SHAVIAN MOODS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 743, 9 October 1953, Page 12

SHAVIAN MOODS

SELECTED PROSE OF BERNARD SHAW; edited by Diarmuid Russell; ° Constable. English price, 42/-. : SOCIALISM and the theatre, as Mr, Russell claims, represent Shaw’s two chief interests, and should therefore

éccupy a very large space in this collection. Admittedly, but without contesting the editor's assertion that Shaw’ $ prefaces "really belong with the plays," I cannot see that this is an adequate reason for their virtual exclusion. "The Perfect Wagnerite’ — an eSsay on the political implication of Wagner’s operas -and "The Quintessence of Ibsenism" both appear in full; only a_ portion of the preface to The Shewing-up of Blanco Posnet is included. One wonders while reading the fragments here presented of Love Among the Artists and The Irrational Knot why these novels were rejected by the publishers. ‘Was it perhaps because the Victorians did not like their heroes of fiction to bear so strong a resemblance to Bazarov, the radical. who lives in the pages of. Turgeniev’s Fathers and Sons? At all events, Shaw the novelist was a failure who soon gave place to the highly successful journalist, critic and playwright. The musical criticisms he wrote for The Star and The World in the late eighties and early nineties were doubtless more startling and re-

freshing in those days than they now appear to be. The most striking examples. however, of his habit of courting attention by being deliberately provocative occur in the dramatic criticisms written some years later. "With

the single exception of Homer, there is no @minent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare when I measure my mind against his." Shakespeare’s reputation may be left to look after itself, but the leading actors and actresses of Shaw's day, even those he gteatly admired. must have found him hard to bear at times. "It is greatly to Mrs. Patrick Campbell's credit that. bad as "the e's was, "Weer. age: was worse." Passing over a coecknialie selection of Fabian and other essays, I call the attention of any reader who wants entertainment pure and simple to almost any of the items that come under the heading of "Pen Portraits and Reviews." Two of these I specially recommendone a character sketch of Ellen Terry. and the other a review of Arnold Bennett’s book The Author's Craft, in which Shaw proves by demonstration that it is much easier to write a novel than a

play.

R. M.

Burdon