Exclusive to Penguin Classics: the definitive text of Shaw's
brilliantly witty exposure of the British class system--part of the
official Bernard Shaw Library
A Penguin Classic
Shaw wrote the part of Eliza Doolittle--"an east-end dona with an apron
and three orange and red ostrich feathers"--for Mrs. Patrick Campbell,
with whom he had a passionate but unconsummated affair. From the outset
the play was a sensational success, although Shaw, irritated by its
popularity at the expense of his artistic intentions, dismissed it as a
potboiler. The Pygmalion of legend falls in love with his perfect female
statue and persuades Venus to bring her to life so that he can marry
her. But Shaw radically reworks Ovid's tale to give it a feminist slant:
while Higgins teaches Eliza to speak and act like a duchess, she also
asserts her independence, adamantly refusing to be his creation.
This Penguin Classics edition is the definitive text produced under the
editorial supervision of Dan H. Laurence, with an illuminating
introduction by Nicholas Grene, discussing the language and politics of
the play. Included in this volume is Shaw's preface, as well as his
"sequel" written for the first publication in 1916, to rebut public
demand for a more conventionally romantic ending.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of
classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,800
titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works
throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the
series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and
notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as
up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
