Difference between revisions of "George Bernard Shaw" - New World Encyclopedia

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[[Image:George bernard shaw.jpg|thumbnail|George Bernard Shaw]]
 
[[Image:George bernard shaw.jpg|thumbnail|George Bernard Shaw]]
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'''(George) Bernard Shaw'''<ref>Shaw never used his first name "George" personally or professionally: he was "Bernard Shaw" throughout his long career.  Since his death it has become customary to use all three of his names, even in reference works.</ref> ([[July 26]], [[1856]] &ndash; [[November 2]], [[1950]]) was an [[Ireland|Irish]]-[[United Kingdom|British]] [[playwright]] and winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] in 1925 and the [[Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay|Academy Award]] in 1938 for [[Pygmalion (1938 film)|Pygmalion]]. After those of [[William Shakespeare]], Shaw's plays are some of the most widely produced in English language theatre.{{fact}}
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'''(George) Bernard Shaw'''<ref>Shaw never used his first name "George" personally or professionally: he was "Bernard Shaw" throughout his long career.  Since his death it has become customary to use all three of his names, even in reference works.</ref> (July 26, 1856 &ndash; November 2, 1950) was an Irish playwright, who, at the height of his fame, won the Nobel Prize in Literature as well an Academy Award for screenwriting. Shaw is often cited as the most frequently-staged playwright after [[William Shakespeare]]. Although this may be a slight exaggeration, Shaw is unquestionably the most important playwright in the English language since the Bard. Influenced by [[Henrik Ibsen|Ibsen]] and other modern playwrights, Shaw introduced a new, realistic style of drama to the English theatre. Unlike Ibsen, Chekhov, or even [[Eugene O'Neill]], however, Shaw is unique among modern playwrights due to his ferocious sense of humor and his pervading (if vague) belief in a higher morality. Although his plays, like those of his contemporaries, dwell upon shocking and often gloomy subject-matter, Shaw is perhaps the only major playwright of his generation to navigate the horrors of the first half of the 20th-century without falling into pessimism and despair. His plays, at times fiercely ironic, and at times heartrendingly sincere, are among the most entertaining, enduring, and moving works of high drama ever produced in the English language.  
  
 
== Life ==
 
== Life ==
  
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Born at 33 Synge Street in [[Dublin, Ireland]] to rather poor [[Church of Ireland]] parents, Shaw was educated at [[Wesley College, Dublin]] and moved to [[London]] during the [[1870]]s to embark on his literary career. He wrote five [[novel]]s, none of which were published, before finding his first success as a music critic on the ''Star'' newspaper.  He wrote his music criticism under the [[pseudonym]] ''[[Basset horn|Corno di Bassetto]]''.
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Born at 33 Synge Street in Dublin, Ireland to rather poor Church of Ireland parents, Shaw was educated at Wesley College, Dublin and moved to London during the 1870s to embark on his literary career. He wrote five novels, none of which were published, before finding his first success as a music critic on the ''Star'' newspaper.  He wrote his music criticism under the pseudonym ''Corno di Bassetto''.
  
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In the meantime he had become involved in politics, and served as a local councillor in the [[St Pancras (district)|St Pancras]] district of London for several years from 1897. He was a noted [[Socialism|socialist]] who took a leading role in the [[Fabian Society]].<ref>Holroyd, M, Bernard Shaw, London : Vintage, 1998,. ISBN 0099749017</ref>
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Shaw completed his first play, ''Widower's Houses,'' in 1892. The play, inspired by an 1890 production in London of [[Henrik Ibsen]]'s ''All Doll's House'', features a number of aspects of Ibsen's style: unadorned dialogue, a realistic plot, and controversial subject-matter. In ''Widower's Houses'', however, Shaw turned material that could have been tragic&mdash;the play is about a young man who falls in love with a wealthy man's daughter, only to discover her wealth comes from the exploitation of the poor&mdash;and instead maintained a constant of note of ironic hilarity that saves the work from becoming excessively overbearing; although clearly an immature work compared with Shaw's later masterpieces, ''Widower's Houses'' and its immediate successor ''Mrs. Warren's Profession'' (about a daughter who discovers her mother's history in the prostitution industry) are still enjoyed by audiences today where many other, grimmer works of modern theatre have fallen out of favor. Many of his earliest works had to wait years to receive major productions in London, though they had found an appreciative audience in the European Continent.  
  
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From 1895 to 1898, Shaw was the drama critic of the ''[[Saturday Review]]''.{{fact}}  In 1898, he married an Irish heiress, Charlotte Payne-Townshend.  
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Shaw called the ''Widower's Houses'' and ''Mrs. Warren's Profession'' his "unpleasant plays" because they forced the audience to confront unpleasant aspects of London life; he followed these up with his four "pleasant" plays, ''Arms and the Man'' (1894), ''Candida'' (1897), ''The Man of Destiny'' (1898), and ''You Never Can Tell'' (1899). Of these, ''Arms and the Man''&mdash;a satire of overwrought [[Romanticism]] set in the dramatic setting of the Balkans&mdash;has become the most popular; the play, typicall of Shaw, pokes fun at the beliefs of his times, particularly the excessive romanticization of passionate love and glorious warfare.  
  
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Shaw completed his first play, ''[[Widower's Houses]],'' in 1892. He would write over 50 plays, most of them full-length.  Many of his earliest works had to wait years to receive major productions in London, but they are still being performed today.  Among them are ''[[Mrs. Warren's Profession]]'' (1893), ''[[Arms And The Man]]'' (1894), ''[[Candida (play)|Candida]]'' (1894) and ''[[You Never Can Tell]]'' (1895).
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Shaw's first financial success as a playwright came from Richard Mansfield's American production of ''The Devil's Disciple'' in 1897. His most significant play, however, would be 1901's ''Caesar and Cleopatra''. The play, a modern re-envisioning of the Shakespeare's masterpiece ''Antony and Cleopatra'', repeats the themes of Shakespeare's classic tragedy but with a decided twist: in Shaw's version, Caesar is dramatically aged and Cleopatra an impulsive girl of 16. The play contrasts Caesar's thoughtfulness&mdash;the emperor, contrary to almost any prior artistic depiction, is portrayed in Shaw's play as moody, philosophical, and almost reluctant soldier and leader&mdash;with the impulsive and impossible capriciousness of the childish Cleopatra. The play is the first of Shaw's to introduce his theories of "original morality"&mdash;in ''Caesar and Cleopatra'', Caesar is portrayed as a man of ethics and wisdom rather than an almost-superhuman soldier-king&mdash;and it is easily one of Shaw's most influential works. From 1904 to 1907, several of Shaw's plays had their London premieres in notable productions at the Court Theatre, managed by [[Harley Granville-Barker]] and J.E. Vedrenne.
  
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His first financial success as a playwright came from Richard Mansfield's American production of ''[[The Devil's Disciple]]'' (1897). Shaw became a popular playwright in America and Germany before he was so in London.
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Shaw would finally find wide success in his native Britain after ''John Bull's Other Island'' (1904), a comic piece about Ireland, was performed at court. During the performance, King Edward VII laughed so much he broke his chair.
  
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His plays at this point tend to become less compact, talkier, but no less successful.  These works include ''[[Caesar And Cleopatra]]'' (1898), ''[[Man And Superman]]'' (1903), ''[[Major Barbara]]'' (1905) and ''[[The Doctor's Dilemma]]'' (1906).  From 1904 to 1907, several of his plays had their London premieres in notable productions at the Court Theatre, managed by [[Harley Granville-Barker]] and J.E. Vedrenne.
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By the 1910s, Shaw was a well-established playwright.  New works such as ''Fanny's First Play'' (1911) and ''Pygmalion'' (1913) – on which the succesful musical and film ''My Fair Lady'' was based – had long runs in front of large London audiences.
  
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His first original play performed at the Court, ''[[John Bull's Other Island]]'' (1904), was a piece about Ireland.  Though not one of his more popular plays today, more than any other it made his reputation in London when, during a command perfomance for King Edward VII, the King laughed so much he broke his chair.
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Shaw opposed World War I and became unpopular with many of his fellow citizens.  His work after the War was, in general, darker, though still full of the Shaw's typical wit. His first full-length play after the war, written mostly during it, was ''Heartbreak House'' (1919).  In 1923, he completed ''Saint Joan'' (1923), a play on [[Joan of Arc]] that celebrated the French saint's visionary morality, and brought him international fame that led to his Nobel Prize in Literature.
  
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By the 1910s, Shaw was a well-established playwright.  New works such as ''[[Fanny's First Play]]'' (1911) and ''[[Pygmalion]]'' (1913) – which ''[[My Fair Lady]]'' was based on – had long runs in front of large London audiences.
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Shaw continued writing plays into his nineties, but very few of them are as notable&mdash;or as often revived&mdash;as his earlier work. Many of Shaw's published plays come with lengthy prefaces that have become famous in and of themselves. Shaw's prefaces tend to be essays that deal more about Shaw's opinions on the issues dealt with in the plays than about the plays themselves. Some prefaces are much longer than the actual play.  For example, the Penguin edition of his one-act ''The Shewing-up Of Blanco Posnet'' (1909) has a 67-page preface for the 29-page piece.
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Shaw opposed World War I and became unpopular with many of his fellow citizens.  His work after the War was, in general, darker, though still full of the Shavian wit.  His first full-length play after the war, written mostly during it, was ''[[Heartbreak House]]'' (1919).  In 1923, he completed ''[[Saint Joan]]'' (1923), a play that brought him international fame and led to his [[Nobel Prize]] in Literature.
 
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He continued writing plays for the rest of his life, but very few of them are as notable—or as often revived—as his earlier work. Probably his most popular work of this era was ''[[The Apple Cart]]'' (1929).  His last full-length work was ''[[Bouyant Billions]],'' (1947), written when he was in his nineties.
 
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Many of Shaw's published plays come with lengthy prefaces. These tend to be essays more about Shaw's opinions on the issues dealt with in the plays than about the plays themselves. Some prefaces are much longer than the actual play.  For example, the [[Penguin edition]] of his one-act ''[[The Shewing-up Of Blanco Posnet]]'' (1909) has a 67-page preface for the 29-page piece.
 
  
 
Shaw died in 1950 at the age of 94 due to a fall from a ladder.<ref>http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cmazer/mis1.html</ref>
 
Shaw died in 1950 at the age of 94 due to a fall from a ladder.<ref>http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cmazer/mis1.html</ref>
  
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==After his death==
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==Correspondence==
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By the time of his death, Shaw was not only a household name in [[Britain]], but a world figure.  His [[irony|ironic]] [[wit]] endowed the language with the adjective "Shavian" to refer to such clever observations as "England and [[United States|America]] are two countries divided by a common language."<ref>http://www.worldandi.com/newhome/public/2003/may/bkpub.asp</ref>
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Shaw, in his lifetime, maintained correspondence with hundreds of personages, and his massive correspondence has become a major aspect of his enduring literary fame in and of itself.  His letters to and from Mrs. Patrick Campbell were adapted for the stage by Jerome Kilty as ''Dear Liar: A Comedy of Letters''; as was his correspondence with the poet Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas (the intimate friend of [[Oscar Wilde]]), into the drama ''Bernard and Bosie: A Most Unlikely Friendship'' by Anthony Wynn. His numerous letters to such varied figures as the actress Ellen Terry, the boxer Gene Tunney, the IRA leader Michael Collins, and the authors [[H.G. Wells]] and [[Henry James]] are among those that have been published.
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From 1906 until his death, Shaw lived at [[Shaw's Corner]] in the small village of [[Ayot St Lawrence]], [[Hertfordshire]]. The house is now a [[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust]] property, open to the public.
 
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Concerned about the inconsistency of [[English spelling]], he willed a portion of his wealth to fund the creation of a new [[Phoneme|phonemic]] alphabet for the [[English language]]. On his death bed, he did not have much money to leave, so no effort was made to start such a project. However, his estate began to earn significant royalties from the rights to ''Pygmalion'' when ''[[My Fair Lady]]'', a [[musical theater|musical]] adapted from the play by his comrade film producer [[Gabriel Pascal]], became a hit.  It then became clear that the will was so badly worded that the relatives had grounds to challenge the will, and in the end an out-of-court settlement granted only a small portion of the money to promoting a new alphabet. This became known as the [[Shavian alphabet]]. The [[National Gallery of Ireland]], [[RADA]] and the [[British Museum]] all received substantial bequests.
 
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The Shaw Theatre, Euston Road, London was opened in 1971 and named in his honour.
 
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The [[Shaw Festival]], an annual theater festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, began as an eight week run of ''[[Don Juan in Hell]]'' and ''[[Candida (play)|Candida]]'' in 1962 and has grown into an annual festival with over 800 performances a year, dedicated to producing the works of Shaw and his contemporaries.
 
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==Friends and correspondents==
 
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Shaw, in his lifetime, maintained correspondence with hundreds of personages, many notable and many not.{{fact}} His letters to and from [[Mrs. Patrick Campbell]] were adapted for the stage by [[Jerome Kilty]] as ''Dear Liar: A Comedy of Letters''; as was his correspondence with the poet [[Lord Alfred Douglas|Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas]] (the intimate friend of [[Oscar Wilde]]), into the drama ''Bernard and Bosie: A Most Unlikely Friendship'' by [[Anthony Wynn]]. His letters to the prominent actress, [[Ellen Terry]], the boxer [[Gene Tunney]], and [[H.G. Wells]] have also been published.
 
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Shaw campaigned against the executions of the rebel leaders of the [[Easter Rising]], and he became a personal friend of the [[County Cork|Cork]]-born [[Irish Republican Army (1922-1969)|IRA]] leader [[Michael Collins (Irish leader)|Michael Collins]], whom he invited to his home for dinner while Collins was negotiating the [[Anglo-Irish Treaty]] with [[Lloyd-George]] in London. After Collins's assassination in 1922, Shaw sent a personal message of condolence to one of Collins's sisters.
 
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Shaw had a long time friendship with [[G. K. Chesterton]], the [[Catholic]]-convert British writer, and there are many humorous stories about their complicated relationship.
 
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Another great friend was the composer [[Edward Elgar]].{{fact}}
 
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Shaw's correspondence with the motion picture producer [[Gabriel Pascal]], who was the first to successfully bring Shaw's plays to the screen and who later adapted Pygmalion into "[[My Fair Lady]]," is published in a book titled  ''Bernard Shaw and Gabriel Pascal'' (ISBN 0802030025).
 
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A stage play based on a book by Hugh Whitemore, The Best of Friends, provides a window on the friendships of Dame [[Laurentia McLachlan]], OSB (late Abbess of Stanbrook) with [[Sir Sydney Cockerell]] and Shaw through adaptations from their letters and writings.
 
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==Socialism and political beliefs==
 
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Shaw had a vision (letter to [[Henry James]] of January 17, 1909):
 
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:“I, as a Socialist, have had to preach, as much as anyone, the enormous power of the environment. We can change it; we must change it; there is absolutely no other sense in life than the task of changing it. What is the use of writing plays, what is the use of writing anything, if there is not a will which finally moulds chaos itself into a race of gods.”
 
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Shaw held that each class worked towards its own ends, and that those from the upper echelons had won the struggle; for him, the working class had failed in promoting their interests effectively, making Shaw highly critical of the democratic system of his day. The writing of Shaw, such as his plays ''Major Barbara'' and ''Pygmalion'', has a background theme of class struggle.
 
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Shaw's second career — after the theatre — was in support of [[socialism]]. In [[1882]] [[Henry George]]’s lecture on land nationalization gave depth and direction to Shaw’s political ideology. Shortly thereafter he applied to join the [[Social Democratic Federation]]. Its leader [[H. M. Hyndman]] introduced him to the works of [[Karl Marx]]. Instead, in May of 1884 he joined the newly-formed [[Fabian Society]]. He played a pivotal role with the [[Fabian Society]] and wrote a number of their pamphlets. He argued that property was theft and for an equitable distribution of land and capital. He was involved with the formation of the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]]. For a clear statement of his position{{fact}} read ''The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism, Capitalism, Sovietism, and Fascism''.
 
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Despite the fact that he identified as being a [[democratic socialism|democratic socialist]], in the 1930s Shaw approved of the regime of [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and also made some ambiguous statements that are often interpreted{{fact}} as being pro-[[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]].  In 1945, his preface to the play ''Geneva'' staked a claim that the majority of the victims of the [[Nazi]] [[Nazi extermination camp|extermination camps]] had in fact died of "overcrowding". However, he also stated that Hitler had become a "mad messiah" over time. Shaw contrasted this with the situation in the [[Soviet Union]] where, according to Shaw, "Stalin... made good by doing things better and much more promptly than parliaments". Shaw also made numerous anti-semitic comments at this time, although the extent to which he was merely being ironic or provocative is unclear.
 
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==Vegetarianism==
 
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Bernard Shaw was a noted vegetarian. The following was taken from the archives of The Vegetarian Society UK<ref>http://www.ivu.org/history/shaw/index.html</ref>:
 
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:The Summer of 1946 seems to have been a season of anniversaries and memorials. The Vegetarian Society itself was looking forward to its 100th anniversary and giving its members advance warnings of celebratory plans.
 
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:But the big story of the July issue of The Vegetarian Messenger was the tribute to George Bernard Shaw, celebrating his 90th birthday on the 26th of that month. He had, at that time, been a vegetarian for 66 years and was commended as one of the great thinkers and dramatists of his era. "No writer since Shakespearean times has produced such a wealth of dramatic literature, so superb in expression, so deep in thought and with such dramatic possibilities as Shaw." The writer was a staunch vegetarian, anti-vivisectionist and opponent of cruel sports.
 
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==Sesquicentennial Anniversary of Birth==
 
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A programme of readings, guided tours and performances take place at 33 Synge Street, Dublin, the place of Shaw's birth, between July 22 and 29 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth which is on [[July 26]] [[2006]].  The [[National Gallery of Ireland]], which regards Shaw as a generous benefactor, will have a series of celebratory festivities for the remainder of 2006.  Several conferences are to be held across the globe and there will be theatre readings of all 52 Shaw plays.
 
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==Trivia==
 
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* Shaw was a motorcyclist, and gave [[TE Lawrence]] a [[Brough Superior]].{{fact}}
 
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* Upon visiting America, Shaw called New York Giants baseball manager [[John McGraw (baseball)|John McGraw]] the "one true American"{{fact}}.
 
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* Shaw is the only person ever to have won both a [[Nobel Prize]] and an [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]].
 
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* Shaw referred to [[Prophet Muhammad]] as the ''"Savior of Humanity"'' when he stated: 
 
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:''"He must be called the Savior of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it much needed peace and happiness."''<ref name="SOH">{{cite book | year=1936 | title=The Genuine Islam, Singapore, Vol. 1, No. 8}}</ref>
 
  
 
==Works==
 
==Works==
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{{wikisource author}}
 
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{{listdev}}
 
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===Drama===
 
===Drama===
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{{col-begin}}
 
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{{col-2}}
 
 
* ''Plays Unpleasant'' (published 1898):
 
* ''Plays Unpleasant'' (published 1898):
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** ''[[Widowers' Houses]]'' (1892)
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** ''Widowers' Houses'' (1892)
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** ''[[The Philanderer]]'' (1893)
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** ''The Philanderer'' (1893)
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** ''[[Mrs. Warren's Profession|Mrs Warren's Profession]]'' (1893)
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** ''Mrs Warren's Profession'' (1893)
 
* ''Plays Pleasant'' (published 1898):
 
* ''Plays Pleasant'' (published 1898):
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** ''[[Arms and the Man]]'' (1894)
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** ''Arms and the Man'' (1894)
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** ''[[Candida (play)|Candida]]'' (1894)
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** ''Candida'' (1894)
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** ''[[The Man of Destiny]]'' (1895)
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** ''The Man of Destiny'' (1895)
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** ''[[You Never Can Tell]]'' (1897)
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** ''You Never Can Tell'' (1897)
 
* ''Three Plays for Puritans'' (published 1901):
 
* ''Three Plays for Puritans'' (published 1901):
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** ''[[The Devil's Disciple]]'' (1897)
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** ''The Devil's Disciple'' (1897)
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** ''[[Caesar and Cleopatra]]'' (1898)
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** ''Caesar and Cleopatra'' (1898)
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** ''[[Captain Brassbound's Conversion]]'' (1899)
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** ''Captain Brassbound's Conversion'' (1899)
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* ''[[The Admirable Bashville]]'' (1901)
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* ''The Admirable Bashville'' (1901)
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* ''[[Man and Superman]]'' (1902-03)
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* ''Man and Superman'' (1902-03)
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* ''[[John Bull's Other Island]]'' (1904)
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* ''John Bull's Other Island'' (1904)
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* ''[[How He Lied to Her Husband]]'' (1904)
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* ''How He Lied to Her Husband'' (1904)
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* ''[[Major Barbara]]'' (1905)
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* ''Major Barbara'' (1905)
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* ''[[The Doctor's Dilemma]]'' (1906)
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* ''The Doctor's Dilemma'' (1906)
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* ''[[Getting Married]]'' (1908)
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* ''Getting Married'' (1908)
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* ''[[The Glimpse of Reality]]'' (1909)
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* ''The Glimpse of Reality'' (1909)
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* ''[[Misalliance]]'' (1910)
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* ''Misalliance'' (1910)
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{{col-2}}
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* ''Dark Lady of the Sonnets'' (1910)
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* ''[[Dark Lady of the Sonnets]]'' (1910)
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* ''Fanny's First Play'' (1911)
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* ''[[Fanny's First Play]]'' (1911)
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* ''Androcles and the Lion'' (1912)
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* ''[[Androcles and the Lion]]'' (1912)
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* ''Pygmalion'' (1912-13)
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* ''[[Pygmalion (play)|Pygmalion]]'' (1912-13)
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* ''Heartbreak House'' (1919)
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* ''[[Heartbreak House]]'' (1919)
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* ''Back to Methuselah'' (1921):
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* ''[[Back to Methuselah]]'' (1921):
 
 
** ''In the Beginning''
 
** ''In the Beginning''
 
** ''The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas''
 
** ''The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas''
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** ''Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman''
 
** ''Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman''
 
** ''As Far as Thought Can Reach''
 
** ''As Far as Thought Can Reach''
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* ''[[Saint Joan (play)|Saint Joan]]'' (1923)
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* ''Saint Joan'' (1923)
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* ''[[The Apple Cart]]'' (1929)
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* ''The Apple Cart'' (1929)
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* ''[[Too True To Be Good]]'' (1931)
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* ''Too True To Be Good'' (1931)
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* ''[[On the Rocks]]'' (1933)
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* ''On the Rocks'' (1933)
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* ''[[The Six of Calais]]'' (1934)
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* ''The Six of Calais'' (1934)
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* ''[[The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles]]'' (1934)
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* ''The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles'' (1934)
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* ''[[The Millionairess]]'' (1936)
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* ''The Millionairess'' (1936)
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* ''[[Geneva, a Fancied Page of History in Three Acts|Geneva]]'' (1938)
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* ''Geneva, a Fancied Page of History in Three Acts'' (1938)
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* ''[[In Good King Charles' Golden Days]]'' (1939)
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* ''In Good King Charles' Golden Days'' (1939)
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* ''[[Buoyant Billions]]'' (1947)
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* ''Buoyant Billions'' (1947)
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* ''[[Shakes versus Shav]]'' (1949)
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* ''Shakes versus Shav'' (1949)
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{{col-end}}
 
  
 
===Novels===
 
===Novels===
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* Immaturity (1879)  
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*Immaturity (1879)  
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* The Irrational Knot 1880
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*The Irrational Knot 1880
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* Love Among the Artists (1881)  
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*Love Among the Artists (1881)  
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* Cashel Byron's Profession (1882-83)   
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*Cashel Byron's Profession (1882-83)   
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* An Unsocial Socialist (1883)  
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*An Unsocial Socialist (1883)  
  
 
===Essays ===
 
===Essays ===
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* ''[[Commonsense about the War]]''
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* ''Commonsense about the War''
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* ''[[The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism]]''
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* ''The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism''
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* ''[[The Black Girl in Search of God]]''
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* ''The Black Girl in Search of God''
 
*''Everybody's Political What's What?'' 1944 Constable
 
*''Everybody's Political What's What?'' 1944 Constable
  
 
===Music criticism ===
 
===Music criticism ===
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* ''[[The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring]]'',  ''1923''
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* ''The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring'',  ''1923''
  
 
===Debate===
 
===Debate===
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==References and footnotes==
 
==References and footnotes==
 
<references />
 
<references />
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== See also ==
 
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* [[List of people on stamps of Ireland]]
 
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* [[Comedy on screen]]
 
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{{wikiquote}}
 
  
 
==External links==
 
==External links==
 
* {{gutenberg author| id=George+Bernard+Shaw | name=George Bernard Shaw}}
 
* {{gutenberg author| id=George+Bernard+Shaw | name=George Bernard Shaw}}
 
*[http://literalsystems.org/abooks/doku.php?id=audiobook:excerpt_from_caesar_and_cleopatra "Excerpt from Caesar and Cleopatra" Creative Commons audio recording.]
 
*[http://literalsystems.org/abooks/doku.php?id=audiobook:excerpt_from_caesar_and_cleopatra "Excerpt from Caesar and Cleopatra" Creative Commons audio recording.]
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* [http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/resources/archives/special_collections/danlaurence_collection.htm  Dan H. Laurence/Shaw Collection] in the [[University of Guelph]] Library, Archival and Special Collections, holds more than 3,000 items related to his writings and career
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*[http://www.lib.uoguelph.ca/resources/archives/special_collections/danlaurence_collection.htm  Dan H. Laurence/Shaw Collection] in the [[University of Guelph]] Library, Archival and Special Collections, holds more than 3,000 items related to his writings and career
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*{{imdb name | id=0789737 | name=George Bernard Shaw}}
 
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*{{cite news|title=Send for Shaw, not Shakespeare|author=Michael Holroyd|date=July 19, 2006|publisher=[[The Times Literary Supplement]]|url=http://tls.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,25338-2277082,00.html}}
 
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*{{cite news|title=Artist of the impossible |author=Sunder Katwala|date=July 26, 2006|publisher=[[Guardian Comment is Free]]|url=http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sunder_katwala/2006/07/gbs_at_150.html}}
 
 
* [http://www.shawsociety.org.uk/ The Shaw Society]
 
* [http://www.shawsociety.org.uk/ The Shaw Society]
 
* [http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dietrich/shawsociety.html/ The Bernard Shaw Society, New York]
 
* [http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~dietrich/shawsociety.html/ The Bernard Shaw Society, New York]

Revision as of 03:57, 27 August 2006

George Bernard Shaw

(George) Bernard Shaw[1] (July 26, 1856 – November 2, 1950) was an Irish playwright, who, at the height of his fame, won the Nobel Prize in Literature as well an Academy Award for screenwriting. Shaw is often cited as the most frequently-staged playwright after William Shakespeare. Although this may be a slight exaggeration, Shaw is unquestionably the most important playwright in the English language since the Bard. Influenced by Ibsen and other modern playwrights, Shaw introduced a new, realistic style of drama to the English theatre. Unlike Ibsen, Chekhov, or even Eugene O'Neill, however, Shaw is unique among modern playwrights due to his ferocious sense of humor and his pervading (if vague) belief in a higher morality. Although his plays, like those of his contemporaries, dwell upon shocking and often gloomy subject-matter, Shaw is perhaps the only major playwright of his generation to navigate the horrors of the first half of the 20th-century without falling into pessimism and despair. His plays, at times fiercely ironic, and at times heartrendingly sincere, are among the most entertaining, enduring, and moving works of high drama ever produced in the English language.

Life

Born at 33 Synge Street in Dublin, Ireland to rather poor Church of Ireland parents, Shaw was educated at Wesley College, Dublin and moved to London during the 1870s to embark on his literary career. He wrote five novels, none of which were published, before finding his first success as a music critic on the Star newspaper. He wrote his music criticism under the pseudonym Corno di Bassetto.

Shaw completed his first play, Widower's Houses, in 1892. The play, inspired by an 1890 production in London of Henrik Ibsen's All Doll's House, features a number of aspects of Ibsen's style: unadorned dialogue, a realistic plot, and controversial subject-matter. In Widower's Houses, however, Shaw turned material that could have been tragic—the play is about a young man who falls in love with a wealthy man's daughter, only to discover her wealth comes from the exploitation of the poor—and instead maintained a constant of note of ironic hilarity that saves the work from becoming excessively overbearing; although clearly an immature work compared with Shaw's later masterpieces, Widower's Houses and its immediate successor Mrs. Warren's Profession (about a daughter who discovers her mother's history in the prostitution industry) are still enjoyed by audiences today where many other, grimmer works of modern theatre have fallen out of favor. Many of his earliest works had to wait years to receive major productions in London, though they had found an appreciative audience in the European Continent.

Shaw called the Widower's Houses and Mrs. Warren's Profession his "unpleasant plays" because they forced the audience to confront unpleasant aspects of London life; he followed these up with his four "pleasant" plays, Arms and the Man (1894), Candida (1897), The Man of Destiny (1898), and You Never Can Tell (1899). Of these, Arms and the Man—a satire of overwrought Romanticism set in the dramatic setting of the Balkans—has become the most popular; the play, typicall of Shaw, pokes fun at the beliefs of his times, particularly the excessive romanticization of passionate love and glorious warfare.

Shaw's first financial success as a playwright came from Richard Mansfield's American production of The Devil's Disciple in 1897. His most significant play, however, would be 1901's Caesar and Cleopatra. The play, a modern re-envisioning of the Shakespeare's masterpiece Antony and Cleopatra, repeats the themes of Shakespeare's classic tragedy but with a decided twist: in Shaw's version, Caesar is dramatically aged and Cleopatra an impulsive girl of 16. The play contrasts Caesar's thoughtfulness—the emperor, contrary to almost any prior artistic depiction, is portrayed in Shaw's play as moody, philosophical, and almost reluctant soldier and leader—with the impulsive and impossible capriciousness of the childish Cleopatra. The play is the first of Shaw's to introduce his theories of "original morality"—in Caesar and Cleopatra, Caesar is portrayed as a man of ethics and wisdom rather than an almost-superhuman soldier-king—and it is easily one of Shaw's most influential works. From 1904 to 1907, several of Shaw's plays had their London premieres in notable productions at the Court Theatre, managed by Harley Granville-Barker and J.E. Vedrenne.

Shaw would finally find wide success in his native Britain after John Bull's Other Island (1904), a comic piece about Ireland, was performed at court. During the performance, King Edward VII laughed so much he broke his chair.

By the 1910s, Shaw was a well-established playwright. New works such as Fanny's First Play (1911) and Pygmalion (1913) – on which the succesful musical and film My Fair Lady was based – had long runs in front of large London audiences.

Shaw opposed World War I and became unpopular with many of his fellow citizens. His work after the War was, in general, darker, though still full of the Shaw's typical wit. His first full-length play after the war, written mostly during it, was Heartbreak House (1919). In 1923, he completed Saint Joan (1923), a play on Joan of Arc that celebrated the French saint's visionary morality, and brought him international fame that led to his Nobel Prize in Literature.

Shaw continued writing plays into his nineties, but very few of them are as notable—or as often revived—as his earlier work. Many of Shaw's published plays come with lengthy prefaces that have become famous in and of themselves. Shaw's prefaces tend to be essays that deal more about Shaw's opinions on the issues dealt with in the plays than about the plays themselves. Some prefaces are much longer than the actual play. For example, the Penguin edition of his one-act The Shewing-up Of Blanco Posnet (1909) has a 67-page preface for the 29-page piece.

Shaw died in 1950 at the age of 94 due to a fall from a ladder.[2]

Correspondence

Shaw, in his lifetime, maintained correspondence with hundreds of personages, and his massive correspondence has become a major aspect of his enduring literary fame in and of itself. His letters to and from Mrs. Patrick Campbell were adapted for the stage by Jerome Kilty as Dear Liar: A Comedy of Letters; as was his correspondence with the poet Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas (the intimate friend of Oscar Wilde), into the drama Bernard and Bosie: A Most Unlikely Friendship by Anthony Wynn. His numerous letters to such varied figures as the actress Ellen Terry, the boxer Gene Tunney, the IRA leader Michael Collins, and the authors H.G. Wells and Henry James are among those that have been published.

Works

Drama

  • Plays Unpleasant (published 1898):
    • Widowers' Houses (1892)
    • The Philanderer (1893)
    • Mrs Warren's Profession (1893)
  • Plays Pleasant (published 1898):
    • Arms and the Man (1894)
    • Candida (1894)
    • The Man of Destiny (1895)
    • You Never Can Tell (1897)
  • Three Plays for Puritans (published 1901):
    • The Devil's Disciple (1897)
    • Caesar and Cleopatra (1898)
    • Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1899)
  • The Admirable Bashville (1901)
  • Man and Superman (1902-03)
  • John Bull's Other Island (1904)
  • How He Lied to Her Husband (1904)
  • Major Barbara (1905)
  • The Doctor's Dilemma (1906)
  • Getting Married (1908)
  • The Glimpse of Reality (1909)
  • Misalliance (1910)
  • Dark Lady of the Sonnets (1910)
  • Fanny's First Play (1911)
  • Androcles and the Lion (1912)
  • Pygmalion (1912-13)
  • Heartbreak House (1919)
  • Back to Methuselah (1921):
    • In the Beginning
    • The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas
    • The Thing Happens
    • Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman
    • As Far as Thought Can Reach
  • Saint Joan (1923)
  • The Apple Cart (1929)
  • Too True To Be Good (1931)
  • On the Rocks (1933)
  • The Six of Calais (1934)
  • The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles (1934)
  • The Millionairess (1936)
  • Geneva, a Fancied Page of History in Three Acts (1938)
  • In Good King Charles' Golden Days (1939)
  • Buoyant Billions (1947)
  • Shakes versus Shav (1949)

Novels

  • Immaturity (1879)
  • The Irrational Knot 1880
  • Love Among the Artists (1881)
  • Cashel Byron's Profession (1882-83)
  • An Unsocial Socialist (1883)

Essays

  • Commonsense about the War
  • The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism
  • The Black Girl in Search of God
  • Everybody's Political What's What? 1944 Constable

Music criticism

  • The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring, 1923

Debate

  • Shaw V. Chesterton, a debate between George Bernard Shaw and G.K. Chesterton 2000 Third Way Publications Ltd. ISBN 0953507777

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ Shaw never used his first name "George" personally or professionally: he was "Bernard Shaw" throughout his long career. Since his death it has become customary to use all three of his names, even in reference works.
  2. ↑ http://www.english.upenn.edu/~cmazer/mis1.html

External links

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