14 votes

Did George Bernard Shaw write the poem "Living Grave"?

The earliest appearance of this poem that I was able to locate is in Religion & Peace (1957) by S. C. Diwaker: In this regard the words of George Bernard Shaw are ever memorable: We are the ...
Gareth Rees's user avatar
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6 votes
Accepted

"The British are the nation of amateurs" -- is it really G. B. Shaw's quote?

The first half of the quotation is from George Bernard Shaw, as reported by his biographer Hesketh Pearson. The second half is from Pearson himself. On the evening of October 10th [1946] my wife and ...
Gareth Rees's user avatar
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5 votes

Source of a quote by Bernard Shaw about flying versus living with each other like humans

TL;DR: he didn't say it This answer is based entirely off a Quote Investigator article. They found several instances of the same idea being expressed, just none by Bernard Shaw. QI starts off with: ...
bobble's user avatar
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4 votes
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Did Ibsen have any known response to Shaw's Quintessence of Ibsenism?

The Quintessence of Ibsenism was based on a lecture that Shaw gave to the Fabian Society in July 1890. This lecture (although not The Quintessence itself as such) was brought to Ibsen's notice by the ...
Clara Diaz Sanchez's user avatar
3 votes
Accepted

What is the meaning of this line in Candida by Shaw?

Since Spagirl didn't want to post an answer, I'm going ahead and writing one. Anarchists are generally non-religious and frequently anti-religious. You can read more about anarchism and religion on ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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3 votes

What’s the meaning of these lines spoken by Bluntschli?

Bluntschli has spent fifteen years as a soldier, in "barracks and battles". He has lived a life of adventure, which for him has been a serious business, with his very life frequently at risk....
Gareth McCaughan's user avatar
3 votes

Meaning of “a very splendid specimen of the wife of a mountain farmer”

The introduction of Catherine tells us that she is a hearty and robust woman, unlike the epitome of elegant delicacy and cosmopolitan sophistication represented by Viennese women of fashion, Turn-of-...
Spagirl's user avatar
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2 votes

Was Shaw's "Arms and the Man" inspired by Shakespeare?

There doesn't seem to be any evidence that Shaw was inspired by Shakespeare specifically in writing this line. Shaw on Shakespeare Shaw's opinion of Shakespeare, in general, is somewhat complicated. ...
Rand al'Thor's user avatar
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1 vote

What might be meant about Julius Caesar by Shaw in his notes to "Caesar and Cleopatra" by "He understands the paradox of money [...]"?

In depressed economic conditions, if you're poor, you will do almost anything to get your hands on more money, because you need it to live. The "value of money" in terms of purchasing power ...
hobbs's user avatar
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1 vote

Why do Major Barbara and Undershaft shake hands?

They shook hands to seal the bargain they'd made a few lines earlier, she to visit his cannon works and he to come to her shelter. I will make a bargain with you. If I go to see you to-morrow in ...
Valorum's user avatar
  • 4,753
1 vote
Accepted

A lifetime of happiness: why could no man bear it? Why hell on earth?

TL;DR: In context this is sarcasm: for ‘happiness’, read ‘unhappiness’. At the start of Act I of Man and Superman, we learn that in his will, the late Mr Whitefield appointed Roebuck Ramsden and Jack ...
Gareth Rees's user avatar
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