Shaw's People: Victoria to Churchill - Hardcover

Weintraub, Stanley

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0271015004 ISBN 13: 9780271015002

Publisher: Penn State University Press, 1996

Synopsis

How could Bernard Shaw have found anything to admire in Queen Victoria? Or in the passionate evangelical “General” William Booth of the Salvation Army? What possible connections could there be between Shaw, the passionate socialist, and the Tory Winston Churchill, who seemed to represent everything Shaw should have rejected and despised? In Shaw’s People, noted Shaw scholar Stanley Weintraub explores the relationships between Shaw and twelve of his contemporaries, including Queen Victoria, Oscar Wilde, H. L. Mencken, James Joyce, and Winston Churchill. Weintraub chose these individuals as lenses through which to look at Shaw but also for the ways in which their lives are illuminated through their often paradoxical relationships with Shaw.

While Shaw never met Queen Victoria, his sovereign during the first forty-five years of his life, the degree of her influence is apparent in Shaw’s reference to himself, in his ninth decade, as “an old Victorian.” Weintraub explores those in the literary world who interacted with Shaw, such as H. L. Mencken, one of Shaw’s earliest American fans, who turned against his hero at the peak of his translatlantic reputation, and James Joyce, who was loath to confess his respect for his fellow Irishman. He investigates the curious mutual admiration between Shaw and W. B. Yeats and Shaw’s championing of Oscar Wilde despite the vast difference in their lifestyles.

Weintraub’s skillful investigation of each of these twelve relationships illuminates a different facet of Shaw, from his pre-dramatist years in London through the close of his long life.

About this title

About the Author

Stanley Weintraub is Evan Pugh Professor of Arts and Humanities at Penn State University. His recent books on Shaw include Bernard Shaw: A Guide to Research (1992) and the edited volumes Bernard Shaw on the London Art Scene, 1885–1950 (1989) and Bernard Shaw: The Diaries, 1885–1897 (1986), all with Penn State Press. He is also the author of The Last Great Victory: The End of World War II, July/August 1945 (1995), Disraeli (1993), Long Day's Journey into War: December 1945 (1991), and Victoria: An Intimate Biography (1987).

From Library Journal

Well-known critic and writer Weintraub (The Last Great Victory, LJ 5/1/95) is also a Shaw scholar (Bernard Shaw: A Guide to Research, Pennsylvania State Univ. Pr., 1992) who has edited Shaw's diaries, autobiography, and critical work. In these essays, he examines Shaw's relationships with 12 contemporaries, including Queen Victoria, Oscar Wilde, W.B. Yeats, James Joyce, Frank Harris, Sean O'Casey, and Winston Churchill. All of the essays except the one on Churchill have been previously published, though each has been revised and updated for this collection. Weintraub discusses how "Shaw's people" influenced him and his work and/or were influenced or aided by him. The discussion of Shaw's relationship with other Irish writers is of particular interest. This scholarly but jargon-free book will be useful for libraries with comprehensive British literature collections.
Judy Mimken, Boise P.L., Id.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0271015004
• ISBN 13: 9780271015002
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 264