About this title: So controversial was Black Girl when it first appeared in 1932 that it provoked public outcry with Shaw decried as a blasphemer. Today, it remains a surprisingly irreverent depiction of the universal search for God. Dissatisfied with the teachings of respectable white missionaries, an African girl embarks upon her own quest for God and Truth. Journeying through the forest, she encounters various religious figures, each one seeking to convert her to their own brand of faith. This brilliantly sardonic allegory showcases some of Shaw's most unorthodox thoughts on religion and race. George ...
read more
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
Date Published: 1933
Description: Good. Good hardcover. No DJ. Previous owner's name on end paper and minor markings on some pages, text is otherwise clean. Covers show shelf wear with fraying on backstrip and bumped corners. Binding is tight, hinges strong.; 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed! Free Delivery Confirmation! Ships same or next business day! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: DODD, MEAD & COMPANY
Date Published: 1933
Description: Good. HC 1933 No DJ. Boards have minor wear with slight staining and bumped corners. Previous owners name inside. Text is clean. Spine is tight. Shipping confirmation. Shipping confirmation. read more
Binding: hb
Publisher: Constable & Company, London
Date Published: 1933
Description: John Farleigh engravings. Sl. edge wear to bds., else very good to near fine condition. Slim 8vo, 75 pp. Still in publisher's cellophane. This is a later printing of the 1932 first edition. Contents bright and clean. read more
Edition: 1st Amer. ed.
Binding: hb
Publisher: Dodd, Mead & Company, New York
Date Published: 1933
Description: woodcuts. Slim 8vo, pp. 75. Boards a bit shelf-worn & sl. bumped; else clean, tight, and in very good condition. No dust wrapper. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Black Cloth
Publisher: New York: Dodd, Mead & Company (1933), New York
Date Published: 1933
Description: Line Drawings in black and White. Very Good. Lacking Dust Jacket. Octavo, 75pp + Statement of Printing. Dramatically illustrated with black and white line drawings by John Farleigh. Statement of 1933 printing at back of book. Contents generally clean although an old dampstain line affects the first and last blanks at upper outside corner and around edges. The only place in book that this is seen. The first and last illustrated endpapers with the interestingly intricate design have just a trace ... read more
Edition: F
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dodd, Mead
Date Published: 1933
Description: Fine in Very Good jacket. First Edition (first U.S. printing). A fable by the playwright with woodcut engravings by John Farleigh. Fine/Very Good. Small dot (like a remainder mark) to bottom edge, else very clean in a chipped jacket. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, (1933).
Description: -Octavo, black cloth titled in white. The covers are slightly soiled and there is some slight chipping to the head and tail of the spine. 75 pages plus the colophon, superbly illustrated by John Farleigh throughout. Quite good. George Bernard Shaw's tale reflects on religion and politics through the adventures of a young black woman who sets out to find God after encountering a young woman missionary. read more
Description: NY: Dodd, Mead, 1933. 74 pages. 1st US printing / edition. Hardback. Black cloth with white-stamped spine and cover lettering. Illustrated. Designed and engraved by John Farleigh. Near Fine-. Bright solid book with top soil, couple small soil spots on fore-edge. Pages are clean and bright throughout. No names or markings. No dustjacket. Gift quality. read more
Edition: Reprint
Binding: Paper Covered Boards
Publisher: Constable and Company, London
Date Published: 1933
Description: Good. No Jacket. 8vo. Reprint 1933/1932. Designed and engraved by John Farleigh. Black illustrated paper covered boards, with chip to top of spine, causing loss of last letter of title. No dj. Otherwise VG. read more
Edition: Seventh Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Constable, London
Date Published: 1933
Description: Good+ No Jacket. Hardback. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Pictorial boards in solid card, decorated endpapers, b&w illstns. Wear to spine and corners, ownership name in front, light foxing in edges and endpapers. read more
Edition: First American Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dodd, Mead, New York
Date Published: 1933
Description: John Farleigh. Near Fine. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Black cloth, white lettering. Illustrated with woodcuts by John Farleigh. First American edition, first printing, first state. A clean tight copy. 75 pages. read more
Edition: First American Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dodd, Mead, New York
Date Published: 1933
Description: John Farleigh. Very Good. No Jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. Black cloth, white lettering. Illustrated with woodcuts by John Farleigh. First American edition, first printing, first state. A clean tight copy. Some mottling to the edges. 75 pages. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dodd, Mead & Co, New York
Date Published: 1933
Description: Illustrated by John Farleigh. Very Good in Good dust jacket. Square, tight binding and hinges. Clean, slightly age-darkened pages. Cloth over boards is edge rubbed. DJ has general edge wear, shelf wear, tear and chipping at lower spine area.; Illustrated with striking black and white engravings, this work by Shaw is an allegorical novelette relating the experiences of an African black girl attempting to find and speak to God.; 8.25" tall; 75 pages. read more
"The title piece in this anthology is a parable on the nature of religious belief. When first published in 1932 it caused quite a stir and I wondered whether the intervening 75 years might have rendered it something less of a shocker. I found that, apart from one violation of current political correctness and a few inevitable stylistic issues, the message had lost none of its poignancy and perhaps little of its ability to shock.
The Black Girl in Search of God is not a novel or a novella. It is not really a short story either. I choose to describe it as a parable because others have, but equally it could be classed alongside Plato's symposium as a vehicle for examining a philosophical idea. It's not a discourse, but it could be a meditation, albeit a rather energetic one. The idea in question, of course, is the nature of religious belief.
The Black Girl of the title is only cast as such, I think, to provide Shaw with a literary vehicle to convey his otherwise naïve questions about Christianity. To this end, The Black Girl is presented as a "noble savage", and thus a tabula rasa. It is here - and only here - that Shaw violates current correctness. The character could have been cast as a child, but then she could not have threatened to wield her knobkerrie, her weapon, and nor could she have been portrayed as bringing no tradition of her own. We must accept, therefore, that there remains a functionality about the role of this character. She does not represent anything, except her ability to ask the questions she is required to ask.
The Black Girl has been converted to Christianity by a young British woman who has taken delight in amorously jilting a series of vicars. She then becomes a missionary, despite her clearly thin grasp of the subject matter. She is, perhaps, an allegory of colonial expansion. She goes abroad to teach others despite not having achieved fulfilment or knowledge in her own life. It might be important that the teacher and the taught are both women.
When her convert starts asking questions, fundamental questions that the missionary herself has never heard asked, never mind answered, she reverts to invention, not scholarship. Shaw's intention is clear. She invents myth to mystify myth. And this cloak satisfies the curiosity of the average Christian, but not The Black Girl, who thus goes off in search of God.
And, guided by snakes, she finds Him. And not just once, because there is more than one God in the Bible she carries. There is the God of Wrath, who demands the sacrifice of her child. When she cannot comply, He demands she find her father so he can sacrifice her. A good part of the Bible thus disappears from her new-found faith.
She meets an apparent God of Love, but he laughs at Job for being so naively and blindly devout. More of her book blows away.
She meets prophets who, one by one, deliver their different messages, most of which conflict and communicate individual political positions or bigotry rather than personal revelation.
On the way she belittles Imperial power and male domination. She learns that most "civilised" countries have given up on God and hears a plea that people like her should not be taught things that the mother country no longer believes.
Scientists offer her equally conflicting opinions. They are careful only to describe, never to conclude or interpret. In a way, they are just modern prophets, each with their own interested positions.
There is an amazing episode where a mathematician implores her to consider complex numbers, the square root of minus x, which The Black Girl hears as Myna sex or perhaps its homophone minor sex, and is clearly a reference to feminism. Along with economic power and male dominance, The Black Girl sees guns as the highest achievement of white society. This anticipates the description of colonialism's trinity in Ngugi's Petals of Blood.
Then, in a strange section, an Arab discusses belief with a conjuror. These appear to be a pair of major prophets in thin disguise. But their discussions merely confuse the girl and their words skirt her questions.
And so she meets an Irishman, marries and settles down. She devotes herself to him, their coffee-coloured children and the fruits of their garden. Note that she does not devote herself to herself. She projects out, does not analyse within. And in this utterly humanist universe she finds not only personal happiness, but also fulfilment and, with that, answers to her own metaphysical questions that religion per se could not even address.
And so, as the parable closes, we ponder whether the Irishman she marries is Shaw, and whether The Black Girl is the questioning, non-racist, non-sexist, socialist and humanist vision of the future he has personally espoused.
And as for the Lesser Tales, they are generally lesser. Don Giovanni explaining himself was fun and the Death of an Old Revolutionary Hero was prescient of the role of the Socialist Workers' Party adopted in maintaining Margaret Thatcher in power in the 1980s. A great, historical and fundamentally contemporary read."
"the best way i can describe this is gb shaw's version of the little prince or candide but about religion...it is written very simply with all of shaw's satire, wit, and insight...this book will probably offend the religious...but it offends not because the book is written to ridicule, but because they cannot accept the truths that shaw points out..."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
