Overview

Picture the young George Bernard Shaw spending long days in the Reading Room of the British Museum, pursuing a self-taught education, all the while longing for the green landscapes of his native Ireland. It is no coincidence that gardens and libraries often set the scene for Shaw's plays, yet scholars have seldom drawn attention to the fact until now. Exposing the subtle interplay of these two settings as a key pattern throughout Shaw's dramas, Shaw's Settings fills the need for a systematic study of setting as significant to the playwright's work as a whole. Each of the nine chapters focuses on a different play and a different usage of gardens and libraries, showing that these venues are not just background for action, they also serve as metaphors, foreshadowing, and insight into characters and conflicts. The vital role of Shaw's settings reveals the astonishing depth and complexity of the playwright's dramatic genius.

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Reviews

Focuses a sensitive eye on nine of Shaw's dramas . . . to show how the dramatist strategically deployed gardens and libraries to convey meaning in a visual and compelling manner. --Choice Stafford's analysis of the library-garden motif provides insight not only into individual plays but also into Shaw's development as a playwright. . . .A valuable contribution to Shaw studies and to the scholarship of modern drama through its thoughtful exploration of the convergences, divergences, and resonances of a well-chosen pair of settings. --Text & Presentation Traces the playwright's adept and varied deployment of two recurrent settings, the garden and the library, through nine major plays that span three decades, to demonstrate how meaningfully Shaw intertwines stage environment with the verbal pyrotechnics and discussion-based dramatic style for which he is so well known. --Comparative Drama Will provide valuable illumination to many readers. . . .[Stafford] recognizes and establishes firmly that these plays do need to be approached and discussed as theatrical works and judged accordingly. --English Literature in Transition

Traces the playwright s adept and varied deployment of two recurrent settings, the garden and the library, through nine major plays that span three decades, to demonstrate how meaningfully Shaw intertwines stage environment with the verbal pyrotechnics and discussion-based dramatic style for which he is so well known. Comparative Drama

Will provide valuable illumination to many readers. . . .[Stafford] recognizes and establishes firmly that these plays do need to be approached and discussed as theatrical works and judged accordingly. English Literature in Transition

Traces the playwright's adept and varied deployment of two recurrent settings, the garden and the library, through nine major plays that span three decades, to demonstrate how meaningfully Shaw intertwines stage environment with the verbal pyrotechnics and discussion-based dramatic style for which he is so well known. --Comparative Drama Will provide valuable illumination to many readers. . . .[Stafford] recognizes and establishes firmly that these plays do need to be approached and discussed as theatrical works and judged accordingly. --English Literature in Transition Focuses a sensitive eye on nine of Shaw's dramas . . . to show how the dramatist strategically deployed gardens and libraries to convey meaning in a visual and compelling manner. --Choice Stafford's analysis of the library-garden motif provides insight not only into individual plays but also into Shaw's development as a playwright. . . .A valuable contribution to Shaw studies and to the scholarship of modern drama through its thoughtful exploration of the convergences, divergences, and resonances of a well-chosen pair of settings. --Text & Presentation Will provide valuable illumination to many readers. . . .[Stafford] recognizes and establishes firmly that these plays do need to be approached and discussed as theatrical works and judged accordingly. English Literature in Transition Traces the playwright s adept and varied deployment of two recurrent settings, the garden and the library, through nine major plays that span three decades, to demonstrate how meaningfully Shaw intertwines stage environment with the verbal pyrotechnics and discussion-based dramatic style for which he is so well known. Comparative Drama Focuses a sensitive eye on nine of Shaw s dramas . . . to show how the dramatist strategically deployed gardens and libraries to convey meaning in a visual and compelling manner. Choice Stafford s analysis of the library-garden motif provides insight not only into individual plays but also into Shaw s development as a playwright. . . .A valuable contribution to Shaw studies and to the scholarship of modern drama through its thoughtful exploration of the convergences, divergences, and resonances of a well-chosen pair of settings. Text & Presentation Traces the playwright s adept and varied deployment of two recurrent settings, the garden and the library, through nine major plays that span three decades, to demonstrate how meaningfully Shaw intertwines stage environment with the verbal pyrotechnics and discussion-based dramatic style for which he is so well known. Comparative Drama Focuses a sensitive eye on nine of Shaw s dramas . . . to show how the dramatist strategically deployed gardens and libraries to convey meaning in a visual and compelling manner. Choice Will provide valuable illumination to many readers. . . .[Stafford] recognizes and establishes firmly that these plays do need to be approached and discussed as theatrical works and judged accordingly. English Literature in Transition Stafford s analysis of the library-garden motif provides insight not only into individual plays but also into Shaw s development as a playwright. . . .A valuable contribution to Shaw studies and to the scholarship of modern drama through its thoughtful exploration of the convergences, divergences, and resonances of a well-chosen pair of settings. Text & Presentation

Will provide valuable illumination to many readers. . . .[Stafford] recognizes and establishes firmly that these plays do need to be approached and discussed as theatrical works and judged accordingly. <b><i>English Literature in Transition</i></b>

Author Information

Tony Jason Stafford, professor of English at the University of Texas at El Paso, USA is the editor of Shakespeare in the Southwest: Some New Directions.

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