Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Excerpt: It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him. (Pygmalion, Preface) Named after a Greek mythological character the play was first presented on stage to the public in 1913. In ancient Greek mythology, Pygmalion fell in love with one of his sculptures, which then came to life. Professor of phonetics Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can train a bedraggled Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, to pass for a duchess at an ambassador's garden party by teaching her to assume a veneer of gentility, the most important element of which, he believes, is impeccable speech. The play is a sharp lampoon of the rigid British class system of the day and a commentary on women's independence and has been successfully adapted into a motion picture and a musical comedy. George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950) was an Irish playwright, essayist, novelist and short story writer and wrote more than 60 plays. He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Academy Award (1938).George Bernard Shaw was an Irish dramatist who lived from 1856 to 1950. Shaw's first successful writing was music and literary criticism, but his true calling was drama, and he wrote over 60 plays. Almost always of his works deal seriously with current societal issues, but they all have a sense of humour to soften their harsh topics. Education, marriage, religion, governance, health care, and class privilege were all deemed to be flawed by Shaw. The exploitation of the working class enraged him the most, and most of his writings condemn it.
Shaw, an outspoken socialist, penned numerous publications and lectures for the Fabian Society. He became a skilled orator in support of the movement's aims, which included achieving equal political rights for men and women, addressing working-class abuses, ending private ownership of fertile land, and promoting healthy lives. Shaw married Charlotte Payne-Townshend, a fellow Fabian, and they had a child together. They made their home on Ayot St.
Lawrence lived in a residence that is now known as Shaw's Corner. Shaw died there at the age of 94, after chronic health difficulties compounded by injuries sustained in a fall. He is the only individual to win both the Nobel Prize for Literature (1925) and the Academy Award for Best Picture (1938). These awards were given to him for his contributions to literature as well as his work on the film Pygmalion.
Shaw had intended to decline his Nobel Prize outright since he disliked public recognition, but he did so at his wife's request because she saw it as a monument to Ireland. He did decline the monetary award, suggesting that it be used to fund Swedish book translations into English. Pygmalion (1913), Caesar and Cleopatra (1898), and The Devil's Disciple (1897) are some of Shaw's other works.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781514698365 |
| ISBN 10 | 1514698366 |
| Title | Pygmalion |
| Author | George Bernard Shaw |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Createspace Independent Publishing Platform |
| Year published | 2015-06-25 |
| Number of pages | 76 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |