Bernard Shaw: The Ascent of the Superman by Sally Peters (review)

Book Reviews of these published. The author concludes: "So great is this disproportion that it cannot but be viewed as evidence of indifference. and perhaps disdain, on the part of the Quebec literary institution for Anglo-Canadian theatre." The apparent heat of her reaction is surprising. since her own evidence is convincing thal foremost among the alterities whose signature must be effaced is the Other with whom Quebec shares its uncomfortable union. Gill and Gannon's translation is generally faithful, expressive, and accessible. only very rarely marred by misreading of the original (as on p. 50: "At the beginning of the Quiet Revolution, General de Gaulle's celebrated "Vive Ie Quebec librc" reverberated across the country," whereas the original reads, "Au sortir de la Revolution tranquille ..." - i.e., after that period, defined normally as 1960-66). This is a frrst-class study, of vital importance for those who would seek to understand better what underlies the impassioned and fascinating discourse of contemporary Quebecois dramaturgy. LEONARD E. DOUCETTE, UNIVERSITY OF TOROf'ITO AT SCARBOROUGH SALLY PETERS. Bernard Shaw: The Ascent afthe Superman. New Haven and London: Yale University Press 1996. Pp. 328, illustrated. $28.50. Following fast on the heels of Michael Holroyd's three-part biography, Sally Peters's critical biography of Shaw offers a decidedly different perspective on the relationship between Shaw's private life and his work. Reaching beyond the formulaic and routine, Peters is fascinated by "the peculiar spinning out of the life history, the forging of the personal life myth" (ix). She argues that Shaw's well-documented reticence in sexual matters conceals erotic secrets, and suggests that he was, in fact, a closet homosexual. While Peters's main thesis does not convince, her serious examination of Shaw's sexuality offers fresh insight into his life - no small feat when dealing with an artist so thoroughly dissected, discussed, and criticised. Peters describes her method as using everything from existential phenomenology to popular culture. including only those facts that are significant in telling Shaw's story. However, in order to tell Shaw's story as she sees it, Peters must ignore or discount other equally significant facts. With a multifaceted artist such as Shaw. it seems unwise for a biographer to claim categorically. "This is his story" (x). Peters isolates and examines crucial moments in Shaw's early life, using several different methods of interpretation without identifying or justifying their application. For example, she makes much of the moment when, out for a walk, Shaw's drunken father pretended to push him into a canal; she argues that Shaw later transferred his sense of betrayal from father to mother. However, this conclusion is reached after vague reference to Freudian and pre-Freudian explanations, rather than through rigorous use of any psychological model. Later, when she comments that "psychology teaches that the psyche often works by reversal" (53), Peters conveniently uses psychology to cut both ways, justifying either side of the argument. Book Reviews 299 Drawing on Shaw's recently published diaries, his collected leuers, and the works themselves, the biography presents many interesting insights into Shaw's inner life. Shaw's deep suspicion of doctors, for instance, is traced convincingly to his revulsion at the decay of the body; his flight from that fear made him seek the ethereal realm of purity and sunshine (67) - and the porous wool of a Jaeger suit of clothes (105). Less convincing is the speculation around Vandeleur Lee, third member of the Shaw family menage atrois. An incident where Lee drew a moustache on the six-year-old Shaw's face is suggested as only the first of other, more shameful, attacks (20), but no evidence is offered for this supposition. Peters finds numerous incidents which reveal Shaw's feminine side and suggests that he was deeply troubled by doubts about his sexual identity. Dismissing his philandering as "misogyny masquerading as sex" (123) and his pain over Stella Campbell as "wounded vanity" (248), Peters reduces Shaw's pursuit of women to mere posing. His relationships with men are scrutinised much more closely, from his childhood friendship with McNulty to Graham WalJas, who is associated with an ecstatic experience which changed Shaw...