Product Description
This digital document, covering the life and work of George Bernard Shaw, is an entry from Contemporary Authors, a reference volume published by Thompson Gale. The length of the entry is 8362 words. The page length listed above is based on a typical 300-word page. Although the exact content of each entry from this volume can vary, typical entries include the following information:

• Place and date of birth and death (if deceased)
• Family members
• Education
• Professional associations and honors
• Employment
• Writings, including books and periodicals
• A description of the author's work
• References to further readings about the author

Product Description
Excerpt from the book...
I arrived in Dublin on the evening of the fifth of August, and drove
to the residence of my uncle, the Cardinal Archbishop. He is like most
of my family, deficient in feeling, and consequently averse to me
personally. He lives in a dingy house, with a side-long view of the
portico of his cathedral from the front windows, and of a monster
national school from the back. My uncle maintains no retinue. The
people believe that he is waited upon by angels. When I knocked at the
door, an old woman, his only servant, opened it, and informed me that
her master was then officiating at the cathedral, and that he had
directed her to prepare dinner for me in his absence. An unpleasant
smell of salt fish made me ask her what the dinner consisted of. She
assured me that she had cooked all that could be permitted in his
Holiness's house on Friday. On my asking her further why on Friday,
she replied that Friday was a fast day. I bade her tell His Holiness
that I had hoped to have the pleasure of calling on him shortly, and
drove to the hotel in Sackville-street, where I engaged apartments and
dined.
... Read more

Product Description
Eric Bentley's graceful look at George Bernard Shaw was first published over 50 years ago, and time has only strengthened the conviction of his ideas and arguments about Shaw. When it arrived in the late 1940's, this book was hailed by the great poet William Carlos Williams as "the best treatise on contemporary manners I think I have ever read. I was fascinated and rewarded in the depths of my soul." Even Shaw himself described the book as "the best critical description of my public activities I have yet come across." ... Read more

Product Description
This collection presents a cross-section of Shaw's most important theater work—Mrs. Warren's Profession, Man and Superman, Major Barbara, and Pygmalion. Each play is fully annotated.

"Contexts and Criticism" features all-new material on the author and his work, from traditional critical readings to more theorized approaches, among them essays on Shaw's Fabianism and his alleged feminism. Contributors include Leon Hugo, Sally Peters, Tracy C. Davis, John A. Bertolini, Stanley Weintraub, and J. Ellen Gainor.
A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are included.

About the series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good for the reference shelf.
I bought the book to be able to read the actual text of "Mrs. Warren's Profession", which I had just seen. The texts of three other Shaw classics (Maj. B., Pyg., & Arms) were a fine dividend, hence my comment that the book is a good addition to the reference shelf. However, the accompanying materials were of decidedly mixed value. Shaw's notes, as usual, made good reading, and the quotes from contemporary performance reviews, especially for Mrs. Warren, were quite colorful. The rest of the articles, which I suppose are samples of Literary Criticism, made me glad I chose Physics as a profession. They were dull, turgid, and dry - academic Englishat its worst. I bogged down early. Of course, they are now decades old; fashions may have changed.

Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was a master playwright. This little book contains but a sampling of his complete opus, but it is a good place to start for appreciating the man and his ideas. Disagree with him at your own peril; it is a sword-fight always whether you do or don't. ... Read more