Essays on Shaw

ELT 36:4 1993 a genre that others have established for the profession, in which they always play the leading roles, whether as hero or attractive villain. It's refreshing, nonetheless, to hear the story told from the point of view of the Nick Carraways and Ishmaels for a change. Avrom Fleishman ________________ The Johns Hopkins University Essays on Shaw Elsie B. Adams, ed. George Bernard Shaw: Critical Essays. New York: G.K. Hall, 1991. ix + 202pp. $45.00 THIS COLLECTION is part of the valuable Critical Essays on British Literature series, under the general editorship of Zack Bowen, who tells us that the formats of the volumes in the series vary with the thematic designs of individual editors. Elsie B. Adams, in the opening sentence of her introduction, makes the point that "there has never been a consensus about the ultimate value of [Shaw's] dramatic work or about the efficacy of his opinions." Nor has there been, one might cheerfully respond, about the work or opinions of any other writer. But this curiously old-fashioned opening gambit is, so far as I can discover, the only excuse and guiding principle for the extraordinary selection of articles and book chapters which she has amassed to prove her point. Many of the sixteen essays are excellent, but too many are mediocre or simply irrelevant; and there is a conceptual inconsistency in the selection process which makes it seem random. This collection of essays, we are assured, attempts "not to present a history of this criticism"; yet the criticism is arranged chronologically. The "collection focuses on Shaw the dramatist," we are further informed; but again precious space is given to Claude Bissell's 1947 article The Novels of Bernard Shaw," which, in any case, was superseded in 1969 by R. F. Dietrich's book about the novels, PoHrait oftheAHist as a Young Superman. Finally, we are told, most of the essays "treat the Theory and Practice of Shavian Drama"; yet Shaw's dramatic (as opposed to his political or evolutionary) theory is scarcely touched upon, and few essays are included on Shaw's dramaturgy. It is not as though there is any shortage of critical essays on Shaw to choose from: the excellent three-volume bibliography of works about him (up to 1980), in the production of which Professor Adams also had a hand, contains more than 9,000 entries; and the last twelve years have seen no óliminution in the production of books and articles on Shaw. 520 BOOK REVIEWS Scholars these days are into a reassessment of Shaw: rediscovering the modernity of his thought, addressing the phenomenon of his continued theatrical popularity, and considering his work from feminist and other postmodern perspectives; and it is a pity to waste space in this collection on views penned by Shaw's rancorous contemporaries, smarting from collisions with his arrogant, cocksure persona. Such pieces impart a musty quality to the book, which, in spite of a token nod in the direction of deconstruction, seems about twenty years out of date. The very title of this collection (though probably dictated by the rules of the series) is a small but nagging symptom of its affliction. Nothing exasperated Shaw more than to be "Georged" in print, and the work is slim enough in all conscience: too slim for nine of its sixteen essays to be drawn from the first half of this century, essays which confirm F. P. W. McDowell's observation in Drama Survey (May 1961) that all critiques of Shaw before 1947 (excepting that of Chesterton) are of little value. The piece by H. L. Mencken which begins the book is a case in point. True, it is only three pages long; but there is little to be said for Mencken's 1905 assessment of Shaw, made before the writing of The Doctor's Dilemma, Misalliance, Pygmalion, HeaHbreak House, Back to Methuselah, Saint Joan and The Apple CaH, major plays on which Shaw's enduring reputation rests. How, then, can this chapter be "By Way of Introduction" to Shaw, as it claims? One might as well attempt to introduce a Shakespeare who had not yet written Hamlet, Othello, Lear and Macbeth. The...