George Bernard Shaw's Life and Works

George Bernard Shaw was born in Dublin of Protestant stock in 1856. During Shaw’s fifty-eight year career he wrote novels, short stories and several reviews, essays and prefaces. Shaw’s early writings were based on the unrealistic Victorian ideas and written as a comedy that made fun of romance during that time period. Like many other Irish writers, Bernard Shaw contributed highly to English literature and drama with writings such as Pygmalion, a play that was based on a part of his life and written as a comedy but received as a love story.

George Bernard Shaw was born on the twenty-six day of July in 1856. “Bernard Shaw was the third child and only son of George Carr Shaw and Lucinda Elizabeth (Gurly) Shaw” (Carr 7). “Bernard Shaw had two sisters, the youngest of whom died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-one and Lucy the eldest child, made a career as a singer in light opera” (Morgan 102). “George Shaw was a rather typical Irishman of his day in that he was given more to drinking than to achieving” (Carr 7). George Shaw being of Anglo-Irish Ascendency was part of the upper middle class because of his English parentage.

“Shaw’s mother, Lucinda Elizabeth Shaw, found her emotional fulfillment in music, as an amateur singer of marked talent” (Morgan 101). The Shaw’s fortunes began to decline and to save on expenses Mrs. Shaw invited George John Vandeleur Lee, her voice teacher, to live with them. Lee was a popular musician and decided to go to London to advance his career in music. Being in a loveless marriage, Mrs. Shaw moved to London with Lee along with her two daughters. Shaw was left behind to stay with his father.

“For two years Shaw stayed with his father and worked as a clerk in a land agency” (Morgan 101). “Sha...

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... very important to the English literature during the Victorian era. Pygmalion was created from Shaw’s life and romantic comedy. Many of Shaw’s writings were about the unrealistic Victorian ideas about romance and left you to come up with your own ending.

Works Cited

Carr, Pat. Bernard Shaw. New York: Frederick, 1976 Print. 7,9,67.

Chesterson, Gilbert. “George Bernard Shaw.” Literature Resource Center. Web. http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/tlc109043601

Chesterson, Gilbert. “George Bernard Shaw”. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, 1986 ed. Vol. 21. Detroit. Literature Resource Center. Web.

http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/tlc109043601

Morgan, Margery, “George Bernard Shaw.” British Writers. 1983 ed. Print. 101, 102, 103.

O’Neil, Patrick, ed. Great World Writers Twentieth Century. New York: Marshall Cavendish, 2004. Print. 1355.