The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search for God (and Some Lesser Tales) [1] is a book of short stories written by George Bernard Shaw. The title story is an allegory relating the experiences of an African black girl, freshly converted to Christianity, who takes literally the biblical injunction to "Seek and you shall find me."[2] and attempts to seek out and actually speak to God. One by one, she meets the pantheon of Judaeo-Christian and Muslim deities and dignitaries and disposes of them all by trenchant logic and skilled use of her knobkerry. Eventually she abandons her quest and settles down with a red-headed Irishman and rears a family. Only after the children are grown and gone does she resume her searching, and by then her "strengthened mental powers take her far beyond the stage at which there is fun in smashing idols".
The Black Girl, as protagonist, serves the same purpose as Christian in Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress; that is to say she makes interesting adventures of what, otherwise, would be bleak theological and sociological discussions. She may also be viewed as an emerging feminist figure, able to defend herself with her knobkerry and—although naive—capable of formulating searching theological questions. The speculation is supported by her apparent prior appearance as "The Negress"—a powerful figure in The Thing Happens, which is the third part of Back to Methuselah.[3]
The book was first published in 1932, as Short Stories, Scraps and Shavings. In December 1932 Constable and Company published an edition engraved and designed by John Farleigh with the title The Adventures of the Black Girl in her Search for God. A Riposte appeared in a similarly-presented volume, The Adventures of the White Girl in her Search for God by Charles Herbert Maxwell,[4] which showed an outdoor young woman wielding a niblick on the cover (far less improbable than that Shaw's girl should carry a knobkerry). This book advanced different views of what is really taught by Christianity, and deflected the racial construct presented by Shaw.
A 1934 reprinting including Black Girl, already serialized in 1932, along with a companion essay that disclaimed the supernatural origin of the Bible. In the essay, Shaw declares the Bible to be a book without divine authority—but still important for its ethical messages and valuable as history. Both the story and the essay outraged the religious public, creating a demand that supported five reprintings.[5] Shaw was greatly distressed when the irreligious tone of Black Girl caused a rift in his long-term friendship with Dame Laurentia McLachlan, Abbess of Stanbrook;[6] eventually they reconciled. Shaw exacerbated the general furore by proposing intermarriage of blacks and whites as a solution to racial problems in South Africa. This was taken as a bad joke in Britain and as blasphemy in Nazi Germany.[7] The full text of this story is available on-line. [8]
The Adventures Of The Black Girl In Her Search For God George Bernard Shaw. Published 1932 by Constable in London. First edition December 1932; reprinted [three times] December 1932.
The Adventures Of The Black Girl In Her Search For God George Bernard Shaw Published 1933 by Dodd, Mead in New York. Illustrated t.-p. and lining-papers. Designed and engraved by John Farleigh