George Bernard Shaw(I)

萧伯纳（George Bernard Shaw, 1856—1950），爱尔兰裔英国戏剧家，作为费边社的一个创建者，他写了抨击社会的批评主义戏剧，包括《圣女贞德》、《窈窕淑女》、《伤心之家》、《华伦夫人的职业》和《苹果树》等，1925年获诺贝尔文学奖，被称为现代最伟大的戏剧家之一，下文选自BBC电台的“人物介绍”。

Born in Dublin of middle-class but impoverished stock(出身于都柏林家道中落的中产阶级家庭), Shaw was forced to leave school at 15 to take a job as a clerk. His father became an alcoholic(酒鬼) and in 1872 his mother left home, going to London with her 2 daughters. Shaw followed them there in 1876.

In London, Shaw regularly went to the British Museum(不列颠博物馆) in order to educate himself, a fact which may partly account for the originality and independence of his thinking(他新颖而独特的思想即源于此). In the mid-1880s, he began to be active in the Socialist movement, becoming a noted orator （著名的演说家）and an influential member of the recently-founded Fabian Society（新近成立的费边社）, an influential group of middle-class socialists who sought to transform society by non-revolutionary means. In 1889, he edited and contributed to Fabian Essays in Socialism（费边社论社会主义文丛）. He also became famous for his music, drama and art criticism.

Shaw was quick to see the importance of Henrik Ibsen（易卜生）, the pioneering Norwegian dramatist who used the theatre to expose social issues（挪威的先驱剧作家，采用戏剧手法揭露社会问题）. Ibsen’s influence is apparent in Shaw’s first play, Widowers’ Houses （鳏夫的房产）(1892), which attacked slum landlordism in London（伦敦贫民窟的地主所有制）. His second, Mrs Warren’s Profession （华伦夫人的职业）(1894), tackled organised prostitution and was banned as obscene（揭露了有组织的卖淫，被禁）. Other plays followed, all of which displayed the characteristic’ Shavian’ mix of witty， irony and moral seriousness（典型的萧伯纳风格，集机智、讽刺、严肃的道德规范于一体）.