萧伯纳

萧伯纳（George Bernard Shaw，1856年7月26日—1950年11月2日），爱尔兰剧作家。

1925年因作品具有理想主义和人道主义而获诺贝尔文学奖，他是英国现代杰出的现实主义戏剧作家，是世界著名的擅长幽默与讽刺的语言大师，同时他还是积极的社会活动家和费边社会主义的宣传者。

他支持妇女的权利，呼吁选举制度的根本变革，倡导收入平等，主张废除私有财产。

萧伯纳的一生，是和社会主义运动发生密切关系的一生。

他认真研读过《资本论》，公开声言他“是一个普通的无产者”，“一个社会主义者”。

他主张艺术应当反映迫切的社会问题，反对“为艺术而艺术”。

其思想深受德国哲学家叔本华及尼采的影响，而他又读过马克思的著作，不过他却主张用渐进的方法改变资本主义制度，反对暴力革命。

萧伯纳1856年7月26日出生于爱尔兰的首都都柏林一个小公务员家萧伯纳(8张) 里。

他的父亲是个没落贵族，母亲乡绅世家，从小受过严格的上等教育。

[1] 萧伯纳年幼时，研究音乐理论的万达里尔李与他们合租了一幢房子。

受这位研究音乐的邻居影响，萧伯纳迷恋上了音乐，13岁时，他就能用口哨吹出许多优秀歌剧的片段。

[1] 1870年父母分居。

在都柏林美以美教会中学毕业，因家境困难，15岁的萧伯纳不得不辍学。

为了维持生活，他进入都柏林的汤森地产公司当学徒。

[1] 1871年到一家房地产公司当抄写员，后又充任会计。

1876年，他的父母离婚。

萧伯纳告别了年迈的父亲，离开了贫困的故土爱尔兰，随母亲来到伦敦。

年轻的萧伯纳没有工作，靠母亲微薄的薪水维持生活，十分渴望找到一份称心的职业，他先在爱迪生电话公司外务部找到一份差事，可是不久这家公司倒闭了，别人给他介绍到《大黄蜂》报撰写音乐评论，可不久这份报刊也停刊了。

万般无奈的萧伯纳想以写作谋生，但是他并不顺利，他接着写了5部长篇小说，全部被60家出版社拒绝，这令他更加沮丧。

在长达九年的时间里所得的稿酬不过6英镑，其中5英镑还是代写卖药广告的报酬。

1876～1898年在伦敦从事新闻工作，在《明星报》、《星期六评论》上写了很多关于音乐和戏剧的评论文章。

1879年第一部小说《未成熟》遭到卡普曼荷尔书局审稿人的拒绝。

他在易卜生影响下，一贯反对王尔德“为艺术而艺术”的观点，大力倡导和创作以讨论社会问题为主旨的“新戏剧”。

[1] 1884年9月，他听了美国《进步和贫困》一书作者亨利·乔治的演讲，受到启发，从此开始注意研究社会经济问题，并阅读马克思的《资本论》。

[2] 1884年改良主义的费边社成立，萧伯纳参加该社，并成为该组织者之一。

发表长篇小说《业余社会主义者》，尖锐地批判了资本主义。

19世纪的英国戏剧一蹶不振，萧伯纳嘲笑它们是迎合低级趣味的“糖果店”，他认为戏剧应该依赖对立思想的冲突和不同意见的辩论来展开。

不过，当他听了评剧家朗诵了易卜生的剧本《培尔·金特》后，感受到“一刹那间，这位伟大诗人的魔力打开了我的眼睛。

”才开始对戏剧产生浓厚的兴趣，安下心来研究易卜生的剧本，并写下了《易卜生主义的精华》一书，这部书在欧洲戏剧史上有着重要的地位。

在易卜生的影响下，萧伯纳看清了戏剧这个武器，不仅能扫荡英国舞台的污秽，而且能倾诉自己对这个黑暗现实社会的不满，于是，他立志要革新英国的戏剧。

[1] 萧伯纳为了批评的艺术，赞助威廉射手，并于1885年加入审查人员的《波迈宪报》。

在其它期刊，包括《戏剧评论》（1885-1886年）、《角》（1885-1886年）、《Pall购物中心公报》（1885-1888年），他的署名是“金紫荆星章”。

同年，他开始写长篇小说《凯雪尔·拜伦的职业》和《不合理的姻缘》。

开始和威廉·阿杰尔合作从事戏剧创作。

因没有取得协调一致，剧本最后搁浅。

1888年革命导师马克思的女儿爱琳娜邀他参加易卜生名剧《玩偶之家》的业余演出。

[2] 剧评家威廉·阿切尔朗诵易卜生《培尔·金特》一剧给他听，萧伯纳开始研易卜生。

1891年发表关于易卜生戏剧创作的评论《易卜生主义的精华》。

[2] 1892年正式开始创作剧本，他的第一个戏剧集《不愉快的戏剧集》，其中包括《鳏夫的财产》[2] 、《华伦夫人的职业》、《荡子》三个剧本；第二个戏剧集包含有《武器与人》等4部剧本；第三个戏剧集《为清教徒而写的戏剧集》包含《魔鬼的门徒》等3个剧本。

他的戏剧果真改变了19世纪末英国舞台的阴霾状况，他本人也成为了戏剧界的革新家，掀开了英国戏剧史的新一页。

[1] 1893年发表关于妇女问题的剧本《荡子》（又译《好逑者》）。

1894年发表由《鳏夫的房产》、《荡子》、《华伦夫人的职业》三剧编成萧伯纳第一个戏剧集《不愉快的戏剧集》还发表了《武器与人》。

从1895年到1898年，他的朋友弗兰克·哈里斯的《星期六评论》中，他出色地指出维多利亚剧院舞台的现实和虚伪，被认为是戏剧评论家。

1896年完成《难以预料》一剧，触及资产阶级家庭的瓦解问题。

萧伯纳结了婚，婚姻改变了萧伯纳的一些生活习惯，唯一不变的是他对戏剧的热爱，写出了《英国佬的另一个岛》、《巴巴拉少校》、《皮革多利翁》、《伤心之家》、《圣女贞德》等大量优秀的作品。

[1] 1897年《康蒂坦》和《魔鬼的门徒》两剧发表。

《康蒂坦》《武器与人》《风云人物》《难以预料》四剧组成萧伯纳的第二个戏剧集《愉快的戏剧集》。

《魔鬼的门徒》和《布拉斯庞德上尉的转变》《凯撒和克莉奥佩特拉》三剧组成萧伯纳第三戏剧集《为清教徒写的三剧本集》，表达了作者对帝国主义侵略政策的愤慨。

萧伯纳关于音乐的著作获得了很大的知名度，因为它们是可以理解。

他的音乐批评已经被收在音乐集里。

萧伯纳倡导易卜生的现实主义戏剧，反感的维多利亚女王时代的公众。

[3] 20世纪初，为了适应文学革命的要求，易卜生、史特社交中的萧伯纳(3张) 林堡、萧伯纳等的剧作在当时得到了比较系统的翻译引进，许多进步青年又受到“民主与科学”思潮的激荡，便以反对中国传统戏剧和已经商业化了的“文明新戏”、提倡“爱美剧”为口号，组成了戏剧研究机构和业余话剧团体，通过办报刊和小型演出，积极地推动了已趋消沉的话剧运动。

在当时，中国话剧奠基人之一的洪深就深受肖伯纳戏剧的影响。

George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950) was an Irish playwright and a co-found er of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60 plays. Nearly all his writings address prevailing social problems, but have a vein of comedy which makes their stark themes more palatable. Shaw exam ined education, marriage, religion, government, health care, and class privilege.He was most angered by what he perceived as the exploitation of the working class. An ardent so cialist, Shaw wrote many brochures and speeches for the Fabian Society. He became an accomplis hed orator in the furtherance of its causes, which included gaining equal rights for men and wom en, alleviating abuses of the working class, rescinding private ownership of productive land, and p romoting healthy lifestyles. For a short time he was active in local politics, serving on the London County Council.In 1898, Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a fellow Fabian, whom he survived. They sett led in Ayot St Lawrence in a house now called Shaw's Corner. Shaw died there, aged 94, from chro nic problems exacerbated by injuries he incurred by falling from a ladder.He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar ( 1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaptation of his play of the same name), respectively. Shaw wanted to refuse his Nobel Prize outright because he had no desire for public honors, but accepted it at his wife's behest: she considered it a tribute to Ireland. He did reject the monetary award, requesting it be used to finance translation of Swedish books into English.Early years and familyGeorge Bernard Shaw was born in Synge Street, Dublin, on 26 July 1856[3] to George Carr Shaw ( 1814–85), an unsuccessful grain merchant and sometime civil servant, and Lucinda Elizabeth Shaw, née Gurly (1830–1913), a professional singer. He had two sisters, Lucinda Frances (1853–1920), a singer of musical comedy and light opera, and Elinor Agnes (1855–76).EducationShaw briefly attended the Wesley College, Dublin, a grammar school operated by the Methodist C hurch in Ireland, before moving to a private school near Dalkey and then transferring to Dublin's Central Model School. He ended his formal education at the Dublin English Scientific and Commer cial Day School. He harboured a lifelong animosity toward schools and teachers, saying: "Schools and schoolmasters, as we have them today, are not popular as places of education and teachers, but rather prisons and turnkeys in which children are kept to prevent them disturbing and chaper oning their parents".[4]In the astringent prologue to Cashel Byron's Profession young Byron's educational experience is a fictionalized description of Shaw's own schooldays. Later, he painstakingly detailed the reasons f or his aversion to formal education in his Treatise on Parents and Children.[5] In brief, he consider ed the standardized curricula useless, deadening to the spirit and stifling to the intellect. He parti cularly deplored the use of corporal punishment, which was prevalent in his time.When his mother left home and followed her voice teacher, George Vandeleur Lee, to London, Sh aw was almost sixteen years old. His sisters accompanied their mother[6]but Shaw remained in Dublin with his father, first as a reluctant pupil, then as a clerk in an estate office. He worked efficiently, albeit discontentedly, for several years.[7] In 1876, Shaw joined his mother's London household. She, Vandeleur Lee, and his sister Lucy, provided him with a pound a week while he frequented public libraries and the British Museum reading room where he studie d earnestly and began writing novels. He earned his allowance by ghostwriting Vandeleur Lee's m usic column,[8][9] which appeared in the London Hornet. His novels were rejected, however, so h is literary earnings remained negligible until 1885, when he became self-supporting as a critic of t he arts.Personal lifeThe front of Shaw's Corner as it stands todayInfluenced by his reading, he became a dedicated Socialist and a charter member of the Fabian S ociety,[10] a middle class organization established in 1884 to promote the gradual spread of socia lism by peaceful means.[7] In the course of his political activities he met Charlotte Payne-Townsh end, an Irish heiress and fellow Fabian; they married in 1898. The marriage was never consumma ted, at Charlotte's insistence, though he had had a number of affairs with married women;[11] In 1906 the Shaws moved into a house, now called Shaw's Corner, in Ayot St. Lawrence, a small vil lage in Hertfordshire, England; it was to be their home for the remainder of their lives, although t hey also maintained a residence at 29 Fitzroy Square in London.。