George Bernard Shaw on Language ed. by Abraham Tauber (review)

1965 BOOK REVIEWS 337 nor his unquestioned ability to use the medium creatively. But Bergman began as a stage actor and playwright and has continued his work in the theater while he has been writing and directing thirty films. Currently, he is not only one of the world's leading film artists but holds the most important position in the Swedish theater as head of the Royal Dramatic Theater of Stockholm. He has often been quoted as saying that he can live without the film but not without the theater. Though this book concentrates on an analysis of Bergman's films, its author tries to show, in various places, the relation of Bergman to Sweden's other great dramatic artist, August Strindberg. This relationship (and, indeed, the relation between the film and the theater in general) appears to be deeper and more far reaching than one might at first suppose. Bergman is not only acquainted with Strindberg from reading his work but in the much more intimate knowledge of many stage productions in which he has been involved. The themes of Bergman's films from his early script of Torment (1944) to his latest nightmare of The Silence (1963) reveal many preoccupations that concerned Strindberg in his plays. The author of this book, Jorn Donner, is a young Swedish critic and film maker who is acquainted with the peculiar isolated environment of Sweden within which Bergman has chosen to work. He concentrates exclusively on an analysis of each of the films and makes little use of the now familiar biographicaJ material of Bergman's unhappy childhood. He rather searches the social environment of the director's native country and the literary traditions of modern Europe for the sources of Bergman's inspiration. Being a fellow countryman of Bergman, Mr. Donner is in a good position to demythologize some of the many elaborate interpretations constructed by foreign critics who are more intent on having a prophet of their own messages than in allowing the artist to speak for himself. The author is wise not to attempt a total and definitive interpretation of his subject, for Bergman is still at the height of his creative power and will undoubtedly develop along new lines. The book presents the reader with a vast amount of facts and many l'efreshingly simple but literate analyses of Bergman's works. There is an extensive bibliography along with a complete chronology of the films. Now that practically all of Bergman's films are available to American audiences through commercial or 16mm release, the competence and thoroughness of the book will be most welcome to a public that is becoming more mature in its movie-going habits. The publication of this study in English hopefully marks the beginning of a period of intensified criticism and understanding of this particular film maker, and perhaps the coming of age of film appreciation and theory in general and its relationship to its sister art of drama. The subject is certainly worth the effort, if serious and competent critics like Mr. Donner can be found. REV. EMILE G. McANANY, S.J. St. Louis University GEORGE BERNARD SHAW ON LANGUAGE, edited and annotated by Abraham Tauber, with a foreword by Sir James Pitman, The Philosophical Library, New York, 1963, 201 pp. Price $4.75. Professor Abraham Tauber's George Bernard Shaw On Language is, while tedious reading if read straight through, an informative and timely selection of Shaw's writings on spelling reform and a new English alphabet. The details of Shaw's plans to increase the speed of reading and to make writing not only more rapid but more rewarding financially are revealed, with all the brilliant reasoning and 338 MODERN DRAMA December wit of which G. B. S. was a master, through letters to the press, fragments from prefaces to plays, and other writings, arranged chronologically by Dr. Tauber in an illuminating manner. These pieces show the growth and concentration of Shaw's thought over a period of fifty years. Although Shaw's ideas on this subject are interesting in themselves, they are enhanced by Sir James Pitman's authoritative and scholarly assessment of them in several selections at the end...