Pygmalion Other Plays

George Bernard Shaw is one of the most famous and celebrated Irish playwrights and this new collection brings together the very best of his witty and entertaining comedies in one volume; Pygmalion, Major Barbara and Androcles and the Lion. Part of the Macmillan Collector’s Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has a preface by Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench. Pygmalion was first performed in 1914 and was an instant hit which then inspired the hit musical and award winning film, My Fair Lady. It tells the story of Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, who tries to elevate a feisty flower girl out of her working-class roots and into high society. In Major Barbara, idealistic Barbara is a major in the Salvation Army, at odds with her millionaire father as they war over the best route to salvation. Androcles and the Lion is a clever retelling of the Bible story about a gentle Christian who pulls a thorn from a lion’s paw. All three plays are not only wonderfully amusing, they also showcase Shaw's intense concerns about poverty, class and inequality.

George Bernard Shaw is one of the most influential playwrights of the twentieth century. The collection "Pygmalion and Three Other Plays" contains his best works, which are known for their rapier wit, ideas of decency, and portrayal of human relationships. Shaw wanted his audiences to realize that people, regardless of race, gender, or class, were all human beings with the same needs as everyone else. "Pygmalion" is a modern retelling of the classic story of the same name. Professor Henry Higgins, a phonetician, tries to transform a lower-class cockney girl into a lady by teaching her to speak like a proper Englishwoman. What Higgins forgets, though, is that Eliza is a human being who only wants to be treated as such; in Higgins' mind, Eliza is a fun wager, a test of his abilities. When he thinks that he has won and turned Eliza into a fine lady, he becomes lonely and misses her vivacious personality. "Major Barbara," "The Doctor's Dilemma," and "Heartbreak House" all deal with different themes, but each play contains a unique play of words, blending comedy with feeling and heart to create a story which will make a large impression on the audiences' heart.

We create the characters that people our lives. Although others appear to us to be who they just 'are', there are complicated unconscious psychological processes that lead us to experience people in ways that we ourselves construct. This book analyzes how four pairs of people, central in each other's lives, 'create' one another. It demonstrates how each of us is like a theater director, casting others into roles on our stage, even as others are casting us into their dramas.

Do you like 'Pretty Woman', with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere? Do you love 'Maid in Manhattan', starring Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes? And how about little orphan 'Annie'? Well, 'Pygmalion' is the play that paved the ways for these - and countless other - rags-to-riches films, plays, and books. In it, phonetics scientist professor Henry Higgins and linguist Colonel Pickering make a bet. The scientist wagers that he can turn Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a woman with the poise and diction of a duchess. She is given new clothes, speech lessons - and subjected to merciless ridicule. Becoming Shaw's most famous play, ́Pygmalion ́ throws blinding light on the invidious habits and traditions at both levels of society. George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) was a giant of the literary and political world at the end of the 19th century and deep into the 20th century. Best known as a playwright, he was also a famous critic, political activist and polemicist, stoking controversy to provoke debate. His first successful play was 'Arms and the Man', which was followed by classics including 'Man and Superman' and 'Pygmalion', which was turned into the musical 'My Fair Lady'. In 1925, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. His opinions still divide critics, but he is widely acknowledged as second only to William Shakespeare as a playwright.

Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw, named after a Greek mythological figure. It was first presented on stage to the public in 1913.

The most successful play by the Nobel Prize–winning Irish playwright, and basis for the movie and Broadway musical My Fair Lady. Based on the Greek legend of Pygmalion and Galatea, George Bernard Shaw’s witty adaptation features linguistic expert Professor Henry Higgins, who encounters a cockney flower seller named Eliza Doolittle. Boasting that he could pass Eliza off as a duchess by teaching her to speak correctly and polishing up her manners, Higgins does not believe he will ever have to prove his claim—until Eliza shows up on his doorstep asking for elocution lessons. Eliza’s subsequent transformation fools London society, but makes both Eliza and Higgins question whether they can return to the lives they had before their extraordinary experiment. “Pygmalion, written in 1912 at a time when women’s suffrage was making daily headlines, stages both Shaw’s progressive belief in the equality of the sexes, as well as his satire of the defiant persistence of Victorian customs and the English class system in the face of inevitable social progress.” —BroadwayWorld

George Bernard Shaw demanded truth and despised convention. He punctured hollow pretensions and smug prudishness—coating his criticism with ingenious and irreverent wit. In Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, and Man and Superman, the great playwright satirizes society, military heroism, marriage, and the pursuit of man by woman. From a social, literary, and theatrical standpoint, these four plays are among the foremost dramas of the age—as intellectually stimulating as they are thoroughly enjoyable. “My way of joking is to tell the truth: It is the funniest joke in the world.”—G. B. Shaw With an Introduction by Eric Bentley and an Afterword by Norman Lloyd

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