The Leftie...

On this day...Socialist playwright George Bernard Shaw refused to accept the monetary award for his Nobel Prize in 1925. The only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize and an Oscar, Shaw was nominated for 'his work which is marked by both idealism and humanity, its stimulating satire often being infused with a singular poetic beauty'.

In accordance with his leftist ideologies, Shaw had no desire for public honours, and wanted to refuse the Prize outright. At the behest of his wife however, who considered it to be a tribute to Ireland, he reluctantly accepted it, yet still eschewed the 800,000 Swedish Kroner or there abouts. In announcing his decision Shaw said, 'I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize'.

On this day...

King William IV died in 1837, leading to the ascension of Queen Victoria to the throne of England and beginning arguably one of the most productive literary eras. Described by Matthew Arnold as 'a deeply unpoetical age', the Victorian era was dominated by the novel. Yet these works were not the managable romances of Austen, but heavy tomes of social injustice - their tortuous syntax leading Henry James, guilty himself of several, to name them 'loose baggy monsters'. The main culprits include Charles Dickens, author of almost a dozen major novels, George Eliot of 'Middlemarch' fame and the man of tragic persuasion, Thomas Hardy.

In conjunction with the growing suffrage movement, the Victorian era also saw the rise of the female novelist, most notably highlighted by the Bronte sisters, but supplemented also by names such as Elizabeth Gaskell. English drama is perhaps harder to find, but the one man could make up for it all, as the brilliance and wit of Oscar Wilde takes the stage by storm, preceeding the later George Bernard Shaw, and overshadowing the foreign imports of Chekhov and Ibsen. Despite Arnold's claim, Victorian literature was by no means devoid of poetry, producing Robert Browning, master of the dramatic monologue, blank verse devotee Alfred Lord Tennyson and romantic poet Christina Rossetti.

On this day...

As today is, of course, St. Patrick's day, it seems appropriate to have a look at some of the great literature Ireland has produced. Bursting forth with the dual force of playwrights Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, Irish literature really found its feet in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.Of course there had been notable writers before, such as Jonathan Swift and Oliver Goldsmith, yet none had, or possibly ever will, hit the heights that both Wilde and Shaw achieved. 'The Importance of Being Earnest', 'The Picture of Dorian Gray', 'Pygmalion', 'Mrs. Warren's Profession' - all caused scandal, reality, shock or acceptance, yet above all, they are alll regarded as some of the finest examples of literature.

Although Wilde did write one novel, Ireland's best prose writers are found in the form of Bram Stoker, creator of 'Dracula', and later modernist James Joyce, whose best known work is 'Ulysses'. Finally, so as not to exclude any genre, Ireland has a history of great poets. William Butler Yeats is arguably the most recognisable, courtesy of such works of 'The Tower'. Yet, of course, Ireland still has a poet very much in the spotlight, in Seamus Heaney, creator of such collections as 'The Spirit Level'. Ireland has been the recepient of 4 Nobel Prizes for Literature, and can boast about having one of the oldest literary traditions, after Greek and Latin.

Six Nations of literature...

With the Six Nations kicking off today, it seemed an apt opportunity to take a look at the literature produced by these countries, which is some of the best in the world.

Italy - Starting with the Latin writings of Ovid and Tacitus, Italian literature spans an enormous period and is considered some of the finest. Continuing with Dante and his 'Inferno' in the Middle Ages and the sonnets of Petrach, modern Italian literature still remains in the form of the the late Italo Calvino and Umberto Eco.

France - Dumas, Flaubert, Zola, Proust; the list is endless. More so than other national literature, the French canon contains numerous philosophical works, the products of Camus, Jean Paul Sartre and Jean-Jacques Rosseau. Drama exists in the shape of Moliere, and France expressed an important voice in Roland Barthes.

Ireland - Irish literature really found its feet in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Bursting forth with the dual force of playwrights Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw, Ireland's literary claim was strengthened through the poetry of Yeats and Goldsmith and its place cemented with the prose works of Joyce.

Wales - Although probably for many, the most famous Welsh writer is poet Dylan Thomas, the literature of Wales is far more diverse. No more so for the strength of works written in its own language, by authors such as William Owen Roberts. Many English writers such as Manley Hopkins have used Welsh subject matter.

Scotland - Scotland's most recent wave of literary tradition came in the Romantic era under the eye of Robert Burns and Walter Scott. Yet it was the Victorian era which propelled it into public eye, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle and J.M. Barrie all becoming household names; Duffy now being the latest.

England - Possibly one of the richest literary histories, all that can be said for England is a list of names. The playwrights; Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Jonson. The poets; Milton, Keats, Shelley, Byron and Tennyson. The novelists: Hardy, Austen, the Brontes, Woolf, Dickens, Forster, Eliot and most recently, Rowling.

So there you have it. Competitors on and off the rugby field. Tradition not only in sport but in literature. Long may it continue...

On this day...

Russian author Anton Chekhov was born in 1860. The son of an abusive father, who is said to have formed many of his ideas on hypocrisy, Chekhov used simply the word 'suffering' to describe his childhood. When the family was declared bankrupt, they fled to Moscow, leaving the young Anton behind to sell their possessions. During this time, Chekhov began to write and upon moving to Moscow to attend the medical university, he utilised this talent to provide for his family. Writing under various pseudonyms, including 'man without a spleen', he contributed copious numbers of articles to prestigious city-based newspapers and periodicals; a period that culminated in him winning the Pushkin Prize, under the tutelage of Dmitry Grigorovich. Despite now suffering from tuberculosis, Chekhov encountered prolific literary form and went on to produce works now recognised in Russia's golden age of literature. 'Uncle Vanya', 'The Seagull' and 'The Cherry Orchard' are just three of Chekhov's best known works; works that acquired him the adulation of writers such as Joyce, Woolf, Hemingway, and most notably, George Bernard Shaw.

On this day...

The Fabian society, a British socialist movement, was founded in 1884. A pre-cursor of the Labour party, the Fabians promoted the rise of social democracy, yet by reformist, as opposed to revolutionary means. Although interesting in itself as a political movement, the Fabian Society is perhaps more  worthy of note for a number of its past members, many with literary connections. One of the co-founders was children's author E. Nesbit, who was closely followed by Irish playwright George Bernanrd Shaw, and later science fiction writer H.G. Wells, a second Irish playwright in Oscar Wilde, and modernist Virginia Woolf. Shaw in particular was an ardent member, giving lectures on other contemporary socialist writers, of which there were many, notably Swedish playwright Henrik Ibsen. Along with three fellows Fabians, Shaw founded the London School of Economics in 1895; a library in LSE is named in his honour.

On this day...

The first production of Henrik Ibsen's 'A Doll's House' opened in Copenhagen in 1879. Reflecting the ideology of its socialist writer, 'A Doll's House' is often described as a true feminist play, yet Ibsen himself later denies it was ever meant as such. The idea of female empowerment was not one which the patriarchal society of the day looked upon kindly, and Ibsen was forced to write alternative endings for his scandalised audiences. His later plays were received in a similar vain; 'Rosmersholm' called 'the brain-sick extravangencies of the Norwegian playwright'. Although held in contempt by many critics, Ibsen found an ally in English writer George Bernard Shaw, who greatly admired the Norwegian and even wrote a book in homage to him; 'The Quintessence of Ibsenism'. 'A Doll's House' has been a popular play to perform ever since; the most recent production was last year in The Donmar Warehouse and starred Toby Stephens and Gillian Anderson .

On this day...

Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament in Paris in 1895, leaving a large proportion of his estate for the establishment of a prize. Best known as the inventor of dynamite, the Swedish chemist had been prompted to do this, after a premature obituary 7 years previous, in which it said: 'Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday'. His subsequent wish to leave a greater legacy meant that 31,225,000 Swedish Kronor were given to fund 5 prizes; one in physical science, one in chemistry, another in medicine, the fourth for literary work 'in a ideal direction', and the final one for service to the international fraternity. After Nobel's death in 1896, his family refused to follow these instructions, and therefore it was not until 1901 that the first Nobel Prizes were awarded. The list of Literature Laureates is prestigious, and includes names such as William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, John Steinbeck, Seamus Heaney and even Winston Churchill. To date there have been 102 Laureates.

Weisz of the right standard...

The winners of the London Evening Standard theatre awards were announced yesterday. After the nominations earlier this month, Lenny Henry won the Outstanding Newcomer prize for his portrayal of Shakespeare's Othello. At the ceremony, Henry joked, 'I must be the oldest newcomer there has ever been - which means there is hope for Bruce Forsyth's King Lear'. The accolade of Best Actress went to a 'thrilled and honoured' Rachel Weisz for her performance in Williams' 'A Streetcar Named Desire'; an award named after the late Natasha Richardson and presented by her mother Vanessa Redgrave. Sir Ian McKellen was the recipient of a special honour for his contribution to theatre, whose resume includes numerous plays by Shakespeare, Chekhov and Shaw respectively. Alexander Lebedev, owner of the Standard precised the ceremony by saying, 'What we have seen in the past year in London's theatres is innovative and inspiring.'

On this day...

Charles Darwin's 'On the Origin of Species', was published in 1859. Considered the foundation of evolutionary biology, Darwin introduced the theory that a population evolves through the process of natural selection. The book included evidence that Darwin had gathered from his Beagle expedition across the Atlantic in the 1830s. Although at first the work incurred a hostile reception, it immediately sold out its initial print run and a further five editions were released before 1872. Perhaps one reason for the book's astonishing popularity, was its representation of a Victorian era seeing a growing divide between religion and science; many people were struggling with the faith that had previous been taken as incontrovertible and Darwin was giving this doubt a voice. Numerous Victorian literary figures encountered similar reservations, the most famous being Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw and George Eliot. The two hundredth anniversary of Darwin's birth was celebrated earlier this year.

On this day...

Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw died in 1950 at the age of 94. As a member of the Fabian society, Shaw was a committed socialist, and many of the ideology's concepts have found their way into Shaw's work; prominent themes including class division, religion, government and feminism. Arguably his most famous work is 'Pygmalion', which was adapted by Shaw for the screen in a 1938 movie. The success of this film won Shaw an Oscar for best screenplay and three further nominations, and to this date he is the only person to have been awarded both an Oscar and the Nobel Prize for Literature - the latter in 1925. 'Pygmalion' has since been adapted in a broadway musical, and later a film, called 'My Fair Lady'. An equally impressive part of Shaw's great legacy is the founding of the London School of Economics, which he undertook with three fellow Fabians in 1895.

On this day...

The George Bernard Shaw play, 'Mrs. Warren's Profession', was performed in the Garrick Theatre, New York, in 1905. All participants, cast and crew, were arrested for obscenity, yet only the house manager was ever convicted. The play had caused outrage in the reserved society of Victorian England, and was banned due to its confrontation of prostitution, and implications of incest. Shaw himself, however, noted that he wrote the play, 'to draw attention to the truth that prostitution is caused, not by female depravity and male licentiousness, but simply by underpaying, undervaluing, and overworking women so shamefully that the poorest of them are forced to resort to prostitution to keep body and soul together'. Therefore, as opposed to writing a morally skewed play in order to shock both authorities and public alike, he wrote it for didactic means, attempting to educate and open eyes to the society around them. The play wasn't legally performed in Britain until 1926.