Book description
While some of Shaw s earlier plays are still performed, his later
plays, such as the ones in this volume, are barely known. As the
collective title indicates, the themes here are political; yet, frankly,
it is doubtful how seriously we can now take Shaw as a political
thinker. Despite writing in the 1930s, he has little to say of the
nature of totalitarianism: although he satirises Fascist dictators in
Geneva , the satire is disappointingly mild. Neither did Shaw appear to
foresee (on the evidence of these plays, at least) the imminent collapse
of the British Empire. But it is Shaw the dramatist rather than Shaw the
political philosopher who still holds our attention even in plays as
explicitly political as these. He had a sharp intellect and a quirky
sense of humour, and his dialogue still glints and sparkles: he couldn t
write a dull line if he tried. No matter how serious the themes he
addresses, the crispness of his writing and his lightness of touch still
scintillate. Shaw seems, perhaps unfairly, out of fashion nowadays. But
even in these lesser-known works, he demonstrates his matchless ability,
still undimmed, to provoke and to entertain.
BERNARD SHAW was born in Dublin in 1856. After his arrival in London
in 1876 he became an active Socialist and a brilliant platform
speaker. He wrote on many social aspects of the day: on Common
Sense about the War (1914), How to Settle the Irish
Question (1917) and The Intelligent Woman s Guide to Socialism
and Capitalism (1928). He undertook his own education at the
British Museum and consequently became keenly interested in cultural
subjects. Thus his prolific output included music, art and theatre
reviews, which were collected into several volumes such as Music in
London 1890 1894 (3 vols, 1931); Pen Portraits and
Reviews (1931); and Our Theatres in the Nineties (3 vols,
1931). He also wrote five novels and some shorter fiction, including
The Black Girl in Search of God and Some Lesser Tales and
Cashel Byron s Profession, both published in Penguin s
Bernard Shaw Library.
He conducted a strong attack on the London theatre and was closely
associated with the intellectual revival of British theatre. His plays
fall into several categories: Plays Pleasant ; Plays Unpleasant ;
comedies; chronicle-plays; metabiological Pentateuch (Back to
Methuselah, a series of plays); and political extravaganzas .
Bernard Shaw died in 1950.
