The Genius of Shaw: A Symposium

by Michael Holroyd

238 pages. Book and Jacket appear to have hardly been read and are both in Fine condition throughout.

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1979

About the author

Michael Holroyd is the author of acclaimed biographies of George Bernard Shaw, the painter Augustus John, Lytton Strachey, and Ellen Terry and Henry Irving, as well as two memoirs, Basil Street Blues and Mosaic. Knighted for his services to literature, he is the president emeritus of the Royal Society of Literature and the only nonfiction writer to have been awarded the David Cohen British Prize for Literature. His previous book, A Strange Eventful History, won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography in 2009. He lives in London with his wife, the novelist Margaret Drabble.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/michae...

Reviews

[Rick Rapp]

I have always found the plays of George Bernard Shaw to be fascinating and entertaining. They are also chock full of moments intended to be thought-provoking and shocking. Shaw was a complex man who definitely was not everyone's cup of tea. Arrogant, opinionated, and dismissive of those whom he found his mental inferiors, Shaw made scads of enemies even among his admirers. This book taps into the complexities of GBS. It is definitely well-researched and supremely literate. It is also often dry as dust. It's more than a little bit ironic that many of the essayists in this book are guilty of the things they find distasteful about Shaw's writing and his opinions. This is not "light reading." Nonetheless, I am glad I took the plunge. Anyone really interested in GBS should do likewise.

[Jane]

Collection of essays about playwright George Bernard Shaw which give readers an insight into his life and times.