This new volume of Bernard Shaw's book reviews is a companion to Brian Tyson's previously edited collection of Shaw's earlier book reviews. Here Tyson collects seventy-three of the best remaining literary book reviews written by Shaw throughout his lifetime. Two-thirds of the reviews appear in book form for the first time, the originals residing in the archives of newspaper libraries, and only three of the remainder have been reprinted within the last twenty years. Politics feature largely in the works that Shaw reviewed: there are books of socialist theory and its practical appearance in the Soviet Union, as well as books on the individualism of J. H. Levy, the anti-socialism of Thomas McKay, and the economics of E. C. K. Gonner and Philip Wicksteed. There is often an immediacy about the books reviewed, too: discussion of books on World War I, the Soviet Revolution, women's suffrage, the British General Strike of 1926, and World War II all take place concurrently with the events. Many of the works reviewed are biographies, which give Shaw the opportunity to reveal his personal acquaintance with their subjects, including Samuel Butler, William Morris, and Dean Inge. This widely varied collection sparkles with wit and wisdom, taking us briskly through Shaw's own writing life, beginning when he was relatively unknown and concluding when he was a legend.

George Bernard Shaw demanded truth and despised convention. He punctured hollow pretensions and smug prudishness—coating his criticism with ingenious and irreverent wit. In Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, and Man and Superman, the great playwright satirizes society, military heroism, marriage, and the pursuit of man by woman. From a social, literary, and theatrical standpoint, these four plays are among the foremost dramas of the age—as intellectually stimulating as they are thoroughly enjoyable. “My way of joking is to tell the truth: It is the funniest joke in the world.”—G. B. Shaw With an Introduction by Eric Bentley and an Afterword by Norman Lloyd

Analyzing Shaw's writings in the political & historical contexts from which they sprang, Alexander shows that Shaw's socialism represented a reactive rather than a proactive stance.

Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological figure. It was first presented on stage to the public in 1913.