Bernard Shaw
The Ascent of the Superman
Sally Peters(Author)
Yale University Press
Published on 27. March 1996
Book
Hardback
344 pages
978-0-300-06097-3 (ISBN)
Description
When he died in 1950, Bernard Shaw was a Nobel laureate hailed as the second greatest playwright in the English language. At the same time, his strangely flamboyant personality, filled with eccentricities and contradictions, aroused curiosity. Despite many investigations into Shaw's life and art, parts of him have remained secret. In this critical biography, Sally Peters explores Shaw's background and beliefs, interests and obsessions, relations with men and women, prose writings and dramatic art. In trying to decipher the man she uncovers a convoluted and extravagant inner life studded with erotic secrets. Peters examines the passions of Shaw's life - everything from vegetarianism and boxing to socialism and feminism - and pieces them together, offering an interpretation of his life and works. Striving unceasingly to ascend, possessed of monumental energy, Shaw was in many ways a dazzling example of his idealized superman. But, says Peters, this superman was also a man haunted by phantoms, a man of gender ambivalences and romantic yearnings, and a man who championed will even while believing that his erotic inclinations were the secret mark of the "born artist".
Throughout, he was braced by a resilient comic vision as he transformed his life into enduring art.
Throughout, he was braced by a resilient comic vision as he transformed his life into enduring art.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
29 illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
640 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-300-06097-3 (9780300060973)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification