George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)

7/10
Although I've never seen My Fair Lady (a travesty, I know), I've heard of it quite a bit - so reading the source play made a lot of sense when I picked this up.
The story is simple enough - two bachelors making a bet to themselves that they could pass off a flower girl as a princess in six months - and the younger of the two falling in love (or not, it's never made clear) with the flower girl in the process.
I'll not spoil it for others who've never read it, but the ending was a welcome surprise. There are two endings in the version I read, along with a sequel of sorts - in which Shaw elaborates why he chose the ending he did (which is rife with casual sexism), but if you can get past that - I suppose it does make sense.
Pygmalion was a pleasant and short read, with some laugh-out-loud moments - I couldn't have asked for anything more.… (mer)

George Bernard Shaw wrote a novel entitled CASHEL BYRON'S PROFESSION, about a prizefighter who falls for a young woman of high society. Primarily in order to protect his copyright under an arcane system of copyright existing at the turn of the 20th century, Shaw wrote this play, without any especial intent that the play itself be of use or value. It differs in some substance from the novel, and is rarely performed. It is written in a high-flown style that sometimes verges on incomprehensibility, especially if badly performed, but it does provide a small example of the class conflicts which drove Shaw as a writer, conflicts he would visit again and again in his works, most prominently and similarly in PYGMALION.… (mer)