Pygmalion

Credits and rights

Original writer

George Bernard Shaw

Publisher of this edition

BoingyBooks Classics

Original publisher

Project Gutenberg

Adaptation credits

John Shoufler / BoingyBooks Classics — digital edition

Original source / edition

Pygmalion (1913)

License

Public Domain

License link

https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

Rights and adaptation notice

This work is in the public domain. John Shoufler published this digital edition through BoingyBooks Classics. The original work remains public domain and may be copied, adapted, and shared.

Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw (1913)

Professor Henry Higgins bets he can transform Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle into a duchess through elocution lessons. But Eliza has more to teach Higgins than he realizes. The play that became My Fair Lady.

Historical Significance:
Shaw wrote Pygmalion in 1912 and it premiered in Vienna in 1913, with its London premiere in 1914 starring Mrs. Patrick Campbell as Eliza. Shaw was furious when audiences wanted a romantic ending — he insisted the play was about class and language, not love. Despite his protests, the 1938 film added romantic elements, and the 1956 Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady became one of the most successful musicals in history, winning eight Academy Awards in its 1964 film version. Shaw won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1925, partly on the strength of Pygmalion.

This public domain classic was originally written in 1913. Free to read and share.