"A family of pooh-bahs": Shaw's Irish origins -- The family skeletons -- Growing up in Dublin -- The Townshend connections -- Self-searching: London and the novels -- A Fabian Don Juan -- Rival attractions -- "The coming man": Critic and "Platform spellbinder" -- On stage -- A taste of success -- Wars of the theaters, mothers and bicycles -- An Irish courtship -- Marriage -- New century, "new religion" -- Eternal Irishman -- Edwardian summers -- Votes for women -- Enter critics, stage right -- A love affair, a death, and a triumph -- Armageddon and the "ruthless light of laughter" -- Sages, saints, and flappers -- The road to Baveno: dangerous flirtations -- World traveler and village squire -- Last flourishes and the call of the silver screen -- "A man all light": last years.
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