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George Bernard Shaw: His Plays
"Through Shaw, I found my vocation at last." -H. L. Mencken
George Bernard His Plays (1905), by H. L. Mencken, is a "little handbook" for readers interested in his favorite playwright George Bernhard Shaw's work. It consists of summaries of Shaw's plays and some of his other writings, with analysis by Mencken.
George Bernard His Plays (1905), by H. L. Mencken, is a "little handbook" for readers interested in his favorite playwright George Bernhard Shaw's work. It consists of summaries of Shaw's plays and some of his other writings, with analysis by Mencken.
140 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1975
15 people want to read
About the author
H.L. Mencken
638 books730 followersHenry Louis "H.L." Mencken became one of the most influential and prolific journalists in America in the 1920s and '30s, writing about all the shams and con artists in the world. He attacked chiropractors and the Ku Klux Klan, politicians and other journalists. Most of all, he attacked Puritan morality. He called Puritanism, "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy."
At the height of his career, he edited and wrote for The American Mercury magazine and the Baltimore Sun newspaper, wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column for the Chicago Tribune, and published two or three books every year. His masterpiece was one of the few books he wrote about something he loved, a book called The American Language (1919), a history and collection of American vernacular speech. It included a translation of the Declaration of Independence into American English that began, "When things get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are not trying to put nothing over on nobody."
When asked what he would like for an epitaph, Mencken wrote, "If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl."
(from American Public Media)
At the height of his career, he edited and wrote for The American Mercury magazine and the Baltimore Sun newspaper, wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column for the Chicago Tribune, and published two or three books every year. His masterpiece was one of the few books he wrote about something he loved, a book called The American Language (1919), a history and collection of American vernacular speech. It included a translation of the Declaration of Independence into American English that began, "When things get so balled up that the people of a country got to cut loose from some other country, and go it on their own hook, without asking no permission from nobody, excepting maybe God Almighty, then they ought to let everybody know why they done it, so that everybody can see they are not trying to put nothing over on nobody."
When asked what he would like for an epitaph, Mencken wrote, "If, after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl."
(from American Public Media)
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 27, 2020
I can’t believe I said this, but I did and it was recorded in the Goodread with me saying that “Man of Destiny” is the best play of Shaw in my opinion. I didn’t even remember what this play is about when I read Mencken’s book on Shaw. It’s a very funny and subtle book, devoid of Mencken’s usual exaggeration and flamboyancy. Then as I read the description of the play, I remembered watching a video about it long time ago. Then I read my notes on Goodread and realized that I even read the play since the video is so good. I have to find the DVD and watch it again, then read the play again.
Do it slowly so that I can enjoy it. Anything done quickly will kill the joy of it. Pretty soon I am going to lose my mind and don’t know where I’ve put it. I was never good at memorizing things and hated those exercises of remember poems or music scores or song lyrics, which plagued all my school years. School is a place where people with bad memory get tortured. When I first got out of college, I met a girl who can memorize an entire manual, for test purposes, in the blink of an eye, but who would ask me to help fill up a form. How she amazed me. Human mind can differ so much. I wish I talked with her more to understand her ways of thinking, but I didn’t at the time. I could be more solicitous, more curious, more sociable, but my regrettable self just didn’t take the trouble to do those things.
Do it slowly so that I can enjoy it. Anything done quickly will kill the joy of it. Pretty soon I am going to lose my mind and don’t know where I’ve put it. I was never good at memorizing things and hated those exercises of remember poems or music scores or song lyrics, which plagued all my school years. School is a place where people with bad memory get tortured. When I first got out of college, I met a girl who can memorize an entire manual, for test purposes, in the blink of an eye, but who would ask me to help fill up a form. How she amazed me. Human mind can differ so much. I wish I talked with her more to understand her ways of thinking, but I didn’t at the time. I could be more solicitous, more curious, more sociable, but my regrettable self just didn’t take the trouble to do those things.
Displaying 1 of 1 review