When Michael Holroyd's multivolume life of Bernard Shaw was published, it was hailed as a masterpiece, and William Golding predicted that it would take its place "among the great biographies." Now the biography is available for the first time in a lively and accessible abridgment by the author. This is the quintessence of Shaw. The narrative has a new verve and pace, and the light and shade of Shaw's world are more dramatically revealed as Holroyd counterpoints the private and public Shaw with inimitable insight and scholarship.
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. Born in Dublin in 1856, he grew up there, a lonely child in an unsettling ménage à trois. His father, George Carr Shaw, had turned to drink, and his mother was muse to a Svengali-like music teacher whom she followed to London. The young Shaw, anxious to escape his heritage, also left for London to reinvent himself as the legendary G.B.S.--novelist, lover, politician, music critic, and finally playwright. From his first passionate affair with a beautiful middle-aged widow, he moved on to flirtations and liaisons with young actresses and socialists before finally settling into marriage in 1898.
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. Though ready with advice to others on how to stay married, he fell painfully in love with two of the most dazzling actresses of the age, Ellen Terry and Mrs. Patrick Campbell.
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. In old age he was vigorous and prolific, espousing many new and quixotic causes. 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.
Covering almost a century, from 1856 to 1950, this unparalleled life of Shaw presents the magnificent double portrait of an age and of a man who was born fifty years too soon. Holroyd magically captures the essence of Shaw's protean genius in a tragicomedy that
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Michael Holroyd was born in 1935 and is part Irish and half Swedish. He is the author of acclaimed biographies of Hugh Kingsmill, Lytton Strachey, and Augustus John. (The film Carrington, directed by Christopher Hampton, was based on his Lytton Strachey, and a film based on Augustus John is in preparation.) His four- volume biography of Shaw was originally published between 1988 and 1992, after fifteen years of research and writing. Holroyd was awarded the CBE in 1989. He lives in London and Somerset and is married to the writer Margaret Drabble.
Hyperactive art and music critic, Fabian socialist, bicyclist, subversive open-air lecturer, vegetarian, expert on boxing, failed novelist: Shaw led a multifaceted existence during his first 22 years in London. Holroyd, biographer of Lytton Strachey and Augustus John, produces here a literary biography of the highest ordergenerous, poised, utterly fascinating, Shavian in its unmasking of Shaw's deceits, attuned to G.B.S.'s complexity. Shaw was raised in Dublin in a bizarre menage a troishis father a drunk, his mother captivated by musical impresario George Lee. From these early relationships would flow the playwright's portrayals of women as huntresses, his obsession with the themes of illegitimacy and hypocrisy. In this first installment in a projected three-volume life, Holroyd discusses the early plays perceptively and admirably unravels Shaw's many romantic affairs, to culminate when this woman-tamer was himself tamed by wealthy Charlotte Payne-Townsend, whom he married at age 41. This is a Shaw for our time. Photos. BOMC featured selection; Reader's Subscription alternate.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Shipping:
FREE
Within U.S.A.
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: USED_GOOD. Item in good condition. Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00071399885
Quantity: 2 available
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: USED_VERYGOOD. Seller Inventory # 00073693648
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: USED_FAIR. Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00073615209
Quantity: 2 available
Seller: SecondSale, Montgomery, IL, U.S.A.
Condition: USED_VERYGOOD. Item in very good condition! Textbooks may not include supplemental items i.e. CDs, access codes etc. Seller Inventory # 00074774646
Quantity: 2 available
Seller: BookHolders, Towson, MD, U.S.A.
Condition: USED_GOOD. [ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ][ Ships Daily ] [ Underlining/Highlighting: NONE ] [ Writing: NONE ] [ Edition: First ] Publisher: Random House Pub Date: 9/12/1988 Binding: Hardcover Pages: 486 First edition. Seller Inventory # 6014759
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: More Than Words, Waltham, MA, U.S.A.
Condition: USED_GOOD. . . All orders guaranteed and ship within 24 hours. Before placing your order for please contact us for confirmation on the book's binding. Check out our other listings to add to your order for discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # BOS-N-06h-01283
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Hardcover. Condition: USED_GOOD. No Jacket. Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 2.15. Seller Inventory # G0394525779I3N00
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Half Price Books Inc., Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
hardcover. Condition: USED_VERYGOOD. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_350488429
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Better World Books, Mishawaka, IN, U.S.A.
Condition: USED_VERYGOOD. 1st American ed. Used book that is in excellent condition. May show signs of wear or have minor defects. Seller Inventory # 13925200-75
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: HPB-Emerald, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
hardcover. Condition: USED_VERYGOOD. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority!. Seller Inventory # S_392660517
Quantity: 1 available