Sign-In
Cart
Pygmalion: A Classic Comedy of Language, Class, and Transformation
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781604596281
Publisher: SMK Books
Published: Feb 5 2009
Pages: 88
Weight: 0.31
Height: 0.21 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
George Bernard Shaw's brilliant social comedy remains one of the most influential and widely performed plays of the modern era. In Pygmalion, the eccentric phonetics professor Henry Higgins undertakes an audacious experiment: transforming Eliza Doolittle, a working-class flower seller, into a woman capable of passing within London high society simply by altering her speech, manners, and presentation.
Originally first performed in 1913, the play combines sparkling dialogue, social satire, intellectual wit, and emotional complexity to explore the rigid class structures of Edwardian England. Shaw examines how language, education, appearance, and social expectations shape identity and determine opportunity, while simultaneously questioning assumptions about refinement, status, gender, and human dignity.
Though widely known through later adaptations such as My Fair Lady, Pygmalion remains fundamentally Shaw's sharp and sophisticated critique of class consciousness and social performance. Beneath the humour and verbal brilliance lies a deeper exploration of independence, self-respect, power, and personal transformation, with Eliza Doolittle emerging as one of the great heroines of modern drama.
Combining comedy, social criticism, and psychological insight, Pygmalion stands among the defining works of twentieth-century theatre and one of Shaw's greatest literary achievements.
Ideal for readers of classic drama, social satire, British literature, modern theatre, Edwardian fiction, and literary comedy.
34 different editions
Also available
Also in
Plays
Four Comedies: The Taming of the Shrew, a Midsummer Night's Dream, the Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night
Shakespeare, William
Paperback
Death of a Salesman: Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem
Miller, Arthur
Paperback
The Greek Tragedies: Seventeen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
Aeschylus
Sophocles
Euripides
Paperback
The Laramie Project and the Laramie Project: Ten Years Later
Pierotti, Greg
Kaufman, Moises
Fondakowski, Leigh
Paperback
FRANKENSTEIN or The Modern Prometheus (The Revised 1831 Edition - Wisehouse Classics)
Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft
Paperback
Four Major Plays: A Doll's House/Ghosts/Hedda Gabler/The Master Builder
Ibsen, Henrik
McFarlane, James
Arup, Jens
Paperback
A Doll's House and Other Plays: With Pillars of the Community, Ghosts and an Enemy of the People
Ibsen, Henrik
Paperback
KJV, Pew Bible, Large Print, Hardcover, Burgundy, Red Letter Edition (Large Print Edition)
Thomas Nelson
Hardcover
Our Town and the Cosmic One-Acts: The Long Christmas Dinner, the Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden, and Pullman Car Hiawatha
Wilder, Thornton
Paperback
Five Plays: Ivanov, the Seagull, Uncle Vanya, Three Sisters, and the Cherry Orchard
Chekhov, Anton
Hingley, Ronald
Paperback