Bernard Shaw; a critical study

THERE is a singular modern heresy, sprung from one does not quite know where, according to which it is not possible to speak the truth about a writer until that writer is dead ; nor can the truth be then immediately spoken, for in the record of the dead, as is well known, we must see nothing but the good. The result of
this double inhibition is curious but frequently observed : it is to shift the burden of critical appraisal on to the shoulders of posterity. There was once a man, we are told, who refused to do anything for posterity on the ground that posterity had done nothing for him; but now we find his saw of little might. In the field at least of literary judgment, we are becoming accustomed to leave to posterity a very delicate and a very difficult duty. (from the intro)