Plays Pleasant [antikvár]

PENGUIN PLAYS PLAYS PLEASANT George Bemard Shaw was born in Dublin in 1856. Essentially shy, heyetcreated the persona of G.B.S., theshowman,satirist, controversialist, critic, pundit, wit, intellectual buffoon and dramatist. Commentators brought a new adjective into English : Shavian, a term used to embody all his brilliant qualities. After his arrival in London in 1876 he became an active Socialist and a brilliant platform speaker. He wrote on many social aspects of the day; on Commonsense about the War (1914), How to Settle the Irish Question (1917) and The Intelligent Womarís Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928). He undertoök his own education at the British Museum and consequently became keenly interested in cultural subjects. Thus his prolific output included music, art and theatre reviews, which were collected into several volumes, published as Music in London i8go-i8g4 (3 vols., 1932); Pen Portraits and Reviews (1931); and Our Theatre in the Nineties (3 vols.5 1932). He conducted a strong attack on the London theatre and was closely associated with the intellectual revival of British theatre. His many plays fali into several categories: his 'Plays Unpleasant', 'Plays Pleasant5, his comedies, chronicle-plays, 'metabiological Pentateuch5 (Back to Methu$elah> a series of plays) and 'political extravaganzas'. G.B.S. died in 1950.