I always come here for ideas on what to read next. The frank opinions on this and that book generally turn out to be pretty reliable. So, after the third or fourth reference to it, I went looking for The Lodger. I knew I had it somewhere in the house. I found it buried away in my attic. So, here goes, Ginny. You've got me started on it. What a charming style.
Mrs. Belloc Lowndes is a writer of some interest. Along with her Lodger, I found her A Passing World. First World War period and later. She seems to have known many celebrities in society and politics. Here's a chapter on Shaw, the great G.B.S. I can't resist quoting from it:
I was twenty-four when I first met Bernard Shaw....My heart warmed to the fair, emaciated-looking critic, for he was intensely Irish, and I loved Ireland....Mr. Shaw's personal appearance has altered very little in over fifty years. As is true now, his manner was easy and pleasant, and he enjoyed giving shrewd useful advice to any young fellow-writer.
...I remember hearing of Shaw's marriage, which took place two years after mine, with sympathy and interest. I hope that when what may be called Bernard Shaw's official biography comes to be written, it will be made plain how much of his success he owed to his wife.
...His marriage was certainly the best thing that had ever happened to Bernard Shaw. It made a sensation in Shaw's world, for though he was what may be called an innocent philanderer, his marriage to Charlotte Payne-Townshend took his friends completely by surprise. Even those who thought they knew him intimately had felt convinced he would never marry.
...I believe it to be true that on their marriage Mr. and Mrs Bernard Shaw agreed to lead an odd and unconventional life. Thus, during the greater part of the year, he was to go on living in his rooms in Adelphi Terrace, and she in her house which I think was somewhere near Regent's Park. They arranged, however, to spend the summer months together. But Mrs Shaw was so agreeable a person, and so excellent a housekeeper, that soon their partings became fewer and fewer, and in the end they lived as do an ordinary married couple who love one another. Shaw was also attached to Mrs. Shaw's relations, and, as is known, it was for her sister that he wrote The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism.
Who ever heard of anything like this? He had to be broken in gently! On the other hand, if they lived happily ever after, perhaps it showed great Shavian wisdom.
The Lodger was published in 1913. A Passing World, in 1948.
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