Pygmalion

This is not the complete play--which is important to note if you were thinking of using it in the classroom. If you just want to listen to a pretty good (albeit incomplete misrepresantation) version of Shaw's play, it's good for a drive in the country.

I've watched "My Fair Lady" several times and thought it time I got around to reading the original. "My Fair Lady" sticks fairly close to the original, with the major exception being the ending. The Wisehouse Classics Edition has some problems with the formatting, so I removed a star for that, but the play itself is five stars.

Although I love Pygmalion, this is an ABRIDGED version. Many scenes are not included, particularly at the end of each act. If you want an unabridged version, I would suggest the Penguin Classics edition.

Although I love Pygmalion, this is an ABRIDGED version. Many scenes are not included, particularly at the end of each act. If you want an unabridged version, I would suggest the Penguin Classics edition.

A spoiler alert may be unnecessary for a book published 101 years ago but be aware that this review principally discusses the ending.

Many film adaptations end entirely differently from the books on which they’re based. The ending of The African Queen, for instance, is very different between the book and the movie (in the book the German ship Louisa isn’t torpedoed and sunk by a capsized African Queen). And Shaw’s Pygmalion ends differently from Lerner and Lowe’s My Fair Lady musical, as well as from Cukor’s My Fair Lady film. Shaw has Eliza go through with marrying Freddie, and the author devotes a lengthy afterward to explaining why his ending can be the only logical one. In fact during his lifetime Shaw refused to sell the rights for a musical fearing just such liberties with his text and logic.

Four Major plays is another entry in the Oxford World Classics series. The playwright is the immortal Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen was born in Norway in 1826 and died in 1906. In his day, the plays in this collection were often considered to be scandalous. Yet Ibsen survives and flourishes in the academy and in the general reading public for his mastery of prose drama, insight into social issues and a deep understanding of the human heart in conflict with itself.
The Plays are:
Doll s House": This 1879 groundbreaking play portrays Nora Helmer as its heroine. She is loved and cossetted by her husband Helmer. He treats her as a doll and plaything for his own amusement. Nora walks out on Helmer and her three children to assert her life as a free and rational adult person. The play is a strong blow for women in their struggle for equality.
Ghosts-A young man returns home from study in Europe to his Swedish home and his mother Mrs Alving. Possible incest, scandal and syphilis are discussed. Ibsen is saying that society is often sick when it is based on the pillars of conformity and social restraints.
Hedda Gabler": The fiercely independent daughter of a well known military man finds herself married to a boring pedant. She has an idealistic view of life seeking freedom and joy. Hedda commits suicide rather than live under the cloud of scandal and drab living
The Master Builder is a play dealing with a man who sexually controls a young girl and is a tyrant to those whom he employs in his building firm. .
Ibsen is known for his problem plays in which a societal problem is presented during the drama on stage. Their is little action in his plays but the dialogue is superb. Ibsen loved to paint and his draws his characters and sets his scenes with economy and skill.
If you have not read Ibsen since school then read him again and enjoy the profound insights on life and the human predicament which this great Norwegian and world famous playwright puts on paper and the stage.
The Barnes and Noble edition is cheaper and contains two more plays than this Oxford Edition.

George Bernard Shaw uses of wit and insight into England's 1800s arrogant class system to show class is not bred, but made, and the highest class of people see no class at all, being humble enough to know we are equals. Shaw's "Pygmalion" was not written just to add to his wallet with its publication, but to influence society, much the same as Charles Dickens "Oliver Twist" and "David Copperfield" have.

As fun as the musical, "My Fair Lady" is, read Shaw's take on this old Greek myth.

From the plot of whether or not a pauper can made a princess to the subplot of love and true romance, the story is intertwined with memorable characters, delightful banter and intriguing thoughts.

Shaw's understanding of English's accents and how these separated the masses (do they still?) causes me in America to wonder if my Chicago-istic pronunciations affect how I am seen. What about African-American accents, or the New England accents? Does a Kentucky girl's accent come across as higher or lower class than her Alabama neighbors? How do I see others? Am I as affected?

Drop down a little cash, sneak this book into a larger order, and read, "Pygmalion." Review Edith Hamilton's book on mythology, discover who Shaw refers to (as in Galatea and Pygmalion, a fascinating story in its own right).

I fully recommend "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw.

Anthony Trendl
americanspeechwriter.com

This is a really nice edition since it has George Bernard Shaw's original text AND the script of Lerner and Loewe's musical adaptation, including the lyrics. I actually read the play in the Simon and Schuster paperback edition and followed each act by reading this book's My Fair Lady; the lyrics are a lot of fun to read, just as they were fun to hear in the movie or the soundtrack or on the stage.

While I was reading Pygmalion, Henry Higgins comes across as even more insufferable than the character as depicted by Rex Harrison. But Shaw was trying to make a point in his play -- actually, several points -- about the English language. For example, the Publisher's Note in this edition quotes Shaw in 1902 discussing what he emphatically states as the stupid, unnecessary use of apostrophes in such words as won't, can't, haven't, etc., and it strikes me that in today's abbreviated computer-speak (lol, omg, etc.) his desire is finally come to pass. Oh well, it only took a hundred years.

But the use of apostrophes is just one point made seriously but humorously in both play and musical, and you really need to read both to understand the full message about the use of language and "types" of people, including Eliza's father, not to mention the Conclusion to the play not widely known by the non-readers among us. I thought both the play and the musical were delightful and this is a wonderful edition because it includes the full text of both, but the Simon and Schuster edition has Shaw's complete Epilogue.

This was a brilliant play. Henry Higgins was a linguist passionate about his profession. He made a bet with Colonel Pickering that he could transform a lower class woman from a harsh upbringing into a lady at home in the highest social circles. Eliza Doolittle was skeptical of the social experiment at first. She reluctantly agreed to be trained to speak in the lingo used in the higher social settings.

Higgins was cantankerous and not good socially. Eliza was angry and frustrated with his lack of grace. He was aloof and showed little concern about her feelings. The experiment was successful. She learned the necessary linguistic skills necessary to fit in during important social functions of upper crust society.

Eliza expressed her anger at being treated like the lower class flower girl that she was at the start of the story. She praised Colonel Pickering for treating her with dignity and like a lady. Higgins was annoyed at the criticism and felt she was very ungrateful. It didn't seem to ever sink in with him that he needed to treat her with any special dignity.

Bernard Shaw gave some valuable insights into human nature, especially regarding socio-economic class and marriage. Eliza's father was a ne'er-do-well before the experiment began. He had the good fortune to gain wealth and social status. He was annoyed that he had to fundamentally change as a person to keep up appearances in upper middle-class functions. He even married his mistress to conform to the Victorian standards of the day. He believed that he lost some of the freedom and authenticity as a person in doing so.

Eliza married a man of good breeding in Freddy. She had no desire to marry and be regarded as an inferior partner for Henry. Higgins was content to be a bachelor anyway as he was committed to live with his assertive mother. Eliza married for love and struggled at times. She found some success in setting up a flower stand. The young couple learned about finances from Colonel Pickering. Education was a key topic in the play. People could learn proper speech, social etiquette, and economics to better themselves.

I thoroughly enjoyed the play. Shaw's wit and literary brilliance were top notch. The dialogue was humorous and the exchanges between Eliza and Henry were priceless. There was a lot of clever wordplay and wit present. There were insightful displays of keen social commentary. Pygmalion is a brilliant masterpiece.

I strongly recommend this book. It's a brilliant satire on the British class system. In this classic play George Bernard Shaw shocked audiences by turning a Cockney flower girl into a lady who could pass for a royal by merely being trained to speak with an upper class accent and taught good manners. At the time the idea of girl like the character Eliza being able to be pass herself off as a royal, was unthinkable. There was a very strong "us and them" mentality between the classes. They may as well have been from different planets; that's how large the divide was.

This was truly a bold and scandalous idea that Shaw had brought to life. He dared to deem the only difference between the classes to be environment and education rather that blood and breeding.

George Bernard Shaw created numerous masterpieces over the span of his writing career. He has the distinction of being the only person to ever be awarded both an Oscar and the Nobel Prize for Literature. He was a very humble and conscientious man, a political activist and a vegetarian. His conscientiousness shows in his work by his inability to write meaningless fluff at a time when fluff dominated the stage. His trademark is his classic use of ample humor in dramas with serious subject matter. It takes a special kind of genius to be able to pull that off as flawlessly as he did.
This book is excellent. It's as thought provoking as it is entertaining. There are times when you can't help laughing out loud. You'll be better for reading it. His works just have that effect - they both enrich and uplift you.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is a play based on Greek mythology. I feel ashamed to admit that I was familiar with the title, but did not realize until I started reading that My Fair Lady is a rendition of Pygmalion. Oi. Sometimes I can be such a dunce.
The story follows Eliza, a woman living on the edge of poverty, selling flowers on the side of the street. She runs into Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering, two men with an interest in phonetics who find her accent and speech APPALLING. Henry bets the Colonel that he can turn Eliza into a perfect lady.

There's a lot of word play and witticisms, which I generally enjoy, but honestly, I am not a huge fan of the story. It's got some silly moments, but overall, I feel as if it falls short of it's praise. I was not very intrigued with this play, sorry to say.

-Sarah
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