Pygmalion

Aug 20, 2012 Nataliya rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, awesome-kickass-heroines, my-childhood-bookshelves, excellent-reads, plays, 2012-reads, i-also-saw-the-film, books-from-childhood-revisited

"Eliza has no use for the foolish romantic tradition that all women love to be mastered, if not actually bullied and beaten," says G.B.Shaw in the afterword to his famous play.

By the way, I think this quote should be memorized and repeated on the daily basis by the contemporary authors, especially in the YA genre, who attempt to create female characters. Really. Maybe I can start a campaign encouraging authors' awareness of this quote. Hmmmm...

This was one of the first plays I've ever read, and

"Eliza has no use for the foolish romantic tradition that all women love to be mastered, if not actually bullied and beaten,"¹ says G.B.Shaw in the afterword to his famous play.

¹By the way, I think this quote should be memorized and repeated on the daily basis by the contemporary authors, especially in the YA genre, who attempt to create female characters. Really. Maybe I can start a campaign encouraging authors' awareness of this quote. Hmmmm...

This was one of the first plays I've ever read, and to this day is one of my favorites. The combination of Shaw's wit and satire with creating an amazingly strong heroine was a treat to read! The play is brilliant, as witnessed by its continuing success - but it's the afterword from the author that ultimately made it into a five-star read. The afterword that takes this story and makes it wonderfully and firmly grounded in reality (even if it's a reality with somewhat outdated early 20th century reasoning).

The many faces of Eliza Doolittle.

Most people know this story, right? If not from reading the play then from seeing the classic Hollywood's production of My Fair Lady musical, right? The 1912 story of a simple London Cockney flower girl Eliza who learns how to speak like a proper British lady from a renown phoneticist (and, honestly, a rather miserable person) Henry Higgins. Both Higgins and Eliza have remarkably strong characters and no wonder that problems ensue (well, because of that and because of the fact that a well-mannered British woman in the early 20th century seemingly did not really have that many choices besides finding herself a man). According to the famous movie, sparks also fly between Eliza and Higgins. But do they, really? In the words of Shaw himself,

"Nevertheless, people in all directions have assumed, for no other reason than that she became the heroine of a romance, that she must have married the hero of it."

And that's where the Audrey Hepburn movie lost me. After all, haven't the movie makers read the famous afterword by Shaw himself (and I honestly think that it's just as interesting as the play itself!), where he painstakingly details the future lives of his characters and destroys every notion of the happily ever after for Eliza and Higgins - the ever-after that was already clearly doomed in the play itself:

"LIZA [desperate]: Oh, you are a cruel tyrant. I can't talk to you: you turn everything against me: I'm always in the wrong. But you know very well all the time that you're nothing but a bully. You know I can't go back to the gutter, as you call it, and that I have no real friends in the world but you and the Colonel. You know well I couldn't bear to live with a low common man after you two; and it's wicked and cruel of you to insult me by pretending I could. You think I must go back to Wimpole Street because I have nowhere else to go but father's. But don't you be too sure that you have me under your feet to be trampled on and talked down. I'll marry Freddy, I will, as soon as he's able to support me."

After all, it would not be in character for Eliza, who is not really a romantic character but a strong, pragmatic, and independent young woman who would not settle for a life of bringing Higgins his slippers (oh, that awful last line of the movie!!!) and being ignored; a woman who is not beyond a well-aimed slippers throw to the face:

"This being the state of human affairs, what is Eliza fairly sure to do when she is placed between Freddy and Higgins? Will she look forward to a lifetime of fetching Higgins's slippers or to a lifetime of Freddy fetching hers? There can be no doubt about the answer. Unless Freddy is biologically repulsive to her, and Higgins biologically attractive to a degree that overwhelms all her other instincts, she will, if she marries either of them, marry Freddy.
And that is just what Eliza did."

No, Eliza Doolittle is not a woman to be ignored. She is a strong, independent and level-headed heroine who has guts and self-worth even before her 'magical' lady-like transformation. She knows what she wants, and she determinedly sets out on the path that she thinks would lead her to her dream - working in a flower shop. She may be comical and pathetic in the beginning - but she knows she's not nothing (unlike the view of her that Henry Higgins has). She stands up for herself even when she is clearly in an unfavorable situation - a woman vs. a man, a social nothing vs. a respected gentleman, a physically weaker creature vs. a physically more intimidating one:

"I won't be called a baggage when I've offered to pay like any lady."

And from the afterword:

"Even had there been no mother-rival, she would still have refused to accept an interest in herself that was secondary to philosophic interests."

And her feeling of self-worth only increases as the horizons of the society open up more for her. She refuses to play second fiddle even to a powerful and intimidating Higgins. The thing is - Higgins, contrary to his belief, did not "create" Eliza, like the famous literary Pygmalion created his Galatea; he merely gave her more power to achieve what she wants. And what she wants does not include being ignored and fetching him his bloody slippers. He is a strong man - well, she is an equally strong woman who will have what's best for her. And even if in the end - the afterword - Eliza's independence is not complete and she continues to owe a lot to the duo of Higgins and Pickering - but again, somehow on her own terms.

"But to admire a strong person and to live under that strong person's thumb are two different things."

This was my first time reading this play in English, and reading it in the language it was intended to be read in highlighted even more the brilliance of Shaw as a playwright and the exquisite humor of it. Shaw skillfully deconstructs the notions of the British class system - and does it with easily felt pleasure and enjoyment, and continues to do so in the afterword, which I enjoyed so much. In the end, it's not about Eliza becoming a lady on Henry Higgins' terms; it's all about the shrewd future florist/greengrocer Eliza, and that's the awesomeness of it. It is an excellent read, a timeless one, thoroughly entertaining and thought-provoking. Easy 5 stars!

"Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable."

...more

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Mar 30, 2016 Brina rated it it was amazing

Shelves: classics, plays

On a night where I am book keeping, I am writing this review to honor my grandmother who recently passed away. I lost track of the number of times we listened to the soundtrack of My Fair Lady either in her car, her apartment, or my house growing up. To me Eliza Doolittle, Henry Higgins, and Colonel Pickering are as much the actors who played them as they are are the memories I created with my grandmother and great aunt while watching the movie or listening to its timeless songs.
By the time I f ...more

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Mar 31, 2012 Dave Hill rated it it was amazing

This is fun to read out loud in crazy English accents while stomping around your apartment. The neighbors might not like it but screw 'em.

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Jul 23, 2016 Carol rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, saw-the-movie, plays, read-2016

I was surprised.......this is not a love story. I only vaguely remember the musical, and the outcome I envisioned is not what happens in the play.

I remember Eliza Dolittle as a poor flower girl, and the bet between two upper class gentlemen to turn a street "guttersnipe" into a proper lady, but not the horribly chauvinistic treatment she receives or the choices she makes in the end.

Totally enjoyed it!

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May 31, 2012 Manny rated it really liked it

Shelves: linguistics-and-philosophy, well-i-think-its-funny

If you happen to be the Wayans Brothers and are stuck for ideas about where your next racist, sexist, gratuituously offensive comedy is going to come from, have you considered doing a gender- and color-reversed version of Pygmalion? I feel it has real potential. My first thought is to reunite Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher from Guess Who. Mac, in drag, plays Henrietta, a black linguist who bets her friend Picky (Oprah) that she can turn preppy white-boy Kutcher into a bro' within six weeks. Here' ...more

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Sep 05, 2016 Lisa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nobels

All my reading at the moment seems to revolve around the relationship between art and artist, creator and creation.

Reading the many excellent reviews on "Pygmalion" here on Goodreads, I realise how strange my approach to it was, and how disappointed I was at first because my expectations were not met in the beginning. I chose it as part of a reading challenge I set myself a couple of years ago, to read all Nobel Laureates in literature. The title appealed to me, and I was thrilled to explore a m All my reading at the moment seems to revolve around the relationship between art and artist, creator and creation.

Reading the many excellent reviews on "Pygmalion" here on Goodreads, I realise how strange my approach to it was, and how disappointed I was at first because my expectations were not met in the beginning. I chose it as part of a reading challenge I set myself a couple of years ago, to read all Nobel Laureates in literature. The title appealed to me, and I was thrilled to explore a modernist's take on the ancient myth of Pygmalion. Believe it or not, I had never realised that "My Fair Lady", which I love, is based on this play, and I waited for GREEK characters to show up, as I had been immersing myself in Enlightenment art concerned with the artistic questions raised in the Pygmalion story.

Falconet's sculpture of the misogynistic sculptor falling in love with his own creation, kneeling in front of the carefully chiselled woman, praying to Aphrodite to make her come alive, - that was what I was waiting for!

I kept wondering about the charming cockney and 19th century scientific approach to social class distinctions. I enjoyed the reading experience, but could not make sense of it at all. Don't judge a book by its title, I was inclined to say, until I all of a sudden understood

a) that Shaw's "Pygmalion" was linked to the musical "My Fair Lady", and
b) that Higgins had more than a trace of Pygmalion, in fact was his modern alter ego.

Just like the ancient artist, he did not quite expect the outcome of his experiment, and Eliza Doolittle, like so many other literary creatures, does a beautiful job of emancipating herself from her creator. Art is quite amazing that way: as soon as it enters the world, it has a life of its own, and the artist can only watch its development together with other spectators. I like that idea, as it symbolises the relationship between older and younger generations as well: we are nurtured and shaped by our parents' choices, but when we grow up, the freedom and responsibility is ours.
In a way, Frankenstein and Moreau's monsters in The Island of Doctor Moreau demonstrate the same emancipation process, and I don't think it is coincidence that artists and writers of the 19th century were obsessed with that theme, as the world went through major political, social, economic and scientific changes.

Shaw showed wonderful creativity when transforming the ancient myth into modern life, while keeping the essential questions alive. And his creation lives its own life as well!
Must-read for anyone interested in the eternal human questions, as well as 19th/20th century social history.

Along with O'Neill's "Mourning Becomes Electra", this is my favourite merging of myth and modern drama! ...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Jonathan rated it really liked it

Recommended to Jonathan by: The musical - My Fair Lady - sort of

Shelves: personal-favourites, classic-literature, plays, humorous, classic-challenge, books-with-films, has-a-musical

This is the last book I will finish in 2012 as there are only 6 hours remaining in my day. It is certainly a fitting book (or rather play inside a book) to end the year on. For Pygmalion is a story about new beginnings and about transformation. What better book to symbolise the changing of the year, I say!

The classic musical My Fair Lady is perhaps my favourite musical film that I have seen. The acting is superb, the plotting excellent and all the music serves to add to the humorous feel of the ...more

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Jan 25, 2016 Duane rated it really liked it

Shelves: rated-books, reviewed-books, plays-theater, 2016-book-challenge

My vision of Eliza Doolittle will always be Audrey Hepburn from the 1964 movie My Fair Lady. But eight years earlier (1956) Julie Andrews nailed her portrayal of Eliza in the Broadway production of the musical. Of course both of these award winning productions were based on George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion. In the first London stage production Eliza was performed by Mrs. Patrick Campbell, Shaw having written it with her in mind because of their unrequited love affair. I enjoyed reading the p ...more

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Jan 23, 2015 Yani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: teatro

Una lectura que no tenía planeada en estos días. Por suerte, el desvío de los planes salió genial. Pigmalión es una obra de teatro distinta, que hace foco en un tema que no se aborda en estos días y que se lee rapidísimo porque divierte. Así de sencillo.

Cuento un poco el argumento, aunque ya muchos deben conocerlo por las versiones cinematográficas: un especialista en fonética (Henry Higgins) se encuentra casualmente con una vendedora de flores (Eliza Doolittle) cuya boca es, sin más ni menos Una lectura que no tenía planeada en estos días. Por suerte, el desvío de los planes salió genial. Pigmalión es una obra de teatro distinta, que hace foco en un tema que no se aborda en estos días y que se lee rapidísimo porque divierte. Así de sencillo.

Cuento un poco el argumento, aunque ya muchos deben conocerlo por las versiones cinematográficas: un especialista en fonética (Henry Higgins) se encuentra casualmente con una vendedora de flores (Eliza Doolittle) cuya boca es, sin más ni menos, una cloaca. No sólo por las expresiones que usa, si no por lo mal que las pronuncia. Entonces él apuesta con un compañero/colega que puede transformarla en una señorita (lingüísticamente hablando, aunque también se espera un cambio superficial) y hacerla pasar por una dama de alta sociedad.

Y cuando yo creí que ya le había visto los hilos a todo esto, caí en la trampa y me llevé una sorpresa. No tomó la dirección que imaginé. Estas cosas, en lugar de decepcionarme, me producen una inmensa alegría. En primer lugar, los personajes no son como uno quiere, sino que se comportan de forma distante. El protagonista no es un héroe y tiene un carácter horrendo, a tal punto de comportarse duramente con la muchacha. Ella genera simpatía al instante (incluso cuando habla como habla) y vuelve más amenas las escenas en donde se tensa un poco la cuestión. Hay muchos personajes que se encargan de decir lo que uno no quiere escuchar y otros que dicen cosas que uno no esperaba que dijeran (pido disculpas por el trabalenguas). En segundo lugar, los diálogos son divertidos, pero también hay actitudes que molestan e incomodan. Nada que no pueda superarse con un "menos mal que es sólo una ficción".

La historia tiene un contexto construido por el mismo Shaw, porque hay un prefacio en donde explica su inspiración y un apéndice en donde termina de redondear la historia porque, al parecer, muchos espectadores de la obra no salían del teatro contentos con el final. A mí me gustó y no me pareció necesaria una explicación. La obra en general es bastante atípica, sobre todo por el carácter de los personajes principales, así que no esperaba menos. Fue una buena lectura y me sacó del sopor que me producen los libros pesados en verano. Tres hurras por Pigmalión.
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Sep 20, 2016 Sarabvh rated it really liked it

Do any of us understand what we are doing? If we did, would we ever do it?

كاش بخش آخر رو نمينوشت. ياد داده چه جوري بايد ميخوندي، انتظار داشته چجوري فكر كني، فلان خط فلان حرف رو زده بوده بعدا ازش فلان جا استفاده كرده... انگار يه منتقد تفسير كرده، توضيح داده! :-/

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Jan 30, 2014 Bruce rated it it was amazing

One of George Bernard Shaw’s most beloved plays, Pygmalion is the work on which the subsequent musical comedy, My Fair Lady, is based. But the two works have important differences. Shaw’s work is far less sentimental and is throughout more ambiguous, especially in its ending. Furthermore, in order that it might be readable, the accents of the various characters are not attempted in the text, except at the very beginning (primarily to show that it would be unreadable if attempted). Those readers ...more

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Aug 30, 2016 Fabian rated it really liked it

SPOILER!

A fountainhead of inspiration for countless projects, Pygmalion is actually not about love, and, this being a Shaw play, is all about social classes, manners and, what? phonetics. Also about humanity—about the power-play inherent in all types of relationships. Higgins, undeniably a gay man completely up to give the Betty a total overhaul, is not loveable, not even likeable. He is a tyrant—but he is written o-so-well, with British wit to spare. He is the prototypical academic—a sociopath, ...more

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Sep 17, 2016 Azumi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Me he llevado una sorpresa. Hace tropocientos años que ví la pelicula de My Fair Lady con Audrey Hepburn, pero creo recordar que no fue esto lo que me vendieron.... Xddd

Tanto es así que me he quedado descolocada y aún no sé si me ha gustado o no, por eso le pongo tres estrellas, bueno realmente 3,5.

El caso es que ha habido cosillas que me han molestado y el profesor Higgins me ha parecido odioso y pedante, pero en cambio el final me ha encantado (view spoiler) ...more

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Aug 09, 2016 Cemre added it

Shelves: plays

Saçma sapan olmadıkları müddetçe romantik komedi türünde film izlemeyi çok severim. My Fair Lady de izlemekten çok keyif aldığım filmlerdendir. Hal böyle olunca Bernard Shaw'un "Dört Oyun" ismiyle yayımlanan kitabının ikinci oyunu olan Pygmalion'a başlarken oldukça heyecanlıydım. Oyunu okumaktan da en az filmi izlemek kadar zevk aldım. Filmle mukayese edecek olursam film, daha çok seyirciyi çekebilmek için olsa gerek, romantizm sosu daha bol bir film. Oyun bu yönüyle biraz eksik kalıyor filme gö ...more

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May 09, 2016 Radwa rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: less-than-150-p, classics, plays, made-into-a-movie

المسرحية رائعة .. بها كوميديا من نوع خاص احببته

أولا عن اسم المسرحية : "بيجماليون" وهو بطل اسطورة يونانية قديمة

كان (بجماليون) نحّات عظيم يكره النساء، لذلك أخذ على نفسه عهدا بألا يتزوج او يفكر في النساء وقرر ان يهب حياته لفنه الذي ابدع فيه، فصنع تمثال من العاج يمثل امرأة جميلة، ولكن بجماليون اصابه أمر لم يكن يخطر بباله فقد احب تمثاله حبا شديدا واصبح يقضي معه ساعات الليل الطويلة يقبله ويدغدغ يديه ووجهه

كان يفعل كل ذلك وهو يتخيل انه امامه امرأة حقيقية وليس تمثالا ، ثم حاول بجماليون لفترة من الزمن ان

المسرحية رائعة .. بها كوميديا من نوع خاص احببته

أولا عن اسم المسرحية : "بيجماليون" وهو بطل اسطورة يونانية قديمة

كان (بجماليون) نحّات عظيم يكره النساء، لذلك أخذ على نفسه عهدا بألا يتزوج او يفكر في النساء وقرر ان يهب حياته لفنه الذي ابدع فيه، فصنع تمثال من العاج يمثل امرأة جميلة، ولكن بجماليون اصابه أمر لم يكن يخطر بباله فقد احب تمثاله حبا شديدا واصبح يقضي معه ساعات الليل الطويلة يقبله ويدغدغ يديه ووجهه

كان يفعل كل ذلك وهو يتخيل انه امامه امرأة حقيقية وليس تمثالا ، ثم حاول بجماليون لفترة من الزمن ان يقلد الاطفال الصغار فيفعل معها ما يفعلونه مع دُماهم: يلاطفها ويلاعبها ويكسوها بالملابس الفاخرة ، يأتيها بالهدايا الثمينة كالعطور والورود والعصافير

فى يوم العيد، ذهب (بجماليون) إلى المعبد ودعا (فينوس) وهى إلهة الحب أن تحيي التمثال، وبعد طول وقوف ورجاء رأى بجماليون الشعلة تضطرم في الهواء فوق المعبد ثلاث مرات وكان هذا دليلا على رضا فينوس واستجابتها لتوسلاته ورجائه فاستراحت نفس بجماليون وشعر بالتفاؤل وبدأ الامل يتسرب الى قلبه مرة اخرى .

فلما عاد دبت الحياة فى التمثال وكانت امراة غاية فى الجمال فسماها (جالاتيا) وتزوجها

ثانيا عن أحداث المسرحية : فتدور حول البروفيسور فى علم الصوتيات (هنرى هيجنز) الذى يقابل بائعة ورد جاهلة (إليزا) وتذهب إليه لتطلب منه تعليمها النطق السليم لتتمكن من إدارة محل للزهور بدلا من كونها بائعة متجولة

راهن (هنرى) أحد زملاؤه (بيكرينج) على تحويلها إلى سيدة مثقفة وراقية خلال 6 أشهر وتقديمها فى حفل حيث لا يعرف أحد أصلها وتم له ذلك فعلا بفضل مساعدة (إليزا) لكن (هنرى) كان يُرجع الفضل إلى قدراته ومهاراته

يجب الإشارة إلى أن (هنرى) أيضا كـ(بجماليون) كان يكره النساء لذا بقى أعزب رغم بلوغه الأربعين

كانت المشكلة بعدها فى أن الفتاة لم تستطع العودة إلى عالمها الأصلى كبائعة للزهور بعد التغير الذى حدث لها، ولم يكن يهتم أستاذها بذلك فقد نجحت تجربته وكسب الرهان ولا يهمه ما سيحدث لها بعد ذلك

كانت (إليزا) تحب معاملة (بيكرينج) لها فقد كان يحترمها ويلقبها بالأنسة على عكس (هنرى)

تركت (إليزا) المنزل ولجأت لوالدة البروفيسور (هنرى) الذى سرعان ما أحس بغيابها فقد كانت ترتب مواعيده وتساعده فى اختيار ملابسه بل وتحضر له الخف

ذهب (هنرى) إلى والدته وهناك وجد تلميذته، لكن (شو) ترك النهاية مفتوحة أمام القارئ، فهل تعود (إليزا) مرة أخرى؟ وهل يتزوجها (هنرى)؟

يقول (برنارد شو) عن بطلة مسرحيته "إليزا لم تكن تصلح لعلاقات الحب التقليدية،لأن جميع النساء يحبون من يتحكم فيهم، وإن لم يكن يضربهم ويخوفهم أيضا"
اعتقد أن المقولة صحيحة إلا أنها لا تنطبق على جميع النساء

قرأت المسرحية بلغتها الأصلية وكانت ممتعة جدا، على الرغم من أنى أكره القراءة بالإنجليزية

ثالثا الجوائز : فازت المسرحية بجائزتى نوبل (في الأدب) والأوسكار (لأحسن سيناريو)
رفض (برنارد شو) جائزة نوبل حين قدمت له فى البداية وقال: " إن هذا طوق نجاة يلقى به إلى رجل وصل فعلا إلى بر الأمان، ولم يعد عليه من خطر"

رابعا :
تحولت المسرحية إلى العديد من الأفلام والمسرحيات (مع وجود بعض الاختلافات) أبرزها الفيلم الغنائى "My Fair Lady (1964)" لـ أودرى هيبورن و ريكس هاريسون
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058385/

أما فى مصر فكانت المسرحية الكوميدية "سيدتى الجميلة" لفؤاد المهندس وشويكار

...more

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Feb 04, 2015 Is Mini rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I really don't know why Pygmalion is still called a romance. I mean, Shaw himself was very dissapointed at the fact that his socialistic drama became a success as a romance. Shaw wanted to liberate his play from the traditional conventions of a romance, that's why he reversed the romantic story by giving a different end, marking Eliza's emancipation and independence. If this was a typical love story, the two protagonists would have been married at the end. But Shaw implies that Mr. Higgings wil ...more

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Apr 05, 2008 Sera rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Sera by: RGBC

Shelves: classics, own

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 16, 2011 Lisa N rated it really liked it

“My Fair Lady” is one of my very favorite musicals. I have avoided reading anything by GBS because I don’t care for his political views and because he was critical of Shakespeare. I actually enjoyed reading this play. It was very close to the “My Fair Lady” script, probably because Shaw also wrote the screenplay. (He was the first person to win both a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award.) The ending of “My Fair Lady” has always been a little unsettling for me. The mythical Pygmalion was a sculptor “My Fair Lady” is one of my very favorite musicals. I have avoided reading anything by GBS because I don’t care for his political views and because he was critical of Shakespeare. I actually enjoyed reading this play. It was very close to the “My Fair Lady” script, probably because Shaw also wrote the screenplay. (He was the first person to win both a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award.) The ending of “My Fair Lady” has always been a little unsettling for me. The mythical Pygmalion was a sculptor who fell in love with his statue, Galatea. Aphrodite brought Galatea to life and Pygmalion married her. Higgins represents Pygmalion and he feels Liza is his creation, but they do not get married.

Shaw wrote an epilogue that continues where “My Fair Lady” leaves you hanging. It has a strange twist: Higgins does not love his “Galatea,” but his mother.

“If an imaginative boy has a sufficiently rich mother who has intelligence, personal grace, dignity of character without harshness...she sets a standard for him against which very few women can struggle.....The word passion means nothing else to them.....We cannot help suspecting that the disentanglement of sex from the associations with which it is so commonly confused, a disentanglement which persons of genius achieve by sheer intellectual analysis, is sometimes produced or aided by parental fascination.” Interestingly, Shaw was married to Charlotte Payne-Townshend for over years 40 yet never consummated the marriage.

“Eliza’s instincts tell her not to marry Higgins.” She marries Freddy. Colonel Pickering sets her up in a floral shop. Freddy becomes a greengrocer. They struggle for years, Colonel Pickering bails them out from time to time, they take some business classes, and eventually make a go of it. “Eliza still manages to meddle in the housekeeping at Wimpole Street.” She realizes she is “no more to him than them slippers....Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable.”

The epilogue was highly disappointing. I don’t think I will be able to watch “My Fair Lady” without looking at Higgins as some type of Shaw-ish/Nietzschean/Freudian freak.

Eliza Doolittle, on the other hand, is a delightful character: Strong, pragmatic, feisty.

A side note, Shaw pays homage to Shakespeare: {Higgins}. “Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible...”

...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Katsumi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: humour, classics

George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion is a story based on two completely different people and their primary wants. Eliza Doolittle is a flower girl, who has always wanted to be accepted in society and be loved. Henry Higgins is a linguistics professor, who has no respect for women and his main goal is to prove his knowledge to others and make them aware of his existence. Henry Higgins takes Eliza off the streets in order to give her what it is she wants; teaching her the English language and ways George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion is a story based on two completely different people and their primary wants. Eliza Doolittle is a flower girl, who has always wanted to be accepted in society and be loved. Henry Higgins is a linguistics professor, who has no respect for women and his main goal is to prove his knowledge to others and make them aware of his existence. Henry Higgins takes Eliza off the streets in order to give her what it is she wants; teaching her the English language and ways while he is set on turning her into a duchesse. Throughout this process of transformation and the play, there are demonstrations of differences between social groups and gender equality existing in society, and Shaw did a fine job of showing this through Henry and Eliza's actions. Henry Higgins is disrespectful towards Eliza, forcing her to do his daily tasks and complete his lessons. Eliza just does what she is told, for she feels it is the only way for her to be accepted in society. This abuse towards Eliza (Shaw's showing of discrimination against women) continues throughout most of the play, with Eliza doing nothing about it. Pygmalion is a perfect example of society in the early 1900s.

Pygmalion doesn't turn out to be just an average story of a man taking advantage of a woman. Most would think that Eliza lets the disrespectful ways of Henry to continue and take over. But no, taking the ways of society that she has learned and self confidence and understand that she has gained, she goes against Henry and lets him know how she feels and what she truly wants; to be appreciated and loved. Shaw demonstrates perfectly the effects of one's actions (Henry's) and the true emotions of Eliza. In the end, Eliza has finally gained enough knowledge and understanding to survive on her own, and finds what she desires, true love, in a respectable man named Freddy.

Shaw's Pygmalion is a story that is original, quite entertaining and contains characters that have true recognizable personalities. ...more

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Apr 04, 2014 David Sarkies rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: English Teachers

Recommended to David by: Indirectly my English Teacher

Shelves: modernist

Shaw's Masterpiece
16 April 2010

Pygmalion, in my opinion, is Shaw's piece de resistance (if that is how you spell it). It is a masterpiece. While I can simply leave it at that I am compelled to say a lot more about this play, but first, the plot.
Two English gentlemen (and when I read this book I wondered if it was implied that they were homosexual) bet as to whether they can take a street urchin and turn her into a lady by teaching her how to speak proper English. They do and the experiment is Shaw's Masterpiece
16 April 2010

Pygmalion, in my opinion, is Shaw's piece de resistance (if that is how you spell it). It is a masterpiece. While I can simply leave it at that I am compelled to say a lot more about this play, but first, the plot.
Two English gentlemen (and when I read this book I wondered if it was implied that they were homosexual) bet as to whether they can take a street urchin and turn her into a lady by teaching her how to speak proper English. They do and the experiment is successful, and the bet is won. However the problem is that the woman, Eliza, is left in a difficult position as despite the fact that she is now educated, she is still a woman and has all the rights of a woman - which is none. So, while Henry Higgins has proven that he can turn a street urchin into a lady, she is still a woman and is left in the situation that she cannot do anything with the education that she now has.
This play is an attack upon education and upon the status of women in early 20th Century England. They simply had no rights and while they could learn and they could appear to move among the gentry, the fact that they were women relegated them to a second class status. It is said that the system of education was one of the areas that Shaw attacked in his plays, and in this play we see how despite Liza having an education, she knows that she can do nothing with it, and is not recognised as having an education.
This play has spawned a lot of duplicates, one of them being a play by Willy Russell called Educating Rita. I read that book in year 11 when I returned to high school and my English teacher loved it because he believed that it showed us how an education can change us. After reading Pygmalion I believed that that play was left for dead (and still do). However there are differences, namely that the status of women in the mid-twentieth century had changed dramatically. However, the theme is still the same, in that a woman from the working class, through education, was able to lift herself out of the working class.
Another spawn would be an Eddie Murphy movie called Trading Places. Here two incredibly wealthy men make a bet that they could turn a bum into a successful Wall Street Trader, and turn the successful Wall Street Trader into a common criminal. Like Henry Higgins in Pygmalion, they succeed, but further, they have no understanding of the power of education, because after turning the bum into a successful trader, they realise that they cannot simply send him back to the streets. He has become educated, and in becoming educated he has the power to fight back, which he does so successfully.
It is a shame that Shaw has disappeared into relative obscurity. I do not see any of his plays being performed (though being stuck in the little backwater that is Adelaide means that we see very little in the way of good theatre, or more correctly, what I consider good theatre). Still, beggars can't be choosers, but the educated have the world at their doorstep. ...more

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Sep 30, 2016 Ravi Gangwani rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nobel-prize, drama

“I sold flowers. I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of me I'm not fit to sell anything else.”

“Happy is the man who can make a living by his hobby”

“I can't turn your soul on. Leave me those feelings; and you can take away the voice and the face. They are not you.”
― George Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion

Considering this book, of long back era, and hence ignoring the fact that I have seen this story in N number of movies brfore I read this. I would not have liked the ending if in the end Higgi ...more

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Mar 25, 2014 Azra Šabovic rated it it was amazing

This is absolutely one of my favorite plays.
In the Pygmalion, Shaw uses symbols of slippers with the shifts in characterization to show how Eliza grows from being in different class than Higgins to being in the same class as him.
In the beginning of the play, Higgins finds Eliza on street treating her like dirt. She comes to him for phonetic lessons, in order to become a middle class women. Throughout the play, Higgins is always asking his maid and Eliza to bring him his slippers, where it indica This is absolutely one of my favorite plays.
In the Pygmalion, Shaw uses symbols of slippers with the shifts in characterization to show how Eliza grows from being in different class than Higgins to being in the same class as him.
In the beginning of the play, Higgins finds Eliza on street treating her like dirt. She comes to him for phonetic lessons, in order to become a middle class women. Throughout the play, Higgins is always asking his maid and Eliza to bring him his slippers, where it indicates that Eliza, although his student, was still seen as a maid, where the power structure is exposed. Once Eliza was ready and went on the ball to try out her accents and manners, it was complete success. They came home, but Higgins never gave her recognition for it. Initially, although not carrying that Higgins did not like her, Eliza did protest from all of the neglecting she has gotten from Higgins. This time she was hurt telling him "I'm nothing to you- not so much of them slippers". Taking into consideration the class, Higgins did make of Eliza what she wanted, " But it was from you that I learnt nice manners and that is what makes a lady, isn't it?" She is right. In the society they live in, the class appreciates you according to manners, languages and style. In addition, there is an important point to make: She only wanted to be a middle class girl and have a flower shop- Higgins made her a upper class women.
Despite the success on the ball, she did not succeed in Higgins eyes," I know I'm a common ignorant girl, and you a book-learned gentleman, but I'm not dirt under your feet". What Eliza did not realize is that Higgins treats everyone the same.
In the end, Eliza becomes more intelligent and independent, "I'm not afraid of you, and can do without you". In the Sequel Shaw says that "to admire a strong person and to live under the strong person thumb are two different things". Eliza chose to admire instead of stay under Higgin's thumb, which is why she married Frederick and will look forward of lifetime "Freddy fetching her slippers". She has made a success, although wishing that she could get Higgins on a ''dessert island...with a common man'' and take him "off his pedestal".
Just like in the Myth the play was inspired from, Galatea never liked Pygmalion, although she becomes as same as him. There was still class tension, just like between Higgins and Eliza. ...more

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Jan 04, 2015 Anupama Ma rated it really liked it

It is difficult to read a play without doing the voices. Having watched My Fair Lady, I think I did a great Eliza in my head. But other than the bad grammar, the Garns and the Aaa woo oo oh sound, there wasn't much of an accent. No Rain in Spain or Just you wait 'Enry 'Iggins. Still, it was a delightful read. Henry Higgins' unapologetic rudeness was shocking and totally unacceptable, but it was so much fun. I was supposed to get angry at the way he treated the poor girl, calling her names, talki ...more

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Jul 12, 2012 Samyogita rated it it was amazing

'Read it!!!' is all I can say.
You may think that you know what it's about because you've seen My Fair Lady or read an adaptation or just heard the story somehow, but trust me, you don't.
This is a timeless piece of writing and all other adaptations and interpretations - charming as they may be - fade in comparison because Pygmalion is about bigger things.

I did, sort of, keep picturing Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison as Eliza and Higgins throughout because I adore My Fair Lady (except for the end ...more

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Feb 02, 2016 Deborah Pickstone rated it it was amazing

Shelves: drama, 5-1-2-and-6-stars, human-nature

5.5 stars

I just love GBS and this was a very entertaining play. I read my way through his complete works at age 16 and am now returning for a review of some. What a pleasure - and what a clever and witty man he was.

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Oct 10, 2014 Mandy rated it liked it

Pygmalion is a story that’s been adapted time and time again in various forms. Of course we have My Fair Lady, both the stage and screen versions. There’s Pretty Woman and She’s All That and a few other obscure film and television installments. I’ve always loved Pretty Woman and My Fair Lady is such a classic that when I saw the original play at a local used book sale, I knew I had to have it. This story has some sentimental meaning to me as well: my best friend played Henry Higgins in our high Pygmalion is a story that’s been adapted time and time again in various forms. Of course we have My Fair Lady, both the stage and screen versions. There’s Pretty Woman and She’s All That and a few other obscure film and television installments. I’ve always loved Pretty Woman and My Fair Lady is such a classic that when I saw the original play at a local used book sale, I knew I had to have it. This story has some sentimental meaning to me as well: my best friend played Henry Higgins in our high school’s production of My Fair Lady and the story will always remind me of him (he was fabulous, by the way, and I don’t just say that because I’m biased!).

For those not familiar with the story, Pygmalion is about phonetics professor Henry Higgins who makes a bet that he can transform Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a lady that would pass for a duchess at an ambassador’s party. Higgins, along with friend and fellow phonetician Colonel Pickering, spends months training Eliza to speak and act like a proper English lady. A romantic comedy at its core, the story is also a commentary on British upper-class versus lower-class society and women’s independence. (If you’re interested in Pygmalion of Greek mythology, Wikipedia has a nice explanation.)

So much of the play revolves around Henry’s obsession with phonetics and his goal to teach Eliza to speak properly. Shaw chose to write much of Eliza’s lines phonetically so the reader could get a true understanding of how she spoke, though it was sometimes tough to understand her Cockney, especially as an American reader. While I enjoyed reading the play and was reminded of many scenes from the movie, I wish we’d got to see more of Eliza’s speech lessons. These scenes from My Fair Lady are some of the funniest and (I think) most important. This is where Eliza’s Cockney background and frustrations with Higgins trying to change her are most obvious. Unfortunately, we only got a minor glimpse of this in the original play.

Shaw’s inclusion of certain secondary characters left me wondering why he bothered to include them at all. Colonel Pickering, though frequently seen as a foil for Higgins, offers little to the plot. He doesn’t say much throughout the play, but does treat Eliza with respect and dignity, and tends to lessen the harshness of Henry’s sometimes inconsiderate and insensitive personality. Additionally, I was confused by the sudden love connection between Eliza and Freddy Eynsford Hill, son of a London socialite. There seems to be no obvious interest in each other or even a friendship; however, the play ends with Eliza and Freddy considering marriage. Some versions of the play (including My Fair Lady) end with Higgins and Eliza falling in love. Appalled by this alternate ending which he thought to be “damnable,” Shaw wrote an explanation in subsequent editions as to why Eliza and Higgins could never marry.

Pygmalion was published in 1916 by Brentano Publishing. ...more

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Aug 31, 2014 Mariam Abood rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kickass-feminist-books, school-books, 2013, 2014, plays, beautifully-interestingly-written, classics, saw-film-tv-adaptation, 4-stars, thought-provoking, books-i-recommend-to-people, stand-alone, highbrow-literature

I'm first going to start off by saying I think the title is very misleading, because this play is not a romance. In fact, George Bernard Shaw was so irritated by interpreting Eliza and Higgins' relationship as a romantic relationship, that he added an appendix at the end of the play, explaining what happened to Eliza after she left Higgins, and lived a happy life without him. And do you know what, I have massive admiration for Shaw doing this, because I think the thought of Eliza having an affai I'm first going to start off by saying I think the title is very misleading, because this play is not a romance. In fact, George Bernard Shaw was so irritated by interpreting Eliza and Higgins' relationship as a romantic relationship, that he added an appendix at the end of the play, explaining what happened to Eliza after she left Higgins, and lived a happy life without him. And do you know what, I have massive admiration for Shaw doing this, because I think the thought of Eliza having an affair with Higgins would have been cliché, especially considering the whole play was written to show how men like Higgins, discriminated against, and took advantage of women like Eliza.

So this is potentially one of my favourite plays ever, and I have to admit, I do like this play a tad bit more than My Fair Lady. Audrey Hepburn is still awesome, but I preferred this.

Pygmalion follows the story of Eliza, who is a poor flower girl who has dreams of owning her own flower shop, and by misfortune (or fortune depending on how you interpret it, but I think it would be fairer to say misfortune), finds herself being discovered by Higgins.

Higgins is an arrogant, verging sadistic professor of phonetics, who has a strange fascination with trying to see if he can teach elocution to working class women such as Eliza. He doesn't do this however, because he is genuinely interested in Eliza's welfare, he does this because he wants to settle a bet with a man named Colonel Pickering. He actually becomes quite an important character later on in the play.

I won't bore you too much with the details, but Shaw basically wrote this play to portray the injustices women, especially working class women suffered in the Victorian era. And I really appreciate this, because people often think that it is a contextual generalisation to say that women had next to no rights in the Victorian era because of women like Queen Victoria. I think this is an awful comparison to make because obviously the queen is going to have more power than your average person, let alone woman, so you can't keep using the queen as an example to justify your beliefs. Look at the suffragette movement for fuck sake, do you think they had power when they were going on hunger strikes, just so they could get the vote?

This is what I really appreciated about Shaw, because he knew all this was bullshit, and that several working class women unfortunately fell prey to the advancements of upper class men, but what is extraordinary about Shaw, is the fact that he manages to turn such a serious topic into comedy.

I don't think I can do this play justice in this review alone, so what I will say is, just read the play for yourself, I promise you will enjoy it. ...more

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May 30, 2014 Anirudh rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics

Having never read a play before except as a part of a curriculum and having heard so much about Shaw, I ordered this book with great expectations. I was not disappointed.

Despite being only a bit shy of a hundred pages this play is wonderfully written. The plot itself intrigued me very much. To turn a flower girl from the street to a duchess by changing the way she speaks and dresses. I wonder if Shaw was trying to tell us that social status is not achieved by who you really are but by how you d ...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Ekaterina rated it it was amazing

That is a beautifully written play. I have watched this play recently in the theater, and I thought it was magnificent. Eliza was simply adorable and Henry Higgins made me laugh so hard. I will not spoil the book by blabbering about its content and the flow of events, but I just wanted to comment and give my opinion about the ending. I love endings like the one in this story. It is like the author is giving you the chance to create your own ending, thus letting you develop your imagination. I us ...more

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Feb 24, 2015 Eduard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, classics, plays, fiction, 2015

“If you can’t appreciate what you’ve got, you’d better get what you can appreciate.”

I thought the ending was fantastic. Nevertheless, people in all directions have assumed, for no other reason than that she became the heroine of a romance, that she must have married the hero of it. You go, Eliza!

There is only one rendition of Pygmalion that does Bernard Show justice. And that's Anthony Asquith's movie.

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