Bernard Shaw was a prolific author of book reviews, novels, plays, criticism, essays, and correspondence. Throughout his voluminous writings, proverbs occur repeatedly. This book is a comprehensive index to proverbs in Shaw's writings. An introductory chapter discusses the importance of proverbs in Shaw's works and analyzes his use of them. The bulk of the volume is a key-word index to the proverbs, along with a list of editions of Shaw's writings that were consulted.
Proverbs in the key-word index are arranged alphabetically according to the most significant word in the text. Each entry cites quotations from Shaw's works in which the proverb appears. Entries also identify the edition of Shaw's works consulted, and provide the page number on which the proverb appears. The entries then cite major proverb and quotation dictionaries which can be consulted for additional information. Appendices overview the frequency with which Shaw used various proverbial expressions and summarize their distribution in his writings.