Pygmalion Author:George Bernard Shaw When George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion more than a half centruy ago, no one could have predicted his play would eventually be converted into one of the great musicals of our time--My Fair Lady-- and an Academy Award-winning motion picture. Generations of readers and theatergoers have found relevance in Shaw's story of speech therapist Henry H... more »iggins, who successfully transforms Liza Doolittle, a "draggle-tailed guttersnipe," into a darling of high society who momentarily upsets his hard-edged reserve. The extraordinary wit of this master dramatist of the twentieth century cuts away at the artificiality of class distinctions to reveal that human clay can be molded into wonderous shapes.« less
Shaw used Pygmalion from Roman mythology as the basis for his play. It is the story of Professor Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, who wagers that he can turn a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, into the toast of London society merely by teaching her how to speak with an upper-class accent. In the process, he becomes fond of her and attempts to direct her future, but she rejects his domineering ways and marries a young aristocrat.