Bernard Shaw: v. 2: Pursuit of Power, 1898-1918

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Number of Pages: 422

This is the second volume of a set of three on the life of Bernard Shaw which starts at the beginning of Shaw’s marriage in 1898 and finishes at the end of the First World War. This is the period of his middle plays, including “Caesar and Cleopatra”,”Man and Superman”, “Major Barbara”, of his theatrical partnership with Granville-Barker at the Court, his comradeship and rivalry with H.G.Wells and his jousting friendship with G.K.Chesterton. The author describes how his activities on the Fabian front help to advance socialism in Britain and how his intense passion for Mrs Patrick Campbell almost destroys his marriage. Later he takes to risky exploits in his automobile and on his motorbike as he travels round the Continent from his new home at Ayot St Lawrence. By 1914, Shaw, the author of “Pygmalion” was the most popular writer in England and yet by 1915 the author of “Common Sense and the War” was considered a traitor and treated as an outcast. The author also wrote “Bernard Shaw, The Search for Love” and biographies on Lytton Strachey and Augustus John.