Bernard Shaw: The One-Volume Definitive Edition

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When Michael Holroyd's multivolume life of Bernard Shaw was published, it was hailed as a masterpiece. Now the biography is available for the first time in a lively and accessible abridgment by the author. Playwright, wit, socialist, polemicist, vegetarian, and irresistible charmer, Bernard Shaw was the most controversial literary figure of his age, the scourge of Victorian values and middle-class pretensions. At the turn of the century, Shaw was in his prime, a theatrical impresario and author of those great ...
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More About This Book

Overview

When Michael Holroyd's multivolume life of Bernard Shaw was published, it was hailed as a masterpiece. Now the biography is available for the first time in a lively and accessible abridgment by the author. Playwright, wit, socialist, polemicist, vegetarian, and irresistible charmer, Bernard Shaw was the most controversial literary figure of his age, the scourge of Victorian values and middle-class pretensions. At the turn of the century, Shaw was in his prime, a theatrical impresario and author of those great campaigning plays - "Man and Superman," "Major Barbara," "The Doctor's Dilemma," and "John Bull's Other Island" - that used laughter as an anesthetic for the operation he performed on British society. By 1914 the author of "Pygmalion" was the most popular writer in England, and increasingly recognized throughout Europe and America. The reluctant recipient of a Nobel Prize for literature and an Academy Award for his screenplay for "Pygmalion," Shaw became an international icon between the two world wars, feted from China and Soviet Russia to India and New Zealand, though still contriving to provoke the establishment in the United States, South Africa, and Ireland. He revealed himself increasingly as conjurer, fabulist, and seer through his powerful late works, including "Saint Joan," the Chekhovian "Heartbreak House," the modernist fantasy "Back to Methuselah," and the imaginative dream plays and political extravaganzas.
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Editorial Reviews

Michael Anderson
...Shaw's 50 dramatic works [are] summarized and commented upon, along with his novels, prefaces and pamphlets.
— The New York Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
This massive biography, arranged thematically rather than chronologically, discusses Shaw's mariage blanc ; his love affairs via correspondence; the composition and popularity of his plays, including "The Doctor's Dilemma" and "Pygmalion"; and his battles with censorship. ``Contrasted to Shaw's sparkling, energetic style, Holroyd's own contribution seems disappointingly pedestrian,'' said PW.
Library Journal
George Bernard Shaw was both an extraordinary man and an extraordinary playwright, living for almost a full century (1856-1950). Such longevity and talent justify the four-volume biography that Holroyd wrote a decade ago. But, one can argue, while research institutions require that sort of depth, the average person does not. This new one-volume abridgment of the original biography affords a highly readable, interesting, shorter "life" that will benefit both the casual reader and undergraduate student. Since the abridgment has 813 pages of text and a 20-page index, the reader will not feel short-changed. Recommended for all public, college, and school libraries. (Photos not seen.)--Susan L. Peters, Emory Univ. Lib., Atlanta
Michael Anderson
...Shaw's 50 dramatic works [are] summarized and commented upon, along with his novels, prefaces and pamphlets. -- The New York Times Book Review
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780375500497
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 8/18/1998
  • Series: Bernard Shaw Ser.: Collected Letters
  • Edition description: ABRIDGED
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 704
  • Product dimensions: 6.62 (w) x 9.64 (h) x 2.08 (d)

Meet the Author

Michael Holroyd has written celebrated biographies of Hugh Kingsmill, Augustus John, and Bernard Shaw, as well as the acclaimed Basil Street Blues and Mosaic. He lives in London with his wife.

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