Pygmalion
Publisher: Standard Ebooks
Published: 2019
Language: eng
Subjects: Comedies; Speech and social status -- Drama; London (England) -- Drama; Linguistics teachers -- Drama; Social classes -- Drama; Flower vending -- Drama
Description: <p><i>Pygmalion</i> is a 5-act play by <a href="https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/george-bernard-shaw">George Bernard Shaw</a>. It was written in 1912 and first produced in 1913. The plot revolves around Professor Henry Higgins’ bet with a colleague over whether he can transform a low-class flower girl, Liza Doolittle, into the equivalent of a Duchess in just 6 months. Pygmalion was a Greek mythological figure who fell in love with a sculpture he had carved and was a popular theme in Victorian drama.</p>
			<p>Most people would be familiar with the characters Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins from the hit 1956 musical <i>My Fair Lady</i>, which was adapted from <i>Pygmalion</i>, though the plots differ in small but significant ways. In particular Shaw wanted to avoid any sense of a “happy ending” and, after viewing a performance of the play where an extra scene had been added, he wrote a sequel which definitively states what came after. The sequel was included in the published edition.</p>