Scan barcode
wwatts1734's review against another edition
4.0
GK Chesterton was known as an expert on British literature of the 19th and early 20th Century. Earlier he wrote a book about the works of Charles Dickens, but in this volume Chesterton tackles a far more personal topic. Chesterton and Shaw were close personal friends, but also diametrically opposed in their worldview. Whereas Chesterton was a devout Catholic, Shaw was an atheist. Whereas Chesterton was a Distributionist, Shaw was a socialist. And whereas Chesterton was an enthusiast of classical and medieval thought, Shaw was a progressive. The two men actually traveled around the English speaking world, debating each other on a range of issues relating to faith and politics. So when Chesterton wrote a volume about Shaw, you have to know that it was a very personal work.
This short volume covered several aspects of Shaw; Shaw the Puritan, Shaw the Irishman, Shaw the Progressive, and Shaw the Philosopher. As is usual in Chesterton, every aspect of the man is analyzed in the light of eternal things. Through this work, the reader comes to an intimate knowledge of George Bernard Shaw, a playwright and novelist who was once an incredibly popular writer around the turn of the 20th Century, although he is relatively unknown today.
The only thing that I didn't like about this book were the last two chapters, which droned on and seemed unfocused. In those chapters Chesterton covered the plays of Shaw, and he digressed incredibly. It was hard to follow some of Chesterton's point in these chapters, and the mind wanders easily. But I would still highly recommend this book to fans of both Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw.
This short volume covered several aspects of Shaw; Shaw the Puritan, Shaw the Irishman, Shaw the Progressive, and Shaw the Philosopher. As is usual in Chesterton, every aspect of the man is analyzed in the light of eternal things. Through this work, the reader comes to an intimate knowledge of George Bernard Shaw, a playwright and novelist who was once an incredibly popular writer around the turn of the 20th Century, although he is relatively unknown today.
The only thing that I didn't like about this book were the last two chapters, which droned on and seemed unfocused. In those chapters Chesterton covered the plays of Shaw, and he digressed incredibly. It was hard to follow some of Chesterton's point in these chapters, and the mind wanders easily. But I would still highly recommend this book to fans of both Chesterton and George Bernard Shaw.
More...