Shaw, Bernard - writer, playwright, philosopher and Englishman with a capital letter. George Bernard Shaw (short biography) Bernard Shaw short biography

George Bernard Shaw is a great Irish-born playwright, Nobel Prize winner in literature, author of many plays and several novels.

Childhood and youth

The future playwright was born in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, in 1856. Father John Shaw traded in grain, but soon went bankrupt and gradually became addicted to drinking. Mother Lucinda Shaw was a professional singer. In addition to Bernard, two more children grew up in the family, the girls Lucinda Frances and Eleanor Agnes.

As a child, the boy attended Dublin Wesley College, and from the age of eleven, a Protestant school, where special attention was paid not to the exact sciences, but to the spiritual development of children. At the same time, the shepherds did not disdain physical punishment and beat the children with rods, which, as it was then believed, only benefited them.

Young Bernard hated school and the entire education system as he saw it from school. Subsequently, he recalled that he was one of the worst, if not the last student in the class.

At the age of fifteen, Shaw took a job as a clerk in a real estate office. The parents did not have the money to pay for their son's college education, but family ties helped the young man to take a good position at that time. His duties, among other things, included collecting money for housing from the poor. Memories of this difficult time are reflected in one of the "unpleasant plays" called "Widower's House".

When the young man was sixteen, his mother, having taken both daughters, left her father and left for London. Bernard stayed with his father in Dublin, pursuing a career in real estate. Four more years later, in 1876, Shaw nevertheless went to his mother in London, where he took up self-education and got a job in one of the capital's newspapers.

Creation

At first, upon arrival in London, Bernard Shaw visited libraries and museums, filling in the gaps in his education. The playwright's mother earned a living by giving singing lessons, and her son plunged headlong into social and political problems.

In 1884, Shaw joined the Fabian Society, named after the Roman general Fabius. Fabius defeated his enemies thanks to slowness, caution and the ability to wait. The main idea of ​​the Fabians was that socialism was the only possible type of further development of Great Britain, but the country had to come to it gradually, without cataclysms and revolutions.

In the same period, in the British Museum, Bernard Shaw met the writer Archer, after talking with whom the future playwright decided to try his hand at journalism. He first worked as a freelance correspondent, then worked as a music critic for London World magazine for six years, after which he wrote a theater column for the Saturday Riviera for three years.

Simultaneously with journalism, Shaw began to write novels, which at that time no one undertook to publish. Between 1879 and 1883 Bernard Shaw wrote five novels, the first of which was not published until 1886. Subsequently, critics, after analyzing the first literary experiments of Bernard Shaw, came to the conclusion that they showed bright features inherent in the further work of the playwright: brief descriptions of situations and dialogues saturated with paradoxes.

When he was a theater critic, Shaw became interested in the work of the Norwegian writer Henrik Ibsen. In 1891, he published the book The Quintessence of Ibsenism, in which he singled out the main characteristics of the plays of the Scandinavian playwright. In the days of Shaw's youth, only plays dominated the theatrical stage, as well as minor melodramas and comedies. Ibsen, according to Shaw, became a real innovator in European dramaturgy, raising it to a new level by revealing sharp conflicts and discussions between characters.

Inspired by the plays of Ibsen, in 1885 Bernard Shaw wrote the first of his "unpleasant plays" called The Widower's House. It is believed that Shaw's biography as a playwright writer began with this work. A new era of European drama was also born here, sharp, topical, built on conflicts and dialogues, and not on the active actions of the characters.

This was followed by the plays "Red tape" and "Mrs. Warren's Profession", which literally blew up stiff Victorian England with their undisguised topicality, caustic satire and truthfulness. The protagonist of "Mrs. Warren's Profession" is a prostitute who earns a living by an ancient craft and is not going to give up this way of earning income.

The opposite of this corrupt woman in the play is her daughter. The girl, having learned about the source of her mother's income, leaves home to honestly earn her own bread. In this work, Shaw clearly manifested the reformist nature of creativity, raising topics new to English literature and theater, acute and topical, political and social. Bernard Shaw complements the genre of realistic drama with subtle humor and satire, thanks to which his plays acquire extraordinary appeal and power of presentation.

Having created an unprecedented precedent for those times with his "unpleasant plays", Shaw released a series of "pleasant plays": "Arms and a Man", "The Chosen One of Fate", "Let's wait and see", "Candida".

"Pygmalion" is one of the plays by Bernard Shaw, a capacious, multifaceted and complex thing, which is devoted to many books and scientific monographs. In the center of the story is the fate of the poor flower seller Eliza Doolittle and the wealthy, noble society gentleman Higgins. The latter wants to make a lady of high society out of a flower girl, just as the mythical Pygmalion created his Galatea from a piece of marble.

The amazing transformation of Eliza helps to reveal spiritual qualities, innate kindness, nobility of a simple flower girl. A comic dispute between two gentlemen threatens to turn into a tragedy for a girl whose inner beauty they did not see

The next significant work of the playwright was the play "House where hearts break", written after the First World War. Shaw unequivocally accused the English intelligentsia and the cream of society of having plunged the country and all of Europe into an abyss of devastation and horror. In this work, the influence of Ibsen on the work of Shaw is clearly traced. The satirical drama takes on the features of the grotesque, allegory and symbolism.

The war further confirmed Bernard Shaw in his commitment to the ideas of socialism. Until the end of his days, he continued to believe that socialist Russia is an example for the entire civilized world, and that the social and political system of the USSR is the only true and correct one. Towards the end of his life, Shaw became an ideological supporter of the Stalinist regime and even visited the USSR in 1931.

For a short time, the playwright was inclined to think that only a dictator could restore order in society and the country, but after coming to power in Germany, he abandoned this idea.

In 1923, the world saw the best, according to critics and admirers of the work of Bernard Shaw, the play "Saint Joan", dedicated to the life, deeds and martyrdom of Joan of Arc. The subsequent plays "Bitter but True", "Aground", "Millionaire", "Geneva" and others did not receive public recognition during the author's lifetime.

After the death of Bernard Shaw, dramas were staged by theaters of different countries, they are still on the stage today, and some works have found a new life in cinema. So, in 1974, the film “Millionairess” based on the play of the same name was released in the Soviet Union, which was a resounding success. The roles were performed by V. Osenev and other actors.

Personal life

In 1898, Bernard Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townsend, whom the writer met in the Fabian Society. The girl was a rich heiress, but Bernard was not interested in her millions. In 1925, he even refused to receive the award, and the British ambassador Arthur Duff had to receive the money. Subsequently, these funds were spent on creating a fund for translators.

With Charlotte Bernard Shaw lived in perfect harmony for forty-five years, until her death. They didn't have children. Of course, marriage isn't always perfect, and there have been fights between Shaw and his wife.

So, it was rumored that the writer was in love with the famous actress Stella Patrick Campbell, for whom he wrote "Pigmalion", inventing the lovely Eliza Doolittle.

Death

The playwright spent the second half of his life in Hertfordshire, where he and Charlotte had a cozy two-story house surrounded by greenery. The writer lived and worked there from 1906 to 1950, until his death.

Towards the end of his life, losses began to haunt the writer one after another. In 1940, Stella died, his unspoken lover, who reciprocated the playwright. In 1943, the faithful Charlotte passed away. The last months of his life, Bernard was bedridden. He bravely met his death, remaining conscious to the end. Bernard Shaw passed away on November 2, 1950. According to the will of the writer, his body was cremated, and the ashes were scattered along with the ashes of his beloved wife.

Quotes and aphorisms

• If you have an apple and I have an apple, and if we exchange these apples, then you and I have one apple each. And if you have an idea and I have an idea, and we exchange ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.
• The greatest sin in relation to one's neighbor is not hatred, but indifference; this is truly the pinnacle of inhumanity.
• An ideal husband is a man who believes that he has an ideal wife.
• Those who can do it, those who can't, teach others.

Bibliography

• "Immaturity (1879);
• "The Irrational Knot" (1880);
• "Love Among the Artists" (1881);
• "Profession of Cashel Byron" (1882);
• "Not a Social Socialist" (1882).

George Bernard Shaw- English playwright and novelist of Irish origin, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Bernard Shaw was born July 26, 1856 in Dublin. He studied at the Catholic and Protestant day schools in Dublin.

In 1871, after graduating from school, he began working in a company selling land. A year later, he took the position of cashier, but four years later, hating work, he moved to London (1876): where his mother lived, after a divorce from his father. Engaged in journalism and literature.

Since 1882, he became interested in social problems, and in 1884 he joined the "Fabian Society", created to spread socialist ideas, to which he devoted 27 years of his life, giving lectures.

Bernard Shaw began to write about the theater, published in the weekly "World", "Pell-Mell newspapers", writes music reviews in the "Star", and from 1890 became a full-time music critic in the "London World".

After 5 years, Shaw becomes a theater critic in the London magazine "Saturday Review".

In 1890, he gave a lecture at a meeting of the Fabian Society, which he devoted to the work of Ibsen, and a year later he wrote a critical article, The Quintessence of Ibsenism, which became the manifesto of the new drama.

1892 wrote the first play "Widower's House". The novels "Unreasonable Marriage", "Artist's Love" are published.

Over the next six years, Bernard Shaw wrote 9 full-length plays and one one-act play: Heartbreaker (1893), Mrs. Warren's Profession, Arms and Man (1894), Candida (1897), Destiny's Chosen One (1897) ), "Wait and see" (1899). Shaw's plays directed by John Vedrenn and Harley Grenville-Barker 1904-1907. were so popular that during these years 701 performances were staged based on his works.

During the First World War, Bernard Shaw was actively involved in politics, writing a long essay "War from the point of view of a healthy sense", in which he criticizes England and Germany, calls for negotiations, and criticizes blind patriotism.

In post-war times, he published the plays "House where hearts break", "Back to Methuselah" (1922), "Saint Joan" (.1924).

In 1925 he received the Nobel Prize.

Over the age of 70 in the 30s. The show travels a lot (India, South Africa, New Zealand, USA, USSR).

B. Shaw wrote to a ripe old age. His last plays, Bayant's Billions and Fictional Fables, he wrote in 1948 and 1950.

George Bernard Shaw was born on June 26, 1856 in Dublin, the son of a grain merchant. Bernard's childhood was very difficult. The young man was forced to earn a living at an early age. When he was 20 years old, he moved from Ireland to London. Here Bernard joined the Fabian Society, which interpreted the ideas of moderate socialism.

However, literary activity has long attracted him. In 1879, the novel Immaturity was created. The following novels were published in Today magazine: The Lone Socialist (1884), Cashel Byron's Profession (1885-1886).

Bernard Show. Photo 1911

A little later, the novels Unreasonable Liaisons (1887), The Love of an Artist (1888) were published. In the early nineties, Shaw began to write plays. In 1892, the play "Widower's Houses" was created. After that, Shaw became a professional playwright. The play Mrs. Warren's Profession (1894) aroused public discontent, because it dealt with a former prostitute.

The play The Devil's Disciple (1897) was a huge success. In the same year, Shaw became a state councillor.

In 1898 the playwright married Charlotte Payne-Thousand. The bride was from a very wealthy family, but like Shaw, she was a member of the Fabian Society. Therefore, she became not only a faithful wife, but also a devoted assistant.

Geniuses and villains. Bernard Show

On the stage of the Royal Theater in 1904 - 1907. some of Shaw's plays were staged. Among these plays are "Man and Superman" (1905), "Major Barbara" (1905), "Caesar and Cleopatra" (1907). After that, Shaw became a world celebrity.

In 1912, Shaw created one of his most significant works, Pygmalion. During First World War Shaw wrote plays about what was going on in society. They were subsequently published in the collection "War Pieces" (1919). In 1919, the play "The House Where Hearts Break" was created. In 1923 - the play "Saint Joan". According to many critics, this work was the pinnacle of Shaw's dramatic work.

In 1925, Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize "for his work, marked by idealism and humanism, for sparkling satire, which is often combined with exceptional poetic beauty."

Shaw used the award itself to establish an Anglo-Swedish literary fund for translators.

In 1931 the playwright visited the USSR. A left-wing intellectual, he was delighted with the Soviet country, until the end of his life he admired the Soviet system and achievements.

Shaw's later works include Boyant's Billions (1947), Intricate Fables (1948), Shex vs. Shep (1949). The poetic play "Why she refused" remained unfinished.

George Bernard Shaw

Irish playwright. Nobel Prize in Literature George Bernard Shaw. author of fifty plays, numerous critical articles, essays and nonfiction books. Bernard Shaw had a reputation as a wit and humorist. His plays were divided into aphorisms and numerous quotations, which are still published in newspapers and magazines.

A reformer of the modern theater, a bright, eccentric person, Shaw has always aroused great public interest. His lifetime fame could compete with the popularity of Shakespeare himself.

The great writer was also a great sage, a reliable friend, an ardent lover, a faithful spouse and just a very good person.

It was Dubin, the capital of Ireland, that gave the world outstanding writers, poets and playwrights. Among them are William Butler Yeats, Nobel Prize winner in 1923, Oscar Wilde. Jonathan Swift, Brem Stoker. James Joyce and Samuel Beckett, 1969 Nobel Prize winner, were born in Dublin. This is where Shaw was born.

On July 26, 1856, the third and last child, a boy named George Bernard, was born in the family of George and Elizabeth Shaw.

By the time Bernard was born, Father George Curry Shaw was a deep drinker. Drinking destroyed the Shaw family.

George Bernard Shaw, looking at his father, did not become addicted to either smoking or alcohol.

Mother Bernard gave her children an excellent primary education. Thanks to her, Bernard Shaw played the piano and sang very well. And the sisters danced wonderfully and also mastered the art of playing the piano.

Mother Elizabeth herself did not study art anywhere - she took private lessons and played music at home. However, she soon achieved a certain mastery. which later allowed her to give private music lessons herself and thereby earn a living, getting rid of her husband's guardianship.

In the meantime, in early childhood, the boy lived as a universal favorite and spoiler.

At the age of nine, Bernard was sent to school. The playwright recalled this time with longing. “I didn’t learn anything at school and I forgot a lot.”

During his six years in high school, Shaw moved through four schools. He acquired the missing knowledge himself by reading Dickens, Shakespeare, Bunyan.

During his school years, Shaw was a regular at the Irish National Art Gallery. He spent hours looking at the paintings of the classics of European painting, and in the evenings he listened to arias from operas performed by his mother.

One of the favorite books of the future playwright was the Bible.

The most interesting fact about Shaw's life is that he grew up in a Protestant family, attended religious Protestant and Catholic day schools, but grew up as an absolute atheist.

In 1871, at the age of fifteen, Shaw left school and took a job as a clerk in a land trading firm ...

He studied for only 6 years, but in the eyes of his contemporaries, he was not just good, but a brilliantly educated person. Encyclopedist, sage, extraordinary doka.

A year later, Bernard earned a promotion - he was appointed cashier. All day he sat at the window, accepting money and dispensing cash.

On the money that Shaw earned, his mother and sisters lived, and there was little left for daddy to drink.

Having become a great playwright, Shaw never complained about a difficult childhood.

The family was in dire need of money. And my mother decided to rent out one of the five rooms. The room was taken by John Vandeleur Lee. Lee was a musician and conductor by profession. The person is light, cheerful and sociable.

Lee studied music with his mother. And soon she was playing the piano freely.

Soon, Lee began to take Bernard to the Philharmonic for her rehearsals. And Shaw began to understand such difficult things as Mozart's countless and impossibly virtuoso operas.

Everyone knows that George Bernard Shaw is a great playwright. But he was not only a playwright, but also an outstanding, best of the best, music critic. The main amplifications of his life were music and theater.

Shaw played the piano well. He mastered the instrument to perfection and retained his performing skills to a ripe old age.

Dad's drunkenness led to the fact that mother decided to get a divorce. In the family council, it was decided that after the divorce, mother Elizabeth and Bernard's sisters would leave for London, and Shaw himself would remain with his father.

In 1875, Elizabeth received a divorce and left with the children on a steamer for London.

In London, the mother wanted to cure her daughter Agnes - the girl suffered from tuberculosis.

in 1876 a letter arrived in Dublin. Mother Elizabeth tearfully reported that Agnes was very, very ill. That the girl's days are numbered. And that Bernard should hurry up to say goodbye to his little sister.

Bernard resigned from the firm where he had worked for five years. He left Dublin with the firm conviction that he would never return here.

He barely made it. Agnes died the day after his arrival. The girl was only 22 years old ...

This time left a deep wound in Shaw's heart. The older sister Anna, after the death of Agnes, became isolated and moved away from both her mother and her brother.

Elizabeth opened private music lessons in London. The fee was set very low. Soon the apartment turned into a real music salon. The fame of her private school of music spread throughout London.

At this time, and Bernard wrote and wrote. He sent articles to editorial offices, novels to publishing houses. But he always received refusals. He knew perfectly well the reasons for the refusal, because he had six classes of high school in his luggage and Shaw took up self-development with enviable persistence.

While his mother supports him, he completely focuses on books and textbooks. He reads a lot and spends a lot of time in the library.

But luck. One of the London newspapers takes an article by a young author. The fee is fifteen shillings. What a start...

One can only envy his optimism. Shaw wrote five novels between 1879 and 1883. Each of them is more than a year of hard work. And each is a terrible disappointment.

In 1879, Shaw completed his first novel, Immaturity.

In 1880, the next novel, An Unreasonable Marriage, was completed.

In 1881 he wrote the novel The Artist's Love.

In 1882 - the novel "Profession of Cashel Byron".

Finally, in 1883, Shaw wrote his last novel, The Quarrelsome Socialist.

This ended his career as a novelist. These were failures.

Bernard Shaw's life is a record in itself. Fifty world famous and extraordinarily popular plays. Nobel Prize in Literature. Traveling around the world at 75. Finally, 94 years of eventful life. Active old age. Clear mind until the very last minute.

But most importantly, he never gave up. From different editions of publishers came different answers. Often offensive.

Shaw turned 28 when his last novel, The Divisive Socialist, was accepted for publication by the tiny Today magazine. It happened in 1884.

No matter how hard it was for a person, he was able to overcome everything if he was able to smile. Shaw had an amazing ability to look at the world with a smile.

During these years, he saved on everything. He traveled around London on foot. not to spend money on transport. I only went to free public libraries and museums.

In 1884, the fundamental work of Karl Marx "Capital" fell into the hands of Shaw. This book, according to Shaw himself, was a revelation for him. After reading the book, young Bernard said about himself - I am a socialist.

Bernard went to lectures. And one day I met a young writer. It was William Archer. Archer convinced Shaw to write newspaper articles. The next day they went to the office of the London Pall Mall Gazette.

He began to try himself as a theater critic. He did not forget Archer's services until the end of his life. They became friends and became very close friends. After all, Archer opened the way for Shaw into great literature.

Bernard Shaw liked working for the newspaper right away. He never told the editor that he had already tried hard to get through with his articles in the newspaper, but received absolutely no response.

Very soon, the theatrical and artistic community of London recognized the young as their own. He had numerous friends and patrons.

In 1885, a new newspaper, The Star, opened in London. William Archer was already working there and convinced Shaw to work on that newsroom as well. Shaw began publishing music reviews under the pseudonym Corno di Basseto. This improved the writer's financial situation so much that he suggested that Mother Elizabeth close private music courses and take a break.

In 1886. working "on two fronts", Shaw received an invitation from another newspaper - from the authoritative London weekly "World". It was about music criticism, but sometimes. extended format. The show plunged into the new work with his head. He did not miss a single notable theatrical and musical event. He spoke honestly about shortcomings and failures, never let go to flattery and did not pay attention to religion. The only measure for him was art.

Everyone loved and respected him, invited him to their performances. He quickly gained popularity.

Bernard Shaw closely looked at the work of Ibsen. In his plays, he saw signs of a new realistic theater. Everyone loved and read Ibsen. In 1891, Shaw published a critical study, The Quintessence of Ibsenism, the first serious study of a Norwegian playwright published in English.

In 1891, a new "Independent Theater" opened in London. Its founder was Jacob Grein, a famous English director. Grein felt in the young man the gift of a playwright. Grain eventually met with Shaw and suggested that he try his hand at playwriting.

In 1892, Jacob Gray received Shaw's first drink, Widower's House. An experienced director was not mistaken. It was a real masterpiece. The first independent dramatic work in my life and an absolute, impeccable hit on the target.

Until the age of forty-two, Shaw remained a convinced bachelor.

In the summer of 1896, Shaw accidentally met a convinced socialist, progressive and very rich girl, heiress of a multimillion-dollar fortune, Charlotte Payne-Thousand, Irish by origin, like Bernard himself.

In the spring of 1898, Charlotte went on a short trip to Europe. In Paris, she was overtaken by a telegram from a London friend who informed the girl that Shaw was very seriously ill. She immediately returned to England and immediately on arrival rushed to 29 Fitzroy Square, where Shaw lived in a terribly cramped little room on the third floor.

He met her on huge crutches. Shaw, who had never been ill in any way (he retained good health until a ripe old age), was on the verge of being struck by gangrene.

She convinced Shaw to move in with him.

On June 1, 1898, the marriage between George Bernard Shaw and Charlotte Payne-Townsend was registered at the West Strand Registry. The official who filled out the papers could not understand what this elegant and very rich lady found in this bony invalid. Charlotte loved Shaw very much.

Immediately after the wedding, they went to Pickford. Here at the local clinic, they spent their honeymoon healing Shaw's leg and enjoying the new sensations of a married couple.

They lived a long life - forty-five years together. But they never had children. All unrealized maternal feelings Charlotte turned to her husband.

Marriage dramatically changed Shaw's life. From now on, he did not have to earn a living by publishing critical articles in a weekly column. The show focused entirely on the playwright.

After the release of the collection, two waves hit the show - admiration and criticism. He was admired, he was quoted, and the collection of plays sold out like a popular novel. But he was also accused of immorality, undermining traditions, naturalism, and even ... pornography.

Two years of work, and in 1899 a new collection of Shaw's plays was published - "Plays for Puritans", which included "The Devil's Manual", "Caesar and Cleopatra", "Appeal of Captain Brassbound".

In 1897, after finishing work on the play The Devil's Apprentice, Shaw gave it to Grain, who showed it to his friend, the American theater director Mansfield. In the same year, the play was staged on the theater stage.

The play was a great success on Broadway. Then a wave of productions swept across America. It was the first success.

Real success awaited Shaw in 1903, when he wrote and handed over to the theaters the play “Man and Superman”. This is a philosophical comedy in which Shaw sets out his own views on religion, women and marriage.

The play was staged in all the leading theaters in England, Europe and America. But she had particular success in the author's homeland.

These were the years of prosperity. The show-playwright culminated and remained on the playwright Olympus for many years. It was in the 900s that he was often compared to Shakespeare.

In 1908 Shaw entered a period of "great experiment".

In 1910, Shaw continued his experiments in creating actionless plays built entirely on static scenes and dialogue. He wrote another play "Misalliance", which was expected to fail.

Hostile critics spoke for the first time that Shaw had written himself. He was 54 years old.

Every new play Shaw wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century caused a scandal.

In 1914, at His Majesty's Theater (London's Royal Theatre), the premiere of a play staged by director Beerbom-Three based on Shaw's new play Pygmalion took place. The playwright himself also participated in the production.

The performance was a tremendous success - only in His Majesty's Theater in 1914 there were 118 performances. Then the play was distributed all over the world.

In 1956, Alan Jay Larner and Frederick Lowe wrote the musical My Fair Lady based on the plot of Pygmalion. This musical went around all the musical theaters of the world. was filmed and still remains one of the most beloved musical performances by connoisseurs of this genre.

Throughout the war, Shaw worked on the play, which became the pinnacle of his dramatic work. Shaw himself called this play “The Heartbreaking House” “an English fantasy on Russian themes” and admitted that he wrote it under the influence of Chekhov.

Politics again intervened in the creative life of the playwright. In 1917, unexpectedly for everyone in Russia, two revolutions broke out one after another - the February and October revolutions. He did not recognize revolutions, just as he did not recognize any violence at all.

Suddenly he became interested in Jeanne d'Arc... The legendary woman, the savior of France, whom the grateful motherland repaid for her salvation with a bonfire. In 1924, Shaw completed the drama Saint Joan.

George Bernard Shaw is 68 years old.

In the autumn of 1925, the news spread around the world. Bernard Shaw was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Most of all, this news surprised Shaw himself.

From the beginning, he said that he was refusing money, because he did not need it, and then he refused to attend the award ceremony - he did not see the point.

Shaw turned 72 in 1928. Age of Socrates. The pinnacle of wisdom, the autumn of life... And the show continues to work.

In the summer of 1929, a theater festival named Shaw was organized in the English city of Malvern.

The Malvern Festival lasted until the outbreak of World War II. In ten years, from 1929 to 1939, 20 Shaw plays were performed as part of the festival.

In the spring of 1931, Charlotte Shaw persuaded her husband to put aside all business and make the first and only trip around the world in their life. Boarding the ship, the couple went to India, New Zealand and the United States. And upon returning to England, they set off on a new journey - South Africa.

He was met everywhere as the most famous playwright on the planet.

In 1931 Shaw was invited to the USSR. Stalin himself met him.

After returning from the USSR, Shaw began to work again. In 1939 he wrote the play In the Golden Days of Good King Charles. Almost ten years of silence followed. The last play of the great master will appear in the year of his death - in 1949.

Friends left one by one. A gaping void formed around Bernard Shaw. In 1935, Lucy's older sister died. Then young friends William Morris and William Archer left.

In the spring of 1943, Charlotte Shaw fell ill in earnest. Charlotte left him. Shaw left a man to whom he owed everything - his success, peace of mind, family happiness, the ability to work until old age.

After burying his wife, Shaw wandered around London for several days - the places of his youth.

In August 1950, 94-year-old Bernard Shaw was gardening as usual. Suddenly, he stepped awkwardly, twisted his leg and fell to the ground. The doctor who arrived immediately made a disappointing diagnosis - a misfortune with Bernard Shaw, he broke his femoral neck.

He did not lose consciousness until the last minute and retained a sober mind and an excellent memory. On the morning of November 2, 1950, he died.

Source - Nikolai Nadezhd "Informal Biographies". Everything is interesting. ru advises everyone to read books by this author.

Bernard Shaw - biography. facts - the great Irish playwright updated: January 20, 2018 by: website

Biography of Bernard Shaw

Childhood and youth

Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin in the family of a merchant and singer, in addition to Bernard, the family had two more children, his sister. In his youth, the boy was distinguished by his unique way of thinking and unusually adult behavior. At school, he did not communicate much with his peers, and he did not like studying very much. Young Bernard was more interested in spiritual teachings than in scientific research and cramming. Relations with teachers did not work out for him from the first days, for which he repeatedly received many physical punishments. After leaving school, the young man immediately went to look for work, financial difficulties did not contribute to Shaw's admission to the university, and the young man himself did not want this.

Work as a clerk

Thanks to the support of his uncle, he managed to get a job as a clerk in a popular real estate agency in Dublin. The saddest and cruelest for his soul was the collection of taxes from the inhabitants of poor areas. Because of the impossibility of somehow helping them, the young man greatly reproached himself for his impotence. In the future, this dark period of his independent life can be partially seen in the play "The House of the Widower". Despite the gloom of the work, the future writer liked to write books of account, in an attempt to entertain himself and distract himself from 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. Deciding that he could not leave his father all alone, the young man stayed in his hometown and continued his studies in a real estate company.

First steps into the world of writing

Soon the young man realized that he did not like the way he lived and he went to see his mother and sisters in London. When Shaw arrived in the UK, he changed, he began to spend a lot of time in libraries, studying literature and for the first time began to write his own works. At the beginning of his work, no one was interested and he had to enter the feast of writing through criticism. It was only after Shaw became a successful literary critic that his novels were noticed by the public. The first product of his writing activity that went to print was the novel Cashel Byron's Profession, created in 1882. The work itself was published only four years after the completion of work on it. Some moments in the book show the life of the writer himself. The 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 after his arrival in London.

Popularity and fame

A year later, another extraordinarily fascinating story was published - "Not a Social Socialist." At the beginning of the book, the life of a girls' school is shown, which is abruptly interrupted by moments from the life of a simple hard worker and ends with socialist themes. In 1884, a few years before writing "Not a Social Socialist", the writer became interested in the ideas of socialism and joined the "Fabian Society", which was engaged in the promotion of socialism in society. Shortly after the publication of another novel, Shaw became a correspondent who wrote reviews of musical performances. From that moment on, the writer is more and more interested in the world of theater in his novels, more drama appears and more and more actions resemble plays. In 1885, the writer begins work on the first play, The Widower's House, but soon postpones its completion.

Love plays and the playwright's marriage

In the work “Love Among the Artists”, the writer vividly shows and describes the relationship between people, his personal views on marriage and his personal understanding of love as a phenomenon. It is symbolic that the last novel 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 theater stage. The playwright often used satirical tricks to ridicule high society, which lived on the fact that poor people gave them their last money. Many of his works remained unappreciated for many reasons, some were too difficult for the general 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 for their acquaintance. 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 stage of the theater brought the playwright their share of popularity, but real success came only in 1904. The Royal Court Theater, located in London, began to show the best plays written by the playwright and this elevated him to the pinnacle of popularity. "Major Barbara" and "Doctor in a Dilemma" were different from the works written earlier in these works, you can see all the life experience that Bernard had. At the age of 50, he fully formed his own style and presentation of the written material. One of the most famous works created at the beginning of the 20th century is Pygmalion. In this play, the author tries to show people in an accessible form that everyone is ultimately equal and the same in essence. The differences that he shows are only in external and sexual dissimilarity.

Change in 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 continuous contradictions. Heartbreak House showed that this mass fratricide undermined his faith in humanity, although it was, as before, shown in a humorous form. 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 will never be able to rule the world in harmony, because how many people have so many opinions and by nature, humanity will never yield to itself. In his later plays, Shaw showed his attitude to life, with some frankly gloomy works, the audience was horrified. "Saint Joan" became a ray of hope for the playwright's work, the canonical image of the martyr Jeanne helped him return 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 of 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 personally communicating with Stalin, Shaw became an admirer of his views and fully supported the idea of ​​Stalinism. In the future, Shaw took the side of Stalin more than once during conflicts with other countries. At the end 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 being in love means inappropriately overestimating the difference between one woman and another.
• The correct pronunciation of the surname Shaw is “Sho”, however, the pronunciation “Show” has become 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 bourgeoisie, 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. This was described in detail by journalist and writer Benny Green in the book Champions of the Show, published in 1979 in London. Shaw competed in the middleweight division. It was boxing that gave the novice writer rich material for writing a novel about boxers, Cashel Byron's Profession, 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 in Literature (1925)
• Best Adapted Screenplay (1939)
• New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Special Mention (1952)