text: about 3 hours

- Reading time of the summarized text: 3 minutes


Mrs. Warren's Profession is a play written by George Bernard Shaw in 1893, and first performed in London in 1902. The play is about a former prostitute, now a madam (brothel proprietor), who attempts to come to terms with her disapproving daughter. The story centres on the relationship between Mrs Kitty Warren and her daughter, Vivie. Vivie, an intelligent and pragmatic young woman who has just graduated from university, has come home to get acquainted with her mother for the first time in her life. The play focuses on how their relationship changes when Vivie learns what her mother does for a living. It explains why Mrs. Warren became a prostitute, condemns the hypocrisies relating to prostitution, and criticises the limited employment opportunities available for women in Victorian Britain. The play was originally banned by the Lord Chamberlain (Britain's official theatre censor) because of its frank discussion of prostitution, but was finally performed on Sunday, 5 January 1902, at London's New Lyric Club. The play has been revived several times since then, including off-Broadway in 2006 and on Broadway in 2010. The play has also been adapted into a German film in 1960 and a BBC television version in 1972. The play offers social commentary to illustrate Shaw's belief that the act of prostitution was not caused by moral failure but by economic necessity.