In what year was Bernard Shaw born? George Bernard Shaw (short biography)
SHAW, GEORGE BERNARD(Shaw, George Bernard) (1856–1950), Irish playwright, philosopher and prose writer, an outstanding critic of his time and the most famous - after Shakespeare - playwright who wrote in English language. Born 26 July 1856 in Dublin. His father, having failed in business, became addicted to alcohol; the mother, disillusioned with the marriage, became interested in singing. Shaw did not learn anything at the schools he attended, but he learned a lot from the books of Charles Dickens, W. Shakespeare, D. Bunyan, the Bible, Arabian tales Thousand and One Nights, as well as listening to operas and oratorios in which his mother sang, and contemplating the paintings in the Irish National Gallery.
At the age of fifteen, Shaw got a job as a clerk in a land sales company. A year later he became cashier and held this position for four years. Unable to overcome his disgust for such work, at the age of twenty he went to London to live with his mother, who, after divorcing her husband, earned her living by giving singing lessons.
Shaw, already in his youth, decided to make a living from literary work, and although the articles sent out returned to him with depressing regularity, he continued to besiege the editors. Only one of his articles was accepted for publication, paying the author fifteen shillings - and that was all that Shaw earned with his pen in nine years. Over the years, he wrote five novels, which were rejected by all English publishing houses.
In 1884 Shaw joined the Fabian Society and soon became one of its most brilliant speakers. At the same time, he improved his education in the reading room of the British Museum, where he met the writer W. Archer (1856–1924), who introduced him to journalism. After working for some time as a freelance correspondent, Shaw received a position as a music critic in one of the evening newspapers. After six years of music reviewing, Shaw worked as a theater critic for the Saturday Review for three and a half years. During this time, he published books about H. Ibsen and R. Wagner. He also wrote plays (collection Plays pleasant and unpleasant – Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant, 1898). One of them, Mrs Warren's profession (Mrs. Warren's Profession, first staged in 1902), was banned by censorship; another, Wait and see (You Never Can Tell, 1895) was rejected after several rehearsals; third, Weapons and people (Arms and the Man, 1894), no one understood at all. In addition to those mentioned, the collection includes plays Candida (Candida, 1895), Chosen One of Fate (The Man of Destiny, 1897), Widower's house (Widower's Houses, 1892) and Heartbreaker (The Philanderer, 1893). Directed in America by R. Mansfield The Devil's Disciple (The Devil's Disciple, 1897) was Shaw's first play to be a box office success.
Shaw wrote plays, reviews, acted as a street speaker, promoting socialist ideas, and, in addition, was a member of the municipal council of St. Pancras, where he lived. Such overloads led to a sharp deterioration in health, and if not for the care and attention of Charlotte Payne-Townsend, whom he married in 1898, things could have ended badly. Shaw wrote plays during his long illness Caesar and Cleopatra (Caesar and Cleopatra, 1899) and (Captain Brassbound's Conversion, 1900), which the writer himself called a “religious treatise.” In 1901 The Devil's Disciple, Caesar and Cleopatra And Message from Captain Brasbound were published in the collection Three Plays for the Puritans (Three Plays for Puritans). IN Caesar and Cleopatra- Shaw's first play to feature real historical figures, – the traditional idea of a hero and heroine has been changed beyond recognition.
Having not succeeded in the path of commercial theater, Shaw decided to make drama a conductor of his philosophy, publishing the play in 1903 Man and superman (Man and Superman). However, the following year his time came. The young actor H. Granville-Barker (1877–1946), together with the entrepreneur J. E. Vedrenne, took over the management of London's Court Theater and opened a season, the success of which was ensured by Shaw's old and new plays - Candida, Wait and see, John Bull's Other Island (John Bull's Other Island, 1904), Man and superman, Major Barbara (Major Barbara, 1905) and Doctor in dilemma (The Doctor's Dilemma, 1906).
Now Shaw decided to write plays entirely devoid of action. The first of these debate plays, Marriage (Getting Married, 1908), had some success among intellectuals, the second, Misalliance (Misalliance, 1910), turned out to be a bit difficult for them too. Having given up, Shaw wrote an openly box-office trifle - Fanny's first play (Fanny's First Play, 1911), which ran on the stage of a small theater for almost two years. Then, as if to recoup this concession to the taste of the crowd, Shaw created a true masterpiece - Androcles and the lion (Androcles and the Lion, 1913), followed by the play Pygmalion (Pygmalion, 1914), directed by G. Beerbohm-Tree at His Majesty's Theatre, with Patrick Campbell as Eliza Dolittle.
During the First World War, Shaw was an exceptionally unpopular figure. The press, the public, his colleagues showered him with insults, but meanwhile he calmly finished the play The house where hearts break (Heartbreak House, 1921) and prepared his testament to the human race - Back to Methuselah (Back to Methuselah, 1923), where he put his evolutionist ideas into dramatic form. In 1924, fame returned to the writer, he gained global recognition drama Saint Joan (Saint Joan). In the eyes of Shaw, Joan of Arc is a herald of Protestantism and nationalism, and therefore the sentence passed on her is quite natural medieval church and the feudal system. In 1925 Shaw was awarded Nobel Prize on literature, which he refused to receive.
The last play that brought Shaw success was Applecart (The Apple Cart, 1929), which opened the Malvern Festival in honor of the playwright.
In years when most people had no time for travel, Shaw visited the USA, USSR, South Africa, India, and New Zealand. In Moscow, where Shaw arrived with Lady Astor, he talked with Stalin. When the Labor Party, for which the playwright had done so much, came to power, he was offered nobility and a peerage, but he refused everything. At the age of ninety, the writer nevertheless agreed to become an honorary citizen of Dublin and the London parish of St. Pancras, where he lived in his youth.
Shaw's wife died in 1943. The writer spent his remaining years in seclusion in Eyot St. Lawrence (Hertfordshire), where he completed his last play at the age of ninety-two. Byant's Billions (Buoyant Billions, 1949). Until the end of his days, the writer maintained clarity of mind. Shaw died in Heyot St. Lawrence on November 2, 1950.
There were many ups and downs in the life and work of Bernard Shaw, but his plays will always amaze with their lightness, beauty, wit and philosophy.
The life of this talented writer began on July 26, 1856 in Dublin. At that time, Shaw Sr. was almost completely bankrupt and could not save his business. Therefore, Bernard's father drank a lot. Bernard's mother was a singer and saw no point in her marriage. Therefore, the boy’s life did not proceed in particularly good conditions. But Shaw wasn't too upset. He went to school, although he didn’t really learn anything there. But he really loved to read. The works of Dickens, Shakespeare, Bunyan, as well as Arabian fairy tales and the Bible left a mark and imprint on his life. Also, his education and creativity were influenced by the operas that his mother and beautiful paintings in the National Gallery.
Shaw’s work did not immediately become so interesting and special. Initially, the guy didn’t really think about his literary talents. He needed to earn money for his living. Therefore, when Bernard was fifteen years old, he became a clerk in a company that sold land. Then, he worked as a cashier for four years. This work was so disgusting to Shaw that, in the end, he could not stand it and left for London. It was there that his mother lived at that time. She divorced her father and moved to the capital, where she worked as a singing teacher. By that time, Bernard was already thinking about his literary career and was trying to make a living by writing stories and essays. He constantly sent them to editors, but the works were not accepted for publication. However, Bernard did not despair and still continued to write and send, hoping that one day his talent would be understood and his work would be published. Nine years of the writer's work were rejected. His article was accepted only once and they paid fifteen shillings for it. But the five novels he wrote during that time were rejected. But that didn't stop the show. While he was unable to become a writer, he decided to become a speaker. Therefore, in 1884, the young man joined the Fabian Society. There he was immediately noted as a brilliant speaker who knows how to deliver his speeches perfectly. But Shaw was not only engaged in oratory. He understood that a real writer must constantly improve his education. Therefore, he went to the reading room of the British Museum. It was in this museum that he met the writer Archer. This acquaintance became quite fateful for Shaw. Archer helped him advance in journalism and Bernard became a freelance correspondent. After this, he got a job as a music critic, where he worked for six years, and for another three and a half years he criticized various theatrical productions. At the same time, he wrote books about Ibsen and Wagner, and also created his own plays, but they remained misunderstood and rejected. For example, the play “Mrs. Warren's Profession” was banned by censors, “Wait and See” was rehearsed but never staged, and “Arms and the Man” turned out to be too incomprehensible for everyone. Of course, Shaw wrote other plays, but at that time, only the play “The Devil's Disciple,” which was staged in 1897, received wide success.
In addition to plays, Shaw wrote various reviews and was also a street speaker. By the way, he promoted socialist ideas. Shaw was also a member of the St. Pancras County Council. As you can understand, it was in this district that he lived. Shaw's character was such that he always gave his fullest to everything. That is why his body constantly suffered various overloads and his health deteriorated. Everything could have been very bad, but at that time Shaw already had his wife Charlotte and Payne-Townsend next to him. She looked after and took care of her talented husband until he began to recover. During his illness, Shaw wrote such plays as Caesar and Cleopatra, Message from Captain Brasbound" He considered “Conversion” a religious treatise, and in “Caesar and Cleopatra”, readers were able to see that the classical images of the main character and main character changed so that they can hardly be recognized.
At some point, Shaw felt that commercial theater was not suitable for him; he decided to become a playwright and wrote the play “Man and Superman.” But in 1903, everything changed when the young actor Granville-Barker and businessman Aedrenn began to manage the Mole Theater in London. It was then, in this theater, that Shaw’s plays were staged: “Candida”, “Wait and see”, “ John Bull's Other Island», « Man and superman", "Major Barbara" and " Doctor in dilemma" The new management made the right decision and, thanks to Shaw’s plays, the season was a resounding success. Shaw then wrote several discussion plays, but they turned out to be too complex for intellectuals. For several years, the show created light plays for the people, and then two masterpieces appeared that amazed and surprised. These were the plays "Androcles and the Lion" and "Pygmalion".
During the First World War, Shaw fell out of love again. He was criticized and insulted, but the writer did not pay attention to it at all. Instead of being angry and worried, he wrote the play “Heartbreak House.” Then came 1924, when the writer was again recognized and loved for his drama “Saint Joan”. In 1925, Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but he refused it, considering the prize false and meaningless. Shaw's last successful play was The Apple Cart. In the thirties, Shaw traveled a lot. He visited the USA, USSR, South Africa, India, New Zealand, etc.
Shaw's wife died in 1943. Shaw spent the last years of his life in a secluded house in Hertfordshire. He completed his last play at the age of ninety-two, remaining lucid, and died on November 2, 1950.
One of two people in history (the other is Bob Dylan) to have been awarded both the Nobel Prize in Literature (1925, “For a work marked by idealism and humanism, for sparkling satire, which is often combined with exceptional poetic beauty”) and an Oscar "(1939, for the screenplay of the film "Pygmalion"). Active promoter of vegetarianism.
George Bernard Shaw - an outstanding Irish playwright and novelist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature and one of the most famous Irish literary figures - was born in Dublin. July 26, 1856 in the family of George Shaw, a grain merchant, and Lucinda Shaw, a professional singer. He had two sisters: Lucinda Frances, a theater singer, and Elinor Agnes, who died of tuberculosis at the age of 21.
Shaw attended Wesley College in Dublin and grammar school. He received his secondary education in Dublin. At the age of eleven he was sent to a Protestant school, where he was, in his own words, the penultimate or last student. He called school the most harmful stage of his education. At fifteen he became a clerk. The family did not have the means to send him to university, but his uncle’s connections helped him get a job at Townsend’s fairly well-known real estate agency. One of Shaw's duties was to collect rent from the inhabitants of the Dublin slums, and the sad impressions of these years were subsequently embodied in "Widower's Houses". He was, in all likelihood, a fairly capable clerk, although the monotony of the job bored him. He learned to keep accounting books neatly, and also to write in quite legible handwriting. Everything written in Shaw's handwriting (even in his advanced years) was easy and pleasant to read.
When Shaw was 16 years old, his mother ran away from home with her lover and daughters. Bernard decided to stay with his father in Dublin. He received an education and became an employee in a real estate office. He did this work for several years, although he did not like it.
In 1876 Shaw went to his mother in London. The family greeted him very warmly. During this time he visited public libraries and museums. He began to study intensively in libraries and created his first works, and later wrote a newspaper column dedicated to music. However, his early novels were not successful before 1885, when he became known as a creative critic.
In the first half of the 1890s worked as a critic for the London World magazine, where he was succeeded by Robert Hichens.
At the same time, he became interested in social democratic ideas and joined the Fabian Society, whose goal was to establish socialism through peaceful means. In this society he met Charlotte Payne-Townshend, whom he married in 1898. Bernard Shaw had connections on the side.
IN last years the playwright lived in his own house in Hertfordshire (England) and died November 2, 1950 from renal failure. His body was cremated and his ashes were scattered along with those of his wife.
Bernard Shaw's first play was presented in 1892. At the end of the decade he had already become a famous playwright. Shaw wrote sixty-three plays, as well as novels, criticism, essays, and more than 250,000 letters.
Shaw wrote five unsuccessful novels early in his career between 1879 and 1883. Later they were all published.
Shaw's first published novel was The Profession of Cough Byron ( 1886 ), written in 1882. The novel “Not a Social Socialist” has been published in 1887. The novel “Love Among the Artists” was written in 1881, published in 1900 in the United States and in 1914 in England. In this novel, using Victorian society as an example, Shaw shows his views on art, romantic love and marriage.
"The Irrational Knot" is a novel written by in 1880 and published in 1905. In this novel, the author condemns hereditary status and insists on the nobility of workers.
Shaw's first novel, Immaturity, written in 1879, was the last novel to be published. It describes the life and career of Robert Smith, an energetic young Londoner. Condemnation of alcoholism is the first message in the book, based on the author's family memories.
Shaw began working on the first play, The Widower's House. in 1885. After some time, the author refused to continue working on it and only completed it in 1892. The play was presented at the Royal Theater in London December 9, 1892. In this play, Shaw gave a picture of the life of the London proletarians, remarkable in its realism. Very often, Shaw acts as a satirist, mercilessly ridiculing the ugly and vulgar aspects of English life, especially the life of bourgeois circles (“John Bull’s Other Island”, “Arms and the Man”, “How He Lied to Her Husband”, etc.).
In the play "Mrs. Warren's Profession" ( 1893 ) a young girl finds out that her mother receives income from brothels, and therefore leaves home to earn money by honest work.
As Shaw's experience and popularity increased, his plays became less focused on the reforms he advocated, but their entertainment value did not diminish. Works such as Caesar and Cleopatra ( 1898 ), "Man and Superman" ( 1903 ), "Major Barbara" ( 1905 ) and "Doctor in Dilemma" ( 1906 ), show the mature views of the author, who was already 50 years old.
Before 1910s Shaw was a fully formed playwright. New works such as Fanny's First Play ( 1911 ) and "Pygmalion" ( 1912 ), were well known to the London public.
Shaw's views changed after the First World War, which he disapproved of. His first work written after the war was the play Heartbreak House ( 1919 ). A new Shaw appeared in this play - the humor remained the same, but his faith in humanism was shaken.
Shaw had previously supported a gradual transition to socialism, but now he saw a government led by a strongman. For him, dictatorship was obvious. At the end of his life, his hopes also died. Thus, in the play Buoyant Billions, 1946-1948 ), his latest play, he says that one should not rely on the masses, who act like a blind crowd and can choose people like Hitler as their rulers.
In 1921 Shaw completed a five-play pentalogy, Back to Methuselah, that begins in the Garden of Eden and ends a thousand years in the future.
After Methuselah, the play Saint Joan was written ( 1923 ), which is considered one of his best works. The idea of writing a work about Joan of Arc and her canonization appeared in 1920. The play gained worldwide fame and brought the author closer to the Nobel Prize ( 1925).
Shaw also has plays in the psychological genre, sometimes even touching the field of melodrama (“Candida”, etc.).
The author created plays until the end of his life, but only a few of them became as successful as his early works. "Apple Cart" ( 1929 ) has become the most famous play in this period. Later works, such as “Bitter, but true”, “Bonded” ( 1933 ), "Millionaire" ( 1935 ) and "Geneva" ( 1935 ), did not receive wide public recognition.
Dramaturgy:
1885-1896
:
Plays Unpleasant, published in 1898)
"Widower's Houses" 1885
-
1892
)
"Heartbreaker" (The Philanderer, 1893
)
"Mrs. Warren's Profession" ( 1893-1894
)
Plays Pleasant, published in 1898
)
"Arms and Man" ( 1894
)
"Candida" (Candida, 1894-1895
)
"The Man of Destiny" 1895
)
"We'll see" (You Never Can Tell, 1895-1896
)
1896-1904:
"Three Plays for Puritans"
"The Devil's Disciple" 1896-1897
)
"Caesar and Cleopatra" 1898
)
"Captain Brassbound's Conversion" 1899
)
"The Admirable Bashville; or, Constancy Unrewarded, 1901
)
"Sunday afternoon among the Surrey hills" ( 1888
)
"Man and Superman" 1901
-
1903
)
"John Bull's Other Island" 1904
)
1904
-
1910
:
"How He Lied to Her Husband" 1904
)
"Major Barbara" 1906
)
"The Doctor's Dilemma" 1906
)
"The Interlude at the Playhouse" 1907
)
"Getting Married" 1908
)
"The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet" 1909
)
Trifles and tomfooleries
"Passion, Poison and Petrifaction; or, the Fatal Gasogene, 1905
)
"Press Cuttings" 1909
)
"The Fascinating Foundling" 1909
)
"A Little Reality" (The Glimps of Reality, 1909
)
« Unequal marriage"(Misalliance, 1910
)
1910-1919:
"The Dark Lady of the Sonnets" 1910
)
"Fanny's First Play" 1911
)
"Androcles and the Lion" 1912
)
"Overruled" 1912
)
"Pygmalion" 1912-1913
« Great Catherine" (Great Catherine, 1913
)
“The Music-cure” 1913
)
"O'Flaherty, Commander of the Order of Victoria" (O'Flaherty, V.C.,)
"The Inca of Perusalem" 1916
)
"Augustus Does His Bit" 1916
)
Annajanska, the Wild Grand Duchess 1917
)
"Heartbreak House" 1913-1919
)
1918-1931:
"Back to Methuselah" 1918-1920
)
Part I. “In the Beginning”
Part II. "The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas"
Part III. “It’s finished!” (The Thing Happens)
Part IV. "Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman"
Part V. “As Far as Thought Can Reach”
"Saint Joan" 1923
)
"The Apple Cart" 1929
)
“Bitter, but true” (Too True To Be Good, 1931
)
Keywords: George Bernard Shaw, George Bernard Shaw, biography of Bernard Shaw, download detailed biography, download for free, British literature of the 20th century, life and work of Bernard Shaw
Biography of Bernard Shaw
Childhood and youth
Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin into the family of a merchant and a singer; in addition to Bernard, the family had two more children, his sisters. IN early years the boy was distinguished by his unique way of thinking and unusually mature behavior. At school he had little contact with his peers, and he didn’t like studying much. Young Bernard was more interested in spiritual teachings, but not in scientific research and cramming. His relationship with teachers did not work out from the first days, for which he repeatedly received many physical punishments. After graduating from school, the young man immediately went to look for work; financial difficulties did not contribute to Shaw’s entry into university, and the young man himself did not want this.
Work as a clerk
Thanks to his uncle's support, he managed to get a job as a clerk in a popular real estate agency in Dublin. The saddest and most cruel thing for his soul was collecting taxes from residents of poor areas. Due to the impossibility of somehow helping them, the young man greatly reproached himself for his powerlessness. In the future, this dark period of his independent life can be partially seen in the play “The Widower's House.” Despite the gloom of the work, the future writer enjoyed writing accounting books; in an attempt to entertain himself and take his mind off the monotonous work, he honed his ability to diligently and clearly write each letter. After Bernard turned 16, his family broke up, the boy’s mother fled to London with a new lover and daughters. Having decided that he could not leave his father completely alone, the young man remained in hometown and continued his studies at a real estate company.
First steps into the world of writing
Soon the young man realized that he did not like the way he was living and he went to see his mother and sisters in London. Arriving in the UK, Shaw changed, he began to spend a lot of time in libraries, studying literature and began to write his own works for the first time. At first, no one was interested in his work and he had to enter the feast of writing through criticism. Only after Shaw became successful literary critic his novels were noticed by the public. The first product of his writing activity to be published was the novel “The Profession of Cashel Byron,” created in 1882. The work itself was published only four years after work on it was completed. Some moments in the book show the life of the writer himself. Main character was engaged in boxing fights, like the author himself, who fell in love with this rather aggressive sport. It is noteworthy that the fights themselves took place in England, and Shaw began a kind of duel in the world of writers just upon his arrival in London.
Popularity and fame
A year later, another extremely fascinating story was published - “Not a Social Socialist.” The beginning of the book shows the life of a girls' school, which is abruptly interrupted by moments from the life of a simple worker and ends with socialist themes. In 1884, several years before writing “Not a Social Socialist,” the writer became interested in the ideas of socialism and joined the “Fabian Community,” which was engaged in promoting socialism in society. Soon after the publication of his next novel, Shaw became a correspondent who wrote reviews of musical performances. From this moment on, the writer became more and more interested in the world of theater; in his novels, more drama appeared and more and more actions resembled plays. In 1885, the writer began work on his first play, “The Widower's House,” but soon postponed its completion.
Love plays and the playwright's marriage
In the work “Love Among the Artists,” the writer vividly shows and describes relationships between people, his personal views on marriage and personal understanding of love as a phenomenon. It is symbolic that the last novel that Shaw published was Immaturity, which was his first creative work. In 1892, Bernard Shaw's first play, The Widower's House, was shown on the stage of the theatre. The playwright often used satirical techniques to ridicule high society, which lived off the fact that poor people gave them their last money. Many of his works remained unappreciated for many reasons, some were too complex for the common public to understand, others did not pass political censorship.
In 1898, Shaw married Charlotte Payne Townsend, with whom he had much in common. The couple supported socialist ideas and this was the reason they met. Despite the love and understanding in the family, Shaw repeatedly cheated on his wife and, she knew about it, but despite this the couple remained together.
Innovative look
New themes that had not previously been raised on the theater stage brought the playwright their share of popularity, however real success came only in 1904. The Royal Court Theater in London began showing best plays, written by the playwright and this brought him to the top of his popularity. “Major Barbara” and “Doctor in a Dilemma” differed from previously written works; in these works you can see the whole life experience, which Bernard possessed. At the age of 50, he had fully formed his own style and presentation of the written material. One of the most famous works created at the beginning of the twentieth century is Pygmalion. In this play, the author tries to show people in an accessible way that everyone is ultimately equal and the same in essence. The differences that he shows lie only in external and sexual dissimilarities.
Changing your mindset
The First World War was a shock to the whole world, and the playwright was no exception. He denied the very idea of a war for peace, because the very principle of such actions was built on complete contradictions. "Heartbreak House" showed that this mass fratricide undermined his faith in humanity, although it was, as before, shown in a humorous manner. Huge holes began to appear in his faith in socialism and more and more often he put forward the idea of dictatorship. He believed that the crowd would never be able to rule the world in harmony, because there are so many people and so many opinions, and by nature, humanity will never yield to itself. In his later plays, Shaw showed his attitude to life; some frankly gloomy works left the audience horrified. “Saint Joan” became a ray of hope for the playwright’s work; the canonical image of the martyr Joan helped him regain the public’s former love. With each play, the author became closer to the Nobel Prize, which he received in 1925.
Sunset of life
Despite all the love from the audience, the plays written in the last years of his life were not successful and were withdrawn from the show after two or three performances. In 1931, after visiting the USSR and personal communication with Stalin, Shaw became a fan of his views and fully supported the idea of Stalinism. In the future, Shaw more than once took Stalin's side during conflicts with other countries. In the twilight of his life, Shaw moved to his estate and spent most of his time alone. At the age of 94 in 1950, the great thinker and playwright died.
- Bernard Shaw once angrily remarked that to be in love is to inappropriately overestimate the difference between one woman and another.
- The correct pronunciation of the Shaw surname is “Sho”, however, the pronunciation “Shaw” is entrenched in the Russian-speaking tradition.
- In response to the phrase “The show is a clown”, V.I. Lenin said: “In a bourgeois state, he may be a clown for the philistinism, but in a revolution he would not be mistaken for a clown.”
- Few people know that the outstanding English playwright Bernard Shaw was fond of boxing and even competed. Journalist and writer Benny Green spoke about this in detail in his book “Show Champions,” published in 1979 in London. Shaw competed at middleweight. It was boxing that gave the then aspiring writer rich material for writing a novel about boxers, “The Profession of Cashel Byron,” which was warmly received by such writers as Robert Stevenson and William Morris. Shaw's teacher, Ned Donnelly, who first taught the writer boxing lessons, is introduced in the novel under the name of Ned Skene.
Awards:
- Nobel Prize for Literature (1925)
- Best Adapted Screenplay (1939)
- New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Special Mention (1952)
The only person to be awarded both the Nobel Prize in Literature (1925, “For creativity marked by idealism and humanism, for sparkling satire, which is often combined with exceptional poetic beauty”) and the Oscar Award (1938, for the screenplay of the film “Pygmalion”) .
Shaw refused the monetary part of the Nobel Prize in Literature (however, he accepted the laureate's medal; Boris Pasternak and Jean-Paul Sartre also subsequently refused the prize).
en.wikipedia.org
Biography
Early on he became interested in social democratic ideas; attracted attention with his apt theatrical and musical reviews; later he himself acted as a playwright and immediately provoked sharp attacks from people who were indignant at their imaginary immorality and excessive courage; in recent years has become increasingly popular with the English public and finds admirers on the continent thanks to the appearance of critical articles about him and translations of his selected plays (for example, in German - Trebitsch). The show completely breaks with the prim Puritan morality that is still characteristic of a large part of the wealthy circles of English society. He calls things by their real names, considers it possible to depict any everyday phenomenon, and to a certain extent is a follower of naturalism.
The play “The Philanderer” reflected the author’s rather negative, ironic attitude towards the institution of marriage, as it was at that time; in Widower's Houses, Shaw gave a remarkable, realistic picture of the life of the London proletarians. Very often, Shaw acts as a satirist, mercilessly ridiculing the ugly and vulgar aspects of English life, especially the life of bourgeois circles (“John Bull’s Other Island”, “Arms and the Man”, “How He Lied to Her Husband”, etc.).
Shaw also has plays in the psychological genre, sometimes even touching the area of melodrama (“Candida”, etc.).
He also owns a novel written at an earlier time: “Love in the World of Artists.”
When writing this article, material from Encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron (1890-1907).
In the first half of the 1890s. worked as a critic for the London World magazine, where he was succeeded by Robert Hichens.
Trip to the USSR
In the 1930s, Bernard Shaw toured the USSR, where he had a personal meeting with Joseph Stalin. Being a socialist in his own way political views, Bernard Shaw also became a supporter of Stalinism and a “friend of the USSR.” Thus, in the preface to his play “Aground” (1933), he tried to provide a “theoretical basis” for the OGPU repressions against the enemies of the people. In an open letter to the editor of the Manchester Guardian newspaper, Bernard Shaw calls information about the Holodomor that appeared in the press a fake. In a letter to the Labor Monthly newspaper, Bernard Shaw also openly sided with Stalin and Lysenko in the campaign against genetic scientists.
Dramaturgy
1885-1896
* Plays Unpleasant, published 1898
* “Widower’s Houses” (1885-1892)
* "Heartbreaker" (The Philanderer, 1893)
* Mrs. Warren's Profession, 1893-1894
* Plays Pleasant, published 1898
* “Arms and Man” (English) Russian. ("Arms and the Man", 1894)
* "Candida" (Candida, 1894-1895)
* “The Man of Destiny” (1895)
* “Wait and see” (You Never Can Tell, 1895-1896)
1896-1904
* "Three Plays for Puritans"
* “The Devil’s Disciple” (1896-1897)
* “Caesar and Cleopatra” (Caesar and Cleopatra, 1898)
* “Captain Brassbound’s Conversion” (1899)
* “The Admirable Bashville; or, Constancy Unrewarded, 1901”
* "A Sunday Afternoon Among the Surrey Hills" (1888)
* “Man and Superman” (English) Russian. (“Man and Superman”, 1901-1903)
* “John Bull’s Other Island” (John Bull’s Other Island, 1904)
1904-1910
* “How He Lied to Her Husband” (1904)
* “Major Barbara” (Major Barbara, 1906)
* “The Doctor's Dilemma” (1906)
* “The Interlude at the Playhouse” (1907)
* "Getting Married" (1908)
* “The Shewing-Up of Blanco Posnet” (1909)
* “Trifles and tomfooleries”
* “Passion, Poison and Petrifaction; or, the Fatal Gasogene, 1905”
* "Newspaper Cuttings" (Press Cuttings, 1909)
* “The Fascinating Foundling” (1909)
* “A Little Bit of Reality” (The Glimps of Reality, 1909)
* "An Unequal Marriage" (Misalliance, 1910)
1910-1919
* “The Dark Lady of the Sonnets” (1910)
* “Fanny’s First Play” (1911)
* “Androcles and the Lion” (Androcles and the Lion, 1912)
* "Overruled" (Overruled, 1912)
* “Pygmalion” (Pygmalion, 1912-1913)
* “Great Catherine” (Great Catherine, 1913)
* “The Music-cure” (1913)
* "O'Flaherty, MVP" (O'Flaherty, V.C.,)
* “The Inca of Perusalem” (1916)
* “Augustus Does His Bit” (1916)
* “Annajanska, the Wild Grand Duchess” (Annajanska, the Wild Grand Duchess, 1917)
* “House where hearts break” (Heartbreak House, 1913-1919)
1918-1931
* “Back to Methuselah” (1918-1920)
* Part I. “In the Beginning”
*Part II. "The Gospel of the Brothers Barnabas"
*Part III. “It’s finished!” (The Thing Happens)
* Part IV. "Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman"
* Part V. “As Far as Thought Can Reach”
* “Saint Joan” (Saint Joan, 1923)
* “The Apple Cart” (1929)
* “Bitter, but true” (Too True To Be Good, 1931)
1933-1950
Notes
1. Tatyana Vorontsova Visiting the “big brother”:
In the Soviet Union, the great playwright and his companions received a warm welcome and a rich cultural program. The Kremlin, the Lenin Mausoleum, the Park of Culture and Leisure, a car trip around the city, the world-famous Tairov production of Bertolt Brecht’s “The Beggars’ Opera” at the Chamber Theater, an “industrial excursion” (a visit to an electrical plant, where the writer talked with workers and, separately, with members of the Literary Club), meetings at OGIZ, vacations in Uzky, visits to M. Gorky and N. Krupskaya and, finally, a large-scale celebration of Bernard Shaw’s 75th birthday in the Hall of Columns - this is Moscow. The Hermitage, the Russian Museum, a car tour of the city, meetings with writers (including at the Evropeyskaya Hotel), a visit to the pioneer camp in Detskoye Selo, acquaintance with the best works of Soviet cinema and filming in sound documentary film at the Soyuzkino factory (where Shaw gave a speech about Lenin) - this is Leningrad. During a magnificent celebration in the Hall of Columns, Shaw said: “I want Stalin ... to become a living person for me, and not remain just a name,” before I leave Moscow. The hero of the day’s wish came true - a personal meeting with the Soviet leader took place on the evening of July 29. Lord and Lady Astor, Lord Lothien and the USSR People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov also took part in the conversation, which lasted almost three hours. On the night of July 31, the English guests went home. “I am leaving the state of hope and returning to our Western countries - countries of despair”; “For me, an old man, it is a deep consolation, going to my grave, to know that world civilization will be saved... Here in Russia, I am convinced that the new communist system is capable of leading humanity out of the modern crisis and saving it from complete anarchy and death” - this is how the English playwright said goodbye to the USSR. As soon as the travelers crossed the border, they became the object of close attention of journalists. Shaw gave his first interview in Berlin. In it he stated: “Stalin is a very pleasant person and truly the leader of the working class,” “Stalin is a giant, and all Western figures are pygmies.” In London, the paradoxical playwright read an hour and a half talk on the topic of the trip (August 6). Here are a number of excerpts from it: “In Russia there is no parliament or other nonsense of that kind. Russians are not as stupid as we are; It would be difficult for them to even imagine that there could be fools like us. Of course, the statesmen of Soviet Russia have not only a huge moral superiority over ours, but also a significant mental superiority”;
2. Letters to the Editor: Social Conditions in Russia by George Bernard Shaw, published in The Manchester Guardian, 2 March 1933. Gareth Jones" Memorial Website. Retrieved 3 June 2007. (English)
3. Shaw, George Bernard (January 1949), "The Lysenko Muddle", Labor Monthly (English)
Biography
George Bernard Shaw (Shaw, George Bernard) (1856-1950), Irish playwright, philosopher and prose writer, an outstanding critic of his time and the most famous - after Shakespeare - playwright writing in English. Born 26 July 1856 in Dublin. His father, having failed in business, became addicted to alcohol; the mother, disillusioned with the marriage, became interested in singing. Shaw did not learn anything in the schools he attended, but he learned a lot from the books of Charles Dickens, W. Shakespeare, D. Bunyan, the Bible, the Arabian tales of One Thousand and One Nights, as well as listening to operas and oratorios in which his mother sang, and contemplating paintings in the Irish National Gallery.
At the age of fifteen, Shaw got a job as a clerk in a land sales company. A year later he became cashier and held this position for four years. Unable to overcome his disgust for such work, at the age of twenty he went to London to live with his mother, who, after divorcing her husband, earned her living by giving singing lessons.
Shaw, already in his youth, decided to make a living from literary work, and although the articles sent out returned to him with depressing regularity, he continued to besiege the editors. Only one of his articles was accepted for publication, paying the author fifteen shillings - and that was all that Shaw earned with his pen in nine years. Over the years, he wrote five novels, which were rejected by all English publishing houses.
In 1884 Shaw joined the Fabian Society and soon became one of its most brilliant speakers. At the same time, he improved his education in the reading room of the British Museum, where he met the writer W. Archer (1856-1924), who introduced him to journalism. After working for some time as a freelance correspondent, Shaw received a position as a music critic in one of the evening newspapers. After six years of music reviewing, Shaw worked as a theater critic for the Saturday Review for three and a half years. During this time, he published books about H. Ibsen and R. Wagner. He also wrote plays (the collection Pleasant and Unpleasant Plays - Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant, 1898). One of them, Mrs. Warren's Profession, first staged in 1902, was banned by censorship; the other, You Never Can Tell (1895), was rejected after several rehearsals; the third, Arms and the Man (1894), was not understood at all. In addition to those mentioned, the collection includes the plays Candida (1895), The Man of Destiny (1897), Widower’s Houses (1892) and The Philanderer (1893). Staged in America by R. Mansfield, The Devil's Disciple (1897) is Shaw's first play to be a box office success.
Shaw wrote plays, reviews, acted as a street speaker, promoting socialist ideas, and, in addition, was a member of the municipal council of St. Pancras, where he lived. Such overloads led to a sharp deterioration in health, and if not for the care and attention of Charlotte Payne-Townsend, whom he married in 1898, things could have ended badly. During a prolonged illness, Shaw wrote the plays Caesar and Cleopatra (1899) and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1900), which the writer himself called a “religious treatise.” In 1901, The Devil's Disciple, Caesar and Cleopatra, and The Address of Captain Brasbound were published in Three Plays for Puritans. In Caesar and Cleopatra, Shaw's first play featuring real historical figures, the traditional idea of a hero and heroine is changed beyond recognition.
Having not succeeded in the path of commercial theater, Shaw decided to make drama a vehicle for his philosophy, publishing the play Man and Superman in 1903. However, the following year his time came. The young actor H. Granville-Barker (1877-1946), together with the entrepreneur J. E. Vedrenne, took over the management of the London Court Theater and opened the season, the success of which was ensured by old and new plays by Shaw - Candide, Let's wait and see, John Bull's Other Island (John Bull's Other Island, 1904), Man and Superman, Major Barbara (Major Barbara, 1905) and The Doctor's Dilemma (1906).
Now Shaw decided to write plays entirely devoid of action. The first of these discussion plays, Getting Married (1908), had some success among intellectuals, the second, Misalliance (1910), proved a little difficult for them too. Having given up, Shaw wrote a frankly box-office trifle - Fanny's First Play (1911), which ran on the stage of a small theater for almost two years. Then, as if to recoup this concession to the taste of the crowd, Shaw created a true masterpiece - Androcles and the Lion (Androcles and the Lion, 1913), followed by the play Pygmalion (1914), staged by G. Beerbohm-Three at His Majesty's Theater with Patrick Campbell as Eliza Dolittle.
During the First World War, Shaw was an exceptionally unpopular figure. The press, the public, and his colleagues showered him with insults, but meanwhile he calmly finished the play Heartbreak House (1921) and prepared his testament to the human race - Back to Methuselah (1923), where he put it into dramatic form. form their evolutionist ideas. In 1924, fame returned to the writer; he gained worldwide recognition with the drama Saint Joan. In Shaw's eyes, Joan of Arc is a herald of Protestantism and nationalism, and therefore the sentence passed on her by the medieval church and the feudal system is quite logical. In 1925, Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he refused to accept.
The last play to bring Shaw success was The Apple Cart (1929), which opened the Malvern Festival in honor of the playwright.
In years when most people had no time for travel, Shaw visited the USA, USSR, South Africa, India, and New Zealand. In Moscow, where Shaw arrived with Lady Astor, he talked with Stalin. When the Labor Party, for which the playwright had done so much, came to power, he was offered nobility and a peerage, but he refused everything. At the age of ninety, the writer nevertheless agreed to become an honorary citizen of Dublin and the London parish of St. Pancras, where he lived in his youth.
Shaw's wife died in 1943. The writer spent his remaining years in seclusion in Eyot St. Lawrence (Hertfordshire), where, at the age of ninety-two, he completed his last play, Buoyant Billions (1949). Until the end of his days, the writer maintained clarity of mind. Shaw died in Heyot St. Lawrence on November 2, 1950.
Biography
(1856-1950), Irish playwright, philosopher and prose writer, an outstanding critic of his time and the most famous - after Shakespeare - playwright who wrote in English. Born 26 July 1856 in Dublin. His father, having failed in business, became addicted to alcohol; the mother, disillusioned with the marriage, became interested in singing. Shaw did not learn anything in the schools he attended, but he learned a lot from the books of Charles Dickens, W. Shakespeare, D. Bunyan, the Bible, the Arabian tales of One Thousand and One Nights, as well as listening to operas and oratorios in which his mother sang, and contemplating paintings in the Irish National Gallery. At the age of fifteen, Shaw got a job as a clerk in a land sales company. A year later he became cashier and held this position for four years. Unable to overcome his disgust for such work, at the age of twenty he went to London to live with his mother, who, after divorcing her husband, earned her living by giving singing lessons.
Shaw, already in his youth, decided to make a living from literary work, and although the articles sent out returned to him with depressing regularity, he continued to besiege the editors. Only one of his articles was accepted for publication, paying the author fifteen shillings - and that was all that Shaw earned with his pen in nine years. Over the years, he wrote five novels, which were rejected by all English publishing houses. In 1884 Shaw joined the Fabian Society and soon became one of its most brilliant speakers. At the same time, he improved his education in the reading room of the British Museum, where he met the writer W. Archer (1856-1924), who introduced him to journalism. After working for some time as a freelance correspondent, Shaw received a position as a music critic in one of the evening newspapers. After six years of music reviewing, Shaw worked as a theater critic for the Saturday Review for three and a half years. During this time, he published books about H. Ibsen and R. Wagner.
He also wrote plays (the collection Pleasant and Unpleasant Plays - Plays: Pleasant and Unpleasant, 1898). One of them, Mrs. Warren's Profession, first staged in 1902, was banned by censorship; the other, You Never Can Tell (1895) was rejected after several rehearsals; the third, Arms and the Man ( Arms and the Man, 1894), no one understood at all. In addition to those named, the collection included the plays Candida (Candida, 1895), The Man of Destiny (1897), Widower's Houses, 1892 and Heartbreaker ( The Philanderer, 1893). Staged in America by R. Mansfield, The Devil's Disciple (1897) is Shaw's first play to be a box office success. Shaw wrote plays, reviews, acted as a street speaker, promoting socialist ideas, and, in addition, was a member of the municipal council St. Pancras County, where he lived.
Such overloads led to a sharp deterioration in health, and if not for the care and attention of Charlotte Payne-Townsend, whom he married in 1898, things could have ended badly. During a protracted illness, Shaw wrote the plays Caesar and Cleopatra (1899) and Captain Brassbound's Conversion (1900), which the writer himself called a "religious treatise." In 1901, The Devil's Disciple, Caesar and Cleopatra and the Conversion Captain Brasbound were published in the collection Three Plays for Puritans. In Caesar and Cleopatra - Shaw's first play, where real historical figures act - the traditional idea of a hero and heroine is changed beyond recognition. Having not succeeded in the path of commercial theater, Shaw decided to make drama a vehicle for his philosophy, publishing the play Man and Superman in 1903.
However, the following year his time came. The young actor H. Granville-Barker (1877-1946), together with the entrepreneur J. E. Vedrenne, took over the management of the London Court Theater and opened the season, the success of which was ensured by old and new plays by Shaw - Candide, Let's wait and see, John Bull's Other Island (John Bull's Other Island, 1904), Man and Superman, Major Barbara (Major Barbara, 1905) and The Doctor's Dilemma, 1906. Now Shaw decided to write plays entirely devoid of action. The first of these discussion plays, Getting Married (1908), had some success among intellectuals, the second, Misalliance (1910), proved a little difficult for them too. Having given up, Shaw wrote a frankly box-office trifle - Fanny's First Play (1911), which ran on the stage of a small theater for almost two years.
Then, as if to recoup this concession to the taste of the crowd, Shaw created a true masterpiece - Androcles and the Lion (Androcles and the Lion, 1913), followed by the play Pygmalion (1914), staged by G. Beerbohm-Three at His Majesty's Theater with Patrick Campbell as Eliza Dolittle. During the First World War, Shaw was an exceptionally unpopular figure. The press, the public, and his colleagues showered him with insults, but meanwhile he calmly finished the play Heartbreak House (1921) and prepared his testament to the human race - Back to Methuselah (1923), where he put it into dramatic form. form their evolutionist ideas. In 1924, fame returned to the writer; he gained worldwide recognition with the drama Saint Joan. In the eyes of Shaw, Joan of Arc is the herald of Protestantism and nationalism, and therefore the sentence passed on her by the medieval church and the feudal system is quite natural.
In 1925, Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, which he refused to accept. The last play to bring Shaw success was The Apple Cart (1929), which opened the Malvern Festival in honor of the playwright. In years when most people had no time for travel, Shaw visited the USA, USSR, South Africa, India, and New Zealand. In Moscow, where Shaw arrived with Lady Astor, he talked with Stalin. When the Labor Party, for which the playwright had done so much, came to power, he was offered nobility and a peerage, but he refused everything. At the age of ninety, the writer nevertheless agreed to become an honorary citizen of Dublin and the London parish of St. Pancras, where he lived in his youth. Shaw's wife died in 1943. The writer spent his remaining years in seclusion in Eyot St. Lawrence (Hertfordshire), where, at the age of ninety-two, he completed his last play, Buoyant Billions (1949). Until the end of his days, the writer maintained clarity of mind. Shaw died on November 2, 1950.
LITERATURE
* J.B. Show About drama and theater. M., 1963
* Romm A.S. George Bernard Shaw. L. - M., 1965
* Hughes E. Bernard Shaw. M., 1968 Shaw J.B. Novels. M., 1971
* J.B. Show Letters. M., 1971
* Obraztsova A.G. Bernard Shaw and European theatrical culture at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. M., 1974
* J.B. Show Complete Plays, vols. 1-6. M., 1978-1980
* J.B. Show Autobiographical notes. Articles. Letters. M., 1989
* Pearson H. Bernard Shaw. M., 1998
Biography
Bernard Shaw is an outstanding English playwright, one of the founders of realistic drama of the 20th century, a talented satirist, and humorist. His work enjoys well-deserved fame among us and arouses universal interest. In our literary criticism, a whole science has been created about the work of Bernard Shaw. Its foundations were laid by A.V. Lunacharsky, who showed a deep and sympathetic interest in the searches, contradictions and creative originality of the writer.
Behind Lately Scientists have defended a number of doctoral and master's theses on the work of B. Shaw and published a number of books, including a carefully commented volume of the playwright's letters (1971), his statements about drama and theater (1963), a book by A.G. Obraztsova about his theatrical and directorial activities (1974). The merits of the Soviet researchers A. Anikst, P. Balashov, and I. Kantorovich who wrote about the work of B. Shaw are great. Several books were dedicated to Bernard Shaw, his dramatic method and his influence on English and European theater by A.G. Obraztsova. In England, the name of Bernard Shaw is on a par with the name of William Shakespeare, although Shaw was born three hundred years later than his predecessor. Both of them made invaluable contributions to the development national theater England, and the work of each of them became known far beyond the borders of their homeland.
Having experienced its greatest flowering during the Renaissance, English drama rose to new heights only with the arrival of Bernard Shaw. He is Shakespeare's only worthy companion; he is rightly considered the creator of modern English drama. Continuing the best traditions of English drama, and having absorbed the experience of the greatest masters of contemporary theater - Ibsen and Chekhov - Shaw's work opens new page in the literature of the 20th century. Shaw chooses laughter as the main weapon in his fight against social injustice. This weapon served him flawlessly. “My way of joking is to tell the truth,” these words of Bernard Shaw help to understand the originality of his accusatory laughter, which has been loudly sounding from the stage for a whole century. Bernard Shaw was born in 1856 in Dublin, Ireland. Throughout the 19th century. The “Green Island,” as Ireland was called, was seething. The liberation struggle grew. Ireland sought independence from England. Her people lived in poverty, but did not want to endure enslavement. The childhood and youth of the future writer passed in the atmosphere of grief and anger experienced by his homeland. Shaw's parents came from the impoverished nobility. The life of the family was unsettled and unfriendly. Lacking a practical spirit, the constantly drunk father did not succeed in his chosen business - the grain trade. Shaw's Mother - a woman of extraordinary musical abilities– I was forced to support my family myself. She sang in concerts and later earned a living by teaching music. Little attention was paid to the children in the family; there were no funds to educate them. But in their moods and views, Shaw’s parents belong to the advanced patriotic strata of Dublin society. They did not adhere to religious dogma and raised their children to be free-thinking atheists.
The main credit for this belonged to Shaw's mother, whose character was not broken by the unfortunate situation. family life. Shaw studied at a Dublin school, but his stay there was not particularly joyful for him. It is no coincidence that he later wrote: “I didn’t learn anything at school and forgot a lot.” However, he did not complete the school course. At the age of fifteen he began to earn his own living. He served as a small man in a land office. Collected rent from residents of poor areas of Dublin. He got to know the life of the city slums well. By the age of twenty, Shaw had received the position of senior cashier. This was no little, but by this time Shaw’s interests had already been determined. They had nothing to do with the official’s official career.
Shaw was deeply interested in art - literature, painting, music. In 1876 Shaw left Ireland and moved to London. He had no specific occupation and no means of subsistence, but his range of interests and cultural needs was very wide. He was fond of theater, under the pseudonym Corno de Bosseto published his first music review, and then for a number of years appeared in print as a music critic. Shaw was not only a connoisseur of music, but also a great player himself. His name is becoming well known in London theater circles. Shaw never separated his pursuit of art from his inherent interest in the socio-political life of his time. He attends meetings of Social Democrats, takes part in debates, persistently developing his skills as a speaker, and reads Marx’s “Capital” with passion and deep interest - a work that, in his own words, was a revelation for him. Shaw's interest in current problems modernity was reflected in his earliest works. In the period from 1879 to 1883. Shaw wrote five novels: Immaturity, An Unwise Marriage, The Loves of Artists, The Profession of Cashiel Byron, and The Single Socialist. In those years, Shaw's novels did not receive recognition. The aspiring writer had to endure a long and unequal battle with numerous publishers. He received only refusals, but did not give up.
An innovator by nature, Shaw sought to introduce something new into the novel. Shaw's novels testified to his inherent skill as a playwright, which was still waiting for an opportunity to be revealed. In the novels, it manifested itself in a clearly expressed tendency towards dialogic form, in brilliantly constructed dialogues, which occupy the main place in all of Shaw’s works without exception. In 1884, Shaw joined the Fabian Society, shortly after its creation. It was a social reformist organization that sought to lead the labor movement. The members of the Fabian Society considered their task to be the study of the foundations of socialism and the ways of transition to it. Shaw acted as a true innovator in the field of drama. He established a new type of drama in the English theater - intellectual drama, in which the main place belongs not to intrigue, not to an exciting plot, but to those intense debates and witty verbal duels that his heroes wage. Shaw called his plays “discussion plays.” They captivated us with the depth of the problems and the extraordinary form of their resolution; they excited the consciousness of the viewer, forced him to think intensely about what was happening and laugh merrily along with the playwright at the absurdity of existing laws, orders, and morals. The beginning of the show's dramatic activity was associated with the Independent Theater, which opened in 1891 in London. Its founder was the famous English director Jacob Grain. The main task that Grein set for himself was to familiarize the English audience with modern drama. The “Independent Theatre” contrasted the flow of entertaining plays that filled the repertoire of most English theaters of those years with the dramaturgy of big ideas. Many plays by Ibsen, Chekhov, Tolstoy, and Gorky were staged on its stage. Bernard Shaw also began writing for the Independent Theater.
Shaw begins his path as a playwright with a series of plays, united under the general title “Unpleasant Plays.” These included: “The Widower's House,” which Shaw began working on in 1885, “Mrs. Warren's Profession,” and “Red Tape.” In his preface to Unpleasant Plays, Shaw wrote: “...the power of dramatic art in these plays is to force the spectator to face unpleasant facts. Undoubtedly, every author who sincerely desires the good of humanity does not at all take into account the monstrous opinion that the task of literature is flattery. But in these dramas we are faced not only with the comedy and tragedy of the individual character and the fate of the individual, but also with the terrible and disgusting sides of the social order. The horror of these relations lies in the fact that an ordinary average Englishman, a man perhaps even dreaming of a thousand-year reign of grace, in his social manifestations turns out to be a criminal citizen, turning a blind eye to the most vile and most terrible abuses, if their elimination threatens to lose him at least one penny from your income.” In “Unpleasant Plays” we see outwardly quite decent respectable English bourgeoisie, who have significant capital and lead a quiet, well-ordered life. But this calm is deceptive. It conceals such phenomena as exploitation, the dirty, dishonest enrichment of the bourgeoisie at the expense of the poverty and misfortunes of the common people. Before the eyes of readers and spectators of Shaw's plays, pictures of injustice, cruelty and meanness of the bourgeois world pass through. It is characteristic that Shaw's plays begin with traditional pictures of the everyday life of a bourgeois family. But, as usually happens in Ibsen’s dramas, a moment comes when the social aspect of a question that deeply concerns the writer comes to the fore: where are the sources of the heroes’ wealth? on what means do they live? In what ways did they manage to achieve the well-being in which they find themselves? The bold posing of these questions and no less the answers to them form the basis of the accusatory power of Shaw's plays, which outraged some and could not help but impress and delight others.
Bernard Shaw's second cycle of plays was Pleasant Plays. These included: “War and Man”, “Candida”, “The Chosen One of Fate”, “You Can Never Tell”. In “Pleasant Plays” Shaw changes the techniques of satirical exposure. If in “Unpleasant Plays” he addressed the “terrible and disgusting aspects of the social order” and angrily attacked the social order, then in “Pleasant Plays” he focuses on that hypocritical morality, which is designed to hide the true essence of bourgeois relations. In these plays, Shaw aims to shed those romantic veils that hide the cruel truth of reality. He calls on people to take a sober and courageous look at life and free themselves from the sticky web of prejudices, outdated traditions, misconceptions and empty illusions. And if in “Unpleasant Plays”, creating the images of Sartorius, Crofts and trying to emphasize the cruelty and inhumanity of these people, Shaw willingly turned to the technique of the grotesque, then the heroes of his “Pleasant Plays” are much more “humane people” and there is no deliberate harshness and sharpening. But at the same time, squalor spiritual world the bourgeois, the inveterate bias of his judgments, the perverted ideas hiding under a respectable appearance, callousness and selfishness - all this is shown with great power of penetration into the very essence of bourgeois ideology. The title itself – “Pleasant Pieces” – sounds quite frankly ironic.
Another cycle of plays, “Plays for the Puritans,” was created in the period from 1897 to 1899. This includes the plays “The Devil's Disciple”, “Caesar and Cleopatra”, “The Conversion of Captain Brassbound”. In the preface to Plays for the Puritans, Shaw explains the meaning of the collection's title. He contrasts his plays dramatic works, in which the main interest is focused on love intrigue and eroticism. This does not mean that Shaw shuns the depiction of feelings, but he does not want to admit that only love motives underlie human actions. “I am a puritan in my views on art,” he declares. “I sympathize with feelings, but I believe that replacing all intellectual activity and honesty with sensual ecstasy is the greatest evil.” The show strives to show the diversity of forms human activity, contrasting his broadly understood duty and responsibility with narrowly selfish motives and blind sensuality. Shaw's Puritanism is associated with the heroic Puritan traditions of the era of the English Revolution, the era of Cromwell and Milton.
THE LIFE OF REMARKABLE PEOPLE IN THEIR OWN
THE OUTSTANDING English playwright Bernard Shaw, known for his wit, once attended the premiere of a play based on his play. During the first act, the young actress playing the role of the main character, from the excitement caused by the presence of the great playwright, forgot the text.
The pause dragged on beyond all decency. Twenty minutes later, when it became clear to everyone in the hall that this silence was not the director’s find at all, the eyes of those present turned towards Bernard Shaw. Everyone was curious how the famous wit would get out of this situation.
And so, to the pleasure of the stalls, Shaw slowly climbed onto the balcony, dusted off his tailcoat, looked around the audience with a sly look and remarked in a soft baritone:
- This mess!
THE OUTSTANDING English playwright Bernard Shaw, known for his wit, once went backstage after the premiere of his play based on one of his many plays. A young and inexperienced actress, who played the role of the main character in the play, immediately approached him. When the girl timidly asked the master about the quality of her playing, the famous wit clenched his fists... However, this is not a typical story. She characterizes Shaw not as a witty person, but rather as a hot-tempered, rude person, although quite strong.
THE OUTSTANDING English playwright Bernard Shaw, known for his wit, once walked along the Thames embankment in the company of Colonel Higgins. They came across a ragged London ragamuffin. Oddly enough, the illiterate slum dweller immediately recognized the playwright and suddenly chased after him, shaking his stick and shouting something indignant about his daughter, an aspiring actress.
Bernard Shaw, not at all embarrassed, winked slyly at Higgins and remarked in a soft baritone:
- Help!
THE OUTSTANDING English playwright Bernard Shaw, known for his wit, was once walking along the Thames embankment in the company of Colonel Mortimer, Colonel Higgins and two policemen. then they came across a ragged London ragamuffin.
The famous wit turned to his companions and, slyly pointing his cane at the ragamuffin, remarked in a soft baritone:
- Here he is!
THE OUTSTANDING English playwright Bernard Shaw, known for his wit, usually returned home well after midnight. One day, several admirers of his talent approached him in the gateway and asked why this famous wit never parted with his muskrat top hat?
Perhaps for the first time, Shaw was not immediately found and could not wittily parry this malicious attack. He just spread the snowdrift with his arms and the air with his legs.
THE OUTSTANDING English playwright Bernard Shaw, known for his wit, usually returned home early. At least until dark, while avoiding annoying fans and gateways.
But then one day Shaw returned home too early. This was also noticed by his fans who were in his apartment at that moment. They were curious why such a famous wit couldn’t sit quietly in the theater?
For the second time in his life (and the last), Shaw was not found immediately. He was found only three days later, somewhere in the suburbs of Liverpool.
THE OUTSTANDING English playwright Bernard Shaw, known more for his wit than for his plays, was only once received by the Queen of England.
- Where is the show? - Her Majesty asked everyone impatiently.
Colonel Mortimer led the queen to the playwright and introduced him:
- Here's the show!
- Then you can start it! - Her Majesty slyly remarked in her soft baritone voice.
The musicians immediately began to play, and Shaw was carried to Westminster Abbey to other, no less famous playwrights.
Animals are my friends... Bernard Shaw
Bernard Shaw's kitchen
Shaw was not a connoisseur of culinary art, like, say, Gogol or Dumas the Father, but he was forced to practically learn the fruits of vegetarian cuisine, and he became a convinced vegetarian at the age of twenty-five. He ate rice, puddings, soups, salads and sauces from vegetables and fruits, drank milk and soda water, loved honey, nut cutlets and devoured sweets like a schoolboy. Shaw never smoked or drank wine, inspired by the negative example of his father. Although Shaw himself had no access to the home kitchen, he remained a “shadow theorist” of his diet. The writer made arithmetic calculations of the calorie content of foods, took into account weight, age, profession and strictly monitored diet, weighing himself daily on cabinet scales. The traditional five o'clock tea in England was strictly observed by Shaw, but at this hour he drank milk, snacking on cookies or home-baked cake. After Shaw's death, his housekeeper Alice Layden published the book "The Vegetarian Cooking of George Bernard Shaw." The book contains many recipes for preparing vegetarian dishes that the writer loved, menus are given for breakfasts, lunches, lunches and dinners, as well as interesting episodes and facts about the vegetarianism of the great playwright. Here's one episode. One day Shaw asked his housekeeper Alice if she had enough money to pay the bills.
“Yes,” Alice answered. - I'll exchange your checks at the butcher shop and that's enough for me.
- What-o-o? At the butcher shop? - Shaw shouted. - You know that I don’t eat meat and I don’t want the butcher to touch my checks! Stop it forever; I'd rather open a bank account for you...
The show refutes
At one time, a rumor spread in London that staunch vegetarian Bernard Shaw ate a steak somewhere and thereby broke his vow never to touch meat. Annoyed by this “duck,” he was forced to refute it: “The rumor about the steak I supposedly ate was a pathetic fabrication of the enemy.” Even my wife is beginning to doubt the inevitability of cannibalism...
Why demand from me an account of why I eat like a decent person? If I were eating the burnt corpses of innocent creatures, you would have reason to ask me why I do this.
People are the only animals that I am terrified of.
It is quite clear that a person can get enough of both steak and bread and cheese. The whole question is, does he create a lower or higher form of life in himself by eating steak? I think lower.
He's already good
Shaw was completely exhausted during the rehearsals of his Pygmalion. Taking pity on him, the artist who played Higgins suggested:
- Maybe we should feed the vegetarian Shaw a steak and thereby inject at least a little blood into his veins? But actress Patrick Campbell protested loudly:
- For God's sake, don't! He's already good. And if you give him meat, what woman in London will vouch for her safety!..
Trainers
Dearest Ellen!
Public excitement over trained animals is nothing new to me. Mrs. Hayden Coffin was still doing this. Alas! All this is nothing more than a drop in the ocean of cruelty, and I cannot understand why the animals do not either conspire among themselves and destroy the human race, as we destroy the tigers, or commit suicide in despair.
The trainers of the learned dogs should be shot on the spot: their very faces betray them much more eloquently than their whips and their treatment of the unfortunate creatures. The only animals that I think enjoy performing are sea lions and seals. They will not do anything unless they are immediately rewarded with a fish treat. I think that the two dozen lions surrounded by our modern lady-tamers are so fed up that they will turn away in disgust even if a tender and fat baby is presented to them; I still feel sorry for them for being so bored. But when the lady tamer whips them in the eyes, trying to get them to grumble: “Leave me alone, for God’s sake!” - I hope every time that they will tear her apart, “every time my hopes are not justified - they are disgusted even to touch her. Birds and tigers languishing in captivity make an impression more painful than the prisoners of the Bastille in ancient ballads.
Vivisection has now become as commonplace as slaughter, hanging or corporal punishment; many people who do this do so only because it is part of the profession they have chosen. They don't enjoy it, they just overcame their natural aversion and became indifferent to it, as people always become indifferent to what they do quite often. It is precisely the dangerous force of habit that makes it so difficult to convince humanity that any deep-rooted professional tradition originates in a hobby. When an everyday activity emerges from a passion, soon thousands of people will spend their entire lives doing it. In the same way, many people, without being cruel and disgusting, do cruel and disgusting things because the everyday occurrence that they encounter every day is inherently cruel and disgusting.
George Bernard Shaw
The only knowledge we are deprived of by prohibiting cruelty is first-hand knowledge of what cruelty is, that is, the very knowledge from which humane people would like to be spared.
You determine whether an experiment is justified simply by showing its practical utility. The difference is not between useful and useless experiments, but between barbaric and civilized behavior. Vivisection is a social evil because even if it advances the knowledge of mankind, it does so at the expense of human character
- George Bernard Shaw
The writer was asked:
- What is the secret of your longevity, Mr. Shaw?
- I like the vegetarian lifestyle; for half a century it has been the source of my youth. But by this I do not mean that everyone who eats cabbage and beets can equal a certain George Bernard Shaw. That would be overly optimistic...
Doctor's quandary
If you look from the point of view of the vivisector's ethics, you will have to not only allow experiments on people, but also make this the first duty of the vivisector. If you can sacrifice a guinea pig because it will reveal a little more, then why not sacrifice a human because it will reveal a lot more?
The public approves of vivisection mainly because vivisectors claim that it brings great benefits to people. I do not admit a single thought that such arguments can be valid even if they are proven. But when the defender of this view begins with the claim that all ordinary ethical standards (including the duty to tell the truth) can be ignored in the name of science, what should a reasonable person think about these arguments? I would rather lie under oath fifty times than torment an animal that licked my hands in a friendly manner. Even if I were torturing the dog, I, of course, would not have the nerve to turn around and ask how anyone could suspect such a worthy person of telling a lie. I hope that reasonable and humane people will answer this: worthy people They do not behave inappropriately even towards dogs.
If it is impossible to obtain any knowledge without torturing the dog, it is necessary to do without this knowledge. - George Bernard Shaw
Young woman: You know, I think this lunch is funny. You start your dinner with dessert. We are with snacks. This is probably normal; but I ate so much fruit, bread and everything that I no longer want meat.
Priest: We will not offer you meat. We don't eat it.
Young woman: How do you maintain your strength?
Priest: They support themselves.
"The Simpleton of the Unexpected Isles", Prologue, Scene III
Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends. It's horrible! not only by the suffering and death of animals, but by the fact that man needlessly suppresses the highest spiritual treasure in himself - sympathy and compassion for living beings like himself, trampling on his own feelings, becoming cruel.
Dinner! Horrible! I will become the pretext for killing all these unfortunate animals, birds and fish! Thank you humbly.
If now, instead of a banquet, there was a fast, say, a solemn three-day abstinence from corpses dedicated to me, I could at least pretend that I believe in the selflessness of this act. Bloody sacrifices are beyond my interests.
We pray to God to illuminate our path:
"Give us light, O all-good Lord!"
The nightmare of war does not let us sleep,
But on our teeth we have the flesh of dead animals.
Darwin not only put evolution into a form that is accessible to everyone, he also made his own special contribution to it. Now the general concept of Evolution creates a scientific basis for humanism, since it establishes the equality of all living beings,
She attaches exactly the same meaning to the killing of an animal as to the killing of a person.
This sense of the relatedness of all life forms is all that is needed not only to make evolutionary theory credible, but also to make it a source of inspiration. St. Anthony was fully prepared for the evolutionary theory when he preached to the fish, St. Francis when he called the birds “his little brothers.” Our vanity and snobbish perception of God as our earthly relative, this class division instead of the rock on which Equality was built, has led us to believe that God has created special conditions for us, placing us above other creatures. Evolution has knocked this arrogance off us; and now, when we can kill a flea without a shadow of remorse, we in any case know that we are killing our relative. It certainly shocks the flea that a creature that the almighty Heavenly Flea created solely as food for fleas kills the leaping king of nature with its huge and sharp fingernail; but not a single flea will be so stupid as to shout from all corners that, by killing fleas, Man makes a natural selection, as a result of which a flea develops that has such agility that no man can catch it, and such a strong physique that insect poison has no more effect on her than strychnine on an elephant.
Interesting patient
Shaw was an ardent opponent of any experimentation on animals for scientific purposes, especially vivisection, considering it cruelty. But he was ready to provide himself as a living object. He joked with a serious look: “I had a weakness for unrecognized methods of treatment.” As soon as I learned about something “the latest” (in medicine - ed.), I immediately put forward my candidacy as a guinea pig. My fame made me an interesting patient, but my case was of no medical interest...
Will
Not only was Shaw's wedding extraordinary, but also his honeymoon. He was desperately unlucky: at first his leg hurt, he had to walk on crutches, then he “crashed down the stairs” - he broke his arm, and finally fell off his bicycle and sprained his ankle.
The recovery took a long time. The doctors, not knowing how to help him, began to blame him for everything vegetarian diet. The resilient patient himself wrote about this complication:
"Life is offered to me on the condition that I eat steaks. A crying family surrounds my bed, handing me patented meat extracts. But death is better than cannibalism.
My will contains instructions for my funeral procession, in which there will be no funeral carriages, but there will be herds of bulls, rams, pigs, all kinds of poultry, as well as mobile aquariums with live fish, and all the creatures accompanying the coffin will be tied white bows in memory of a man who chose to die rather than eat his own kind. Apart from the procession going to Noah's Ark, it will be the most wonderful procession that people have ever seen."
Scream Magazine, No. 4, 2001, pp. 54-56
- Equisetaceae department general characteristics and significance What structure does a horsetail spore have?
- Practical work “Structure of fern and horsetail. Horsetails have
- Who is behind the attacks on Tuleyev?
- Kirill Barabash - Lieutenant Colonel of the Air Force: biography, political views What is the IGPR “call”