The devils disciple
george bernard shaw

george bernard shaw was born in dublin in a family belonging to the irish protestant gentry. apart from the musical education he received from his mother, he was practically self-educated. at the age of 20 he went to london and set to work as a novelist. he wrote five novels in all, but none of them made him famous. in 1884 he joined the newly formed fabian society, a large society of socialistic intellectuals whose leader he was between 1884 and 1900. he edited fabian essays 1887 which was influential in forming socialist opinion in britain.
before starting his career as a dramatist, g. b. shaw wrote much theatre and music criticism for a number of papers. in 1891 he published the quintessence of ibsenism, a study on the norwegian dramatist whose plays of social criticism impressed him very much for bringing a new perspective in drama. in shaws plays though it is the ideas and not the characters that really matter, his c...