Author: George Bernard Shaw
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Rating: WORTHY!
Pygmalion is the Greek version of a Phoenician name: Pumayyaton. Ovid (aka Publius Ovidius Naso, a turn-of-the millennium Greek poet) wrote an epic work titled Metamorphoses, in which one story told of Pygmalion - the sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had carved.
In essence, that's what happens here, but if your only exposure to this story is from the 1964 movie titled My Fair Lady, then you'll find a few differences even though the movie followed Shaw's work quite closely in many regards. The original Pygmalion was a four-act play, not a story, but this version converts the play to a story whilst still retaining the author's original intentions.
If you are familiar with the movie, which I have to say I really love, then you will find many parts of this story unsurprising. It begins in a similar way, with Eliza running into Freddy (literally) and then into Colonel Pickering and Henry Higgins (figuratively), and Higgins tossing some money into her basket.
Just as in the movie, she realizes that she can make something of herself by using Higgins's own money to hire him to teach her to speak better English so she can find work in a flower shop. Higgins finds it irresistible, given how much she's willing to pay him when considered as a portion of her income, and unable to resist Pickering's bet, Higgins takes on the challenge with gusto, and the rest, as they say, is history!
Higgins does indeed win his bet and Eliza is indeed triumphant, but the triumph is short-lived, and in the book, when Eliza leaves, she doesn't come back. It's a lot truer to Shaw's feminist intent than ever is the movie, the ending of which frankly makes me uncomfortable.
I really liked this adaptation of Shaw's original play, and I recommend it.
