Shaw’s Settings: Gardens and Libraries

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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.