When we think of George Bernard Shaw, we envision the celebrated literary giant, the brilliant mind behind stage classics like Pygmalion and Saint Joan. He is remembered as a titan of the theatre, a witty social critic whose plays reshaped the English stage and won him the Nobel Prize. This image, while accurate, is a remarkably incomplete portrait of one of the 20th century’s most formidable and confounding public figures.

Who was the man behind the masterpieces? Beneath the veneer of the revered dramatist and Fabian socialist lay a figure of profound and often disturbing contradictions. To truly understand Shaw is to grapple with the uncomfortable, the eccentric, and the radical elements of his long and prolific life. This exploration will uncover five surprising truths that reveal the incredible, and often troubling, complexity of George Bernard Shaw.

1. He Admired Dictators and Promoted Eugenics

Shaw’s political life began as a passionate commitment to socialism through the gradualist Fabian Society, where he argued for the slow, constitutional transformation of society through permeation rather than revolution. Yet, this faith in democratic procedure did not last. As Shaw grew older and more disillusioned with the pace of gradual change, his idealism curdled into an intellectual fascination with raw power, leading him to express open admiration for authoritarian leaders.

This disturbing pivot reveals a man who lost patience with the people he professed to champion. He praised Benito Mussolini’s rise in Italy and, after a carefully managed visit to the Soviet Union in 1931, spoke favorably of Joseph Stalin, whom he described as “a Georgian gentleman” with no malice in him. His admiration for Stalin remained uncritical throughout the decade. This attraction to totalitarianism was not confined to the left; Shaw also described Adolf Hitler as “a very remarkable man, a very able man.” One can see in this a chilling ideological arc: his loss of faith in Fabian gradualism directly fed his attraction to any force, left or right, that promised to impose order on a chaotic world.

Alongside this flirtation with dictatorship, Shaw was a vocal promoter of eugenics. His writings on the subject grew more extreme over the years, culminating in statements that are shocking to modern sensibilities. In the preface to his 1933 play On the Rocks, Shaw outlined the chilling logic of a state-controlled program of human extermination.

“if we desire a certain type of civilization and culture we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit into it”

This profound contradiction—a socialist idealist who could justify mass murder and praise tyrants—remains one of the most challenging aspects of Shaw’s legacy, revealing a dark undercurrent to his utopian visions.

2. He’s the First Person to Win Both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar

George Bernard Shaw holds a unique and telling distinction in cultural history: he is the first person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature and an Academy Award. This dual honor reveals a tension between his towering influence over high literature and his deep suspicion of popular culture.

In 1925, following the international success of his play Saint Joan, the Nobel committee recognized Shaw for his body of work, praised as being “…marked by both idealism and humanity.” In a characteristically Shavian gesture, he accepted the prestigious award but refused the substantial monetary prize, directing that it be used to fund the translation of Swedish literature into English.

Thirteen years later, in 1938, Shaw received an Academy Award for his screenplay for the film adaptation of Pygmalion. Far from being pleased, Shaw was publicly disdainful of the honor, reportedly describing the Oscar as an “insult” coming from such a commercial source. This reaction was not merely iconoclastic; it was a manifestation of his deep-seated intellectual snobbery and his fear of being co-opted by an artistic medium he considered bankrupt. His response to these two supreme honors lays bare his complicated relationship with fame: one he accepted as his due from the literary world, the other he scorned as a corrupting influence from the marketplace.

3. He Was a Failed Novelist Before He Was a Famed Playwright

Before George Bernard Shaw became the leading dramatist of his generation, he was a struggling and almost entirely unsuccessful novelist. His legendary career was, in fact, born from nearly a decade of literary failure and financial dependency.

After moving to London from Dublin in 1876, Shaw embarked on a rigorous process of self-education, spending his days in the British Museum Reading Room. It was here he began his assault on the literary world, writing five full-length novels between 1879 and 1885, including Immaturity and Love Among the Artists. Despite his persistent efforts, not a single one found a publisher. During this period, he earned a “negligible income from writing” and was financially subsidized by his mother.

His dedication was immense, but the market was indifferent. His very first novel, Immaturity, was so thoroughly rejected that it did not appear in print until the 1930s, long after he had become world-famous. This chapter of his life provides a surprising origin story of grit and perseverance, reminding us that the towering figure of 20th-century theatre began his career forged in obscurity and rejection.

4. His 45-Year Marriage Was Believed to Be Unconsummated

In 1898, at the age of forty-one, George Bernard Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a wealthy Anglo-Irish heiress. Their union would last for 45 years, and was described by a biographer as “entirely felicitous.” Yet the origins of this intellectually vibrant partnership were deeply unconventional and pragmatic. Charlotte had proposed marriage the previous year, and Shaw had declined.

He only reversed his decision after his health broke down from overwork. When Charlotte insisted on nursing him, Shaw, concerned that this arrangement would cause a scandal, agreed to marry her. There were no children from the marriage, and it is generally believed that their relationship was never consummated. This peculiar fact presents a fascinating irony. Shaw, the man whose plays brilliantly dissect the social conventions of love and courtship with razor-sharp insight, maintained a personal union founded not on romance, but on practicality and companionship—a life that, like his work, often defied the very norms he so expertly put under his microscope.

5. He Willed His Fortune to Create a New Alphabet

George Bernard Shaw’s final and perhaps most eccentric project was an attempt to fundamentally reform the English language. He held a lifelong dissatisfaction with its inconsistent spelling, viewing the standard alphabet as an illogical and inefficient tool. In his will, he left the bulk of his considerable assets to a trust to fund the creation of a new, 40-letter phonetic alphabet.

The project, which became known as the “Shavian alphabet,” faced immediate legal challenges. His drafting of the will was flawed, and the courts initially ruled the trust void. While a small sum was eventually allocated, resulting in a 1962 edition of his play Androcles and the Lion printed in the new alphabet to a “largely indifferent reception,” the grand scheme failed. Herein lies the ultimate Shavian irony: because his will was flawed, the bulk of his fortune went to the residuary legatees—the British Museum, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and the National Gallery of Ireland. This final, quixotic gesture can be read as his most profound paradox: the great reformer’s most personal crusade failed, resulting in a massive, conventional contribution to the very cultural establishment he had spent a lifetime critiquing.

A Complicated Legacy

These glimpses into Shaw’s life paint a portrait of a man far more complex than his stage legacy suggests. One can see in these contradictions a unifying theme: a lifelong, obsessive desire to impose his own intellectual and moral order on a world he found illogical and inefficient. His admiration for tyrants, his contempt for Hollywood, his perseverance through failure, his pragmatic marriage, and his phonetic alphabet all stem from this singular impulse to remake reality according to his own unwavering, and often unforgiving, logic. His life was as dramatic and full of conflict as any of his plays.

As we continue to perform and study his work, we are left with a lingering and deeply relevant question. How should we remember brilliant artists whose personal views challenge our modern values?

George Bernard Shaw: A Synthesis of Life, Work, and Influence

Executive Summary

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) was a towering figure in Western culture, an Irish playwright, critic, and political activist whose influence extended from the late Victorian era to the mid-20th century. Renowned for his sharp wit and intellectual rigor, Shaw authored more than sixty plays, including seminal works such as Man and Superman, Pygmalion, and Saint Joan. He used the theatre as a platform for his political, social, and religious ideas, introducing a new form of realism to English-language drama heavily influenced by Henrik Ibsen.

A pivotal member of the gradualist Fabian Society, Shaw was its most prominent pamphleteer, advocating for socialism through intellectual infiltration rather than revolution. His career began in London as a respected, if formidable, music and theatre critic, where he championed the works of Wagner and Ibsen while challenging the conventions of the Victorian stage. His success as a dramatist was firmly established in the early 1900s, and in 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Shaw’s views were frequently contentious. He was a vocal proponent of eugenics and alphabet reform and an opponent of vaccination and organized religion. During World War I, he courted unpopularity by declaring the warring nations equally culpable. In his later years, his politics shifted; he renounced Fabian gradualism and expressed admiration for dictators such as Mussolini and Stalin, believing authoritarianism was a viable political arrangement.

Having also received an Academy Award for his screenplay of the film version of Pygmalion, Shaw is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. His legacy is encapsulated in the term “Shavian,” signifying his distinct ideas and their expression. He is regularly ranked among British dramatists as second only to Shakespeare, recognized for his extensive influence on subsequent generations of playwrights and for pioneering a “theatre of ideas” that required audiences to think critically.

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I. Biographical Overview

Early Life and Formative Years in Dublin

George Bernard Shaw was born in Portobello, Dublin, on July 26, 1856, into a lower-middle-class family of the Protestant Ascendancy. His father, George Carr Shaw, was an ineffectual alcoholic and corn merchant, and his mother, Lucinda (Bessie) Shaw, came to despise her husband, creating a home life their son described as one of “shabby-genteel poverty.” Shaw’s mother developed a close relationship with the flamboyant music conductor George John Lee, who moved in with the family. The household was filled with music, providing Shaw with a thorough education in choral and operatic works and a solace from what he recalled as his mother’s indifference and lack of affection.

Disillusioned by his experiences at four different schools, which he described as “prisons and turnkeys,” Shaw left formal education at fifteen to work as a clerk in a land agency. In 1873, his mother and two sisters followed Lee to London, leaving Shaw in Dublin with his father.

London, Self-Education, and Political Awakening

In 1876, at the age of twenty, Shaw moved to London, where he would live for the rest of his life. He initially struggled, subsidized by his mother while pursuing a rigorous process of self-education at the British Museum Reading Room. During this period, he wrote five unsuccessful novels, became a vegetarian, and grew a beard to hide scars from a bout of smallpox. He insisted on being called Bernard Shaw, dropping “George.”

His political awakening began after hearing a speech by the political economist Henry George in 1882. This led him to study Karl Marx’s Das Kapital and eventually to join the newly formed Fabian Society in 1884. He quickly became the society’s leading pamphleteer, authoring A Manifesto (Fabian Tract No. 2) and championing the gradualist principle of “permeation”—the idea of achieving socialism by infiltrating existing political parties with socialist ideas.

“The most striking result of our present system of farming out the national Land and capital to private individuals has been the division of society into hostile classes, with large appetites and no dinners at one extreme, and large dinners and no appetites at the other”

— Shaw, Fabian Tract No. 2: A Manifesto (1884)

Career as a Critic and Playwright

By the mid-1880s, Shaw had established himself as a respected critic. As an art critic, he followed the precepts of William Morris and John Ruskin, rejecting “art for art’s sake” and insisting that all great art must be didactic. He was best known as a music critic for The Star and The World, writing under the pen names “Corno di Bassetto” and “G.B.S.” He used his columns to promote Wagner and campaign against staid British musical conventions. From 1895 to 1898, he served as the theatre critic for The Saturday Review, advocating for plays of real ideas in the vein of Ibsen.

Shaw’s career as a playwright began in earnest in the 1890s. His first public success, Arms and the Man (1894), satirized conventions of love and military honor. This was followed by plays like Candida and The Devil’s Disciple. In 1898, after a breakdown from overwork, he married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a wealthy Anglo-Irish woman. Their marriage, which was believed to be unconsummated, was described as “entirely felicitous.”

The first decade of the 20th century secured his reputation, with the Vedrenne-Barker company staging fourteen of his plays at the Royal Court Theatre, including Man and Superman, Major Barbara, and The Doctor’s Dilemma. His most famous play, Pygmalion, was written in 1912 and became a major international success.

War, Ireland, and Shifting Politics

During World War I, Shaw published the tract Common Sense About the War (1914), which argued that the warring nations were equally culpable, a view that was anathema in the fervent patriotic atmosphere.

“I see the Junkers and Militarists of England and Germany jumping at the chance they have longed for in vain for many years of smashing one another and establishing their own oligarchy as the dominant military power of the world.”

— Shaw: Common Sense About the War (1914)

A supporter of Irish Home Rule, he was horrified by the British execution of the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising. He later condemned Britain’s coercive policies in the post-war period and was dismayed by the partition of Ireland.

The inter-war years saw Shaw’s political views grow more radical and contentious. He lost faith in Fabian gradualism and became fascinated with dictatorial methods. He expressed admiration for both Mussolini, whom he called “the right kind of tyrant,” and Stalin. He visited the Soviet Union in 1931 and publicly defended the regime. His praise for authoritarian leaders, including initial positive remarks about Hitler, demonstrated his belief that dictatorship was a viable political arrangement to get things done.

Final Decades

In 1938, Shaw received an Academy Award for his screenplay for the film version of Pygmalion. Throughout World War II, his earlier plays were widely revived in London. His wife, Charlotte, died in 1943, a loss that profoundly affected him.

He continued to write into his nineties, producing his final plays and political treatises. He refused all state honors, including the Order of Merit in 1946. Shaw died on November 2, 1950, at the age of 94, from renal failure following a fall while pruning a tree. His ashes, mixed with his wife’s, were scattered in the garden of their home, Shaw’s Corner.

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II. Analysis of Works

Shaw’s prolific output included over sixty plays, five novels, extensive music and drama criticism, political essays, and a vast correspondence.

Major Plays by Period

Shaw’s plays are often grouped into distinct periods, reflecting the evolution of his theatrical and philosophical concerns.

Period/Grouping	Key Plays	Themes and Characteristics
Early Works (1890s)	Widowers’ Houses, Mrs Warren’s Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, Caesar and Cleopatra	Labeled “Plays Unpleasant” and “Plays Pleasant.” Focused on social issues like slum landlordism and prostitution, satirized romantic idealism and military honor, and introduced the “New Woman.”
1900–1909	Man and Superman, John Bull’s Other Island, Major Barbara, The Doctor’s Dilemma	Addressed individual social, political, and ethical issues. Explored “Creative Evolution,” Anglo-Irish relations, the morality of wealth, and professional ethics. Began experimenting with “discussion drama.”
1910–1919	Androcles and the Lion, Pygmalion, Heartbreak House	Studied the nature of religion, the social importance of language and class, and depicted the “cultured, leisured Europe before the war” drifting toward disaster. Pygmalion became one of his most enduring works.
1920–1950	Back to Methuselah, Saint Joan, The Apple Cart, In Good King Charles’s Golden Days	Included the five-play “Metabiological Pentateuch” Back to Methuselah. Saint Joan (1923) was a critical triumph, leading to his Nobel Prize. Later plays satirized democratic politics and European dictators.

Criticism and Non-Fiction

• Music Criticism: Writing as “Corno di Bassetto” and “G.B.S.,” Shaw produced over 2,700 pages of music criticism. He wrote for the non-specialist, avoiding jargon. He fiercely championed Wagner while denouncing Brahms and his British followers like Stanford and Parry.
• Drama Criticism: Shaw campaigned against the “melodrama, sentimentality, stereotypes and worn-out conventions” of the Victorian theatre. He was a crucial champion for the plays of Henrik Ibsen in Britain and praised Oscar Wilde as “our only thorough playwright.” His provocative and often self-contradictory views on Shakespeare targeted both undiscriminating “Bardolaters” and overly elaborate stage productions.
• Political and Social Writings: Shaw’s political thought was disseminated through Fabian tracts, prefaces to his plays, and two major books: The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism (1928) and Everybody’s Political What’s What (1944). These works trace his evolution from a gradualist socialist to a proponent of “creative evolution” (eugenics) and an admirer of authoritarian regimes.

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III. Core Beliefs and Controversies

Shaw’s opinions were a complex and often intentionally contradictory mix of progressive and illiberal ideas.

• Socialism and Politics: Initially a leading mind of the Fabian Society’s gradualist socialism, he later lost faith in democratic processes. In the 1920s and 1930s, he became fascinated with dictatorships, praising Mussolini and Stalin for their ability to impose order and effect change.
• Eugenics: Shaw was a proponent of “creative evolution,” his version of eugenics. He introduced these theories in the appendix to Man and Superman and developed them in Back to Methuselah. His writings on the topic included shocking statements, such as the preface to On the Rocks (1933) where he wrote that “if we desire a certain type of civilization and culture we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit into it.”
• Religion: After proclaiming himself an atheist in his youth as a reaction against the Old Testament’s “vengeful Jehovah,” he later described himself as a “mystic.” He aligned himself with the teachings of Jesus but rejected organized religion and sectarianism. In his will, he defined his beliefs as those of a “believer in creative revolution.”
• Social Mores: He was a lifelong vegetarian, teetotaller, and non-smoker. He opposed vaccination, calling it “a peculiarly filthy piece of witchcraft,” arguing that improved housing and sanitation were the true solutions to disease.
• Racial Views: Shaw espoused racial equality and supported inter-marriage between races. He was a sharp critic of anti-Semitism, describing it as “the hatred of the lazy, ignorant fat-headed Gentile for the pertinacious Jew.”
• Alphabet Reform: Shaw was a passionate advocate for reforming the English alphabet into a phonetic version. His will left the bulk of his assets in a trust for this purpose, though legal challenges meant only a small portion was used for a phonetic edition of Androcles and the Lion.

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IV. Legacy and Influence

Shaw’s legacy is vast and multifaceted, cementing his position as one of the most significant figures in English-language theatre.

Theatrical Influence

• Second to Shakespeare: He is widely regarded as the most important English-language dramatist since Shakespeare.
• Theatre of Ideas: Shaw pioneered “intelligent” theatre that required audiences to think, paving the way for 20th-century playwrights from Noël Coward and Eugene O’Neill to Tom Stoppard. His work struck a “death-blow to 19th-century melodrama.”
• Enduring Repertoire: At least a dozen of his plays, including Pygmalion, Saint Joan, Major Barbara, and Arms and the Man, remain staples of the world repertoire.
• Institutional Legacy: His long campaign for a state-funded theatre was a key factor in the eventual establishment of the National Theatre in Great Britain. The Shaw Festival in Canada is one of the largest repertory theatres in North America.

Cultural and Political Legacy

• The “Shavian” Identity: The word “Shavian” has entered the language to encapsulate his ideas and distinct style of expression. Shaw Societies around the world continue to study his work.
• Musical Adaptations: Despite his dislike of his plays being adapted into musicals, Arms and the Man became the operetta The Chocolate Soldier (1908), and Pygmalion was adapted into the hugely successful musical My Fair Lady (1956).
• Contested Political Impact: The substance of his political legacy remains uncertain. While some contemporaries saw him as having an immense influence on the social and political life of his time, others argued he “produced so little effect on his generation.” His late-career flirtation with fascism and his views on eugenics have complicated his political reputation, rendering parts of his outlook “passé and contemptible” to modern critics.

The Times Literary Supplement concluded in its obituary that Shaw was “no originator of ideas” but rather an “incomparable prestidigitator with the thoughts of the forerunners,” who carried those thoughts so far “that they came to us with the vitality of the newly created.”

George Bernard Shaw: A Study Guide

Quiz: Test Your Knowledge

Answer the following questions in two to three sentences, using only the information provided in the source material.

1. What was the Fabian Society, and what was George Bernard Shaw’s role within it?
2. Describe the personal and professional circumstances that led Shaw to move from Dublin to London in 1876.
3. How did Shaw’s early career as a music and theatre critic influence his later work as a playwright?
4. Explain the concept of “Plays Unpleasant” and name the three plays Shaw grouped under this category.
5. What was the significance of the 1904 Vedrenne and Granville-Barker company at the Royal Court Theatre to Shaw’s career?
6. Summarize Shaw’s controversial stance during the First World War as expressed in his tract Common Sense About the War.
7. For which play was Shaw’s reputation most solidified, leading to his Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925, and what was his reaction to the monetary prize?
8. How did Shaw’s political views evolve in the 1920s and 1930s, particularly regarding different forms of government?
9. What two major international awards did Shaw receive, making him the first person to be honored with both?
10. What specific instructions did Shaw leave in his will regarding the English alphabet and the use of his name?

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Answer Key

1. The Fabian Society was a gradualist socialist organization. Shaw joined in 1884 and became its most prominent pamphleteer, authoring its first manifesto and advocating for socialism to be achieved through the permeation of ideas into existing political parties rather than through radical movements.
2. Shaw moved to London in March 1876 after resigning from his job as a clerk in a Dublin land agency. The move was prompted by news from his mother that his sister Agnes was dying of tuberculosis; he joined his mother and other sister, Lucy, for Agnes’s funeral and never lived in Ireland again.
3. As a critic, Shaw campaigned against the artificial conventions of Victorian theatre and championed a new realism with plays of real ideas, influenced by Henrik Ibsen. He used this platform to call for plays with true characters and didactic purpose, which became the hallmark of his own work when he “manufactured the evidence” by becoming a playwright himself.
4. “Plays Unpleasant” is the name Shaw gave to his first three full-length plays, which dealt with social issues. The plays are Widowers’ Houses (about slum landlords), The Philanderer (about the “New Woman”), and Mrs Warren’s Profession (using prostitution as a metaphor for a prostituted society).
5. The Vedrenne and Granville-Barker company at the Royal Court Theatre was instrumental in securing Shaw’s reputation as a playwright in the early twentieth century. Over five years, the company staged fourteen of Shaw’s plays, including major popular and critical successes like John Bull’s Other Island, Man and Superman, and Major Barbara.
6. In Common Sense About the War, Shaw argued that the warring nations in the First World War were equally culpable. This view was anathema in the fervent patriotic atmosphere of the time and offended many of his friends.
7. Shaw’s reputation was cemented by the enthusiastic reception of Saint Joan (1923), which led to his being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925. He accepted the award but rejected the monetary prize, stating that his readers and audiences already provided him with sufficient money for his needs.
8. In the 1920s and 1930s, Shaw lost faith in Fabian gradualism and became increasingly fascinated with dictatorial methods. He wrote and spoke favorably of dictatorships, expressing admiration for both Mussolini’s accession to power in Italy and for Stalin’s Soviet regime, which he championed uncritically.
9. Shaw became the first person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar. He received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925 and an Academy Award in 1938 for his screenplay for the filmed version of Pygmalion.
10. In his will, Shaw directed that his remaining assets form a trust to fund the reform of the English alphabet into a 40-letter phonetic version. He also left instructions that his executor should only license publication of his works under the name “Bernard Shaw,” not “George Bernard Shaw.”

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Essay Questions

The following questions are designed for longer, more analytical responses. Formulate an argument supported by specific evidence from the source material.

1. Analyze the recurring theme of the “New Woman” in Shaw’s plays, using examples from “Plays Unpleasant” and “Plays Pleasant” to illustrate your points.
2. Discuss the evolution of Shaw’s political philosophy, from his early engagement with Marxism and the Fabian Society’s gradualism to his later admiration for authoritarian regimes. How did these beliefs manifest in his plays and political writings?
3. Examine Shaw’s complex and often contradictory relationship with Ireland. How did his identity as an Irish-born member of the Protestant Ascendancy, living in London, shape his views on Irish Home Rule, nationalism, and the Anglo-Irish Treaty?
4. George Bernard Shaw was described as a playwright who sought to introduce “a new realism into English-language drama, using his plays as vehicles to disseminate his political, social and religious ideas.” Evaluate this statement using Major Barbara, Saint Joan, and Pygmalion as primary examples.
5. Trace Shaw’s engagement with other major artistic and intellectual figures of his time, such as Henrik Ibsen, William Morris, H.G. Wells, and W.B. Yeats. How did these relationships and influences shape his work as a critic and dramatist?

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Glossary of Key Terms

Term	Definition
Academy Award (Oscar)	An award Shaw received in 1938 for “best-written screenplay” for the film version of Pygmalion. He was the first person to have won both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar.
Ayot St Lawrence	A location in Hertfordshire, England, where Shaw and his wife Charlotte found a country home in 1906, which they renamed “Shaw’s Corner” and lived in for the rest of their lives.
Corno di Bassetto	The pen-name Shaw used as a music critic for The Star starting in February 1889. He chose it because it sounded like a foreign title and nobody knew what the instrument (a basset horn) was.
Creative Evolution	Shaw’s version of the science of eugenics. He introduced the theory in The Revolutionist’s Handbook (an appendix to Man and Superman) and developed it further in Back to Methuselah.
Eugenics	A belief Shaw promoted. He expressed his views on the subject through his theory of “creative evolution” and in political writings, where he stated that “if we desire a certain type of civilization and culture we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit into it.”
Fabian Society	A gradualist socialist society Shaw joined in 1884. He became its most prominent pamphleteer, wrote its first manifesto, and advocated its principle of “permeation”—the idea that socialism could best be achieved by infiltrating ideas into existing political parties.
Fabian Essays in Socialism	A volume published in 1889, edited by Shaw, for which he also provided two essays. The essay “Transition” details the case for gradualism and permeation in achieving socialism.
Gradualism	The political principle, central to the Fabian Society, of achieving socialism through cautious and gradual change. Shaw became an apostle of gradualism after moving away from Marxism.
Henrik Ibsen	A Norwegian playwright who heavily influenced Shaw. Shaw championed Ibsen’s plays and sought to introduce a similar realism into English-language drama.
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)	An institution founded in 1895 using a bequest to the Fabian Society. Shaw, initially opposed, was persuaded to support the proposal to use the funds to found the school.
Nobel Prize in Literature	Awarded to Shaw in 1925 after the success of his play Saint Joan. The citation praised his work as being “marked by both idealism and humanity.” Shaw accepted the award but refused the monetary prize.
Permeation	The principle advocated by Sidney Webb and accepted by Shaw, which held that socialism could best be achieved by the infiltration of people and ideas into existing political parties.
Plays Pleasant	A trilogy of plays by Shaw, following his “Plays Unpleasant.” The group includes Arms and the Man, Candida, and You Never Can Tell.
Plays Unpleasant	The grouping for Shaw’s first three full-length plays, which dealt with social issues. The plays are Widowers’ Houses, The Philanderer, and Mrs Warren’s Profession.
Pygmalion	One of Shaw’s most successful plays (1913), a study of language and its importance in society. He later wrote the screenplay for a 1938 film version, for which he received an Academy Award.
Saint Joan	A 1923 play about Joan of Arc, which was enthusiastically received in both New York and London. Its success secured Shaw’s reputation and led to his Nobel Prize in Literature.
Shavian	A word that has entered the language to encapsulate Shaw’s ideas and his means of expressing them.
Sidney Webb	A junior civil servant whom Shaw met at the Zetetical Society. They developed a lifelong friendship and collaboration within the Fabian Society.
Vegetarianism	A diet Shaw adopted in 1881 for the sake of economy and, increasingly, as a matter of principle. He was distressed late in life when his treatment for pernicious anaemia required injections of animal liver, a breach of his creed.
William Archer	A critic who suggested a collaboration with Shaw in 1884. Though the project foundered, the connection proved immensely valuable to Shaw’s career, and he later used the draft as the basis for his play Widowers’ Houses.
Zetetical Society	A society whose objective was to “search for truth in all matters affecting the interests of the human race.” Shaw began attending its meetings in 1880, where he met Sidney Webb.