Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful, cunning, humorous.
Review: I enjoyed G.B. Shaw's play, Pygmalion. The intense mockery of the British class system was, in fact, humorous. It kept my attention, and I grew to unterstand, and like the characters. Shaw is definitly a profound writer, and I will continue to read his works.
Rating:
Summary: The wit and brilliance of GBS riducles the British classes!
Review: By constrast, Shaw creates the most wonderful drama. His typical ridicule and contempt for his audiences are cunningly inter-woven with his bitter malevolence for the brittle British class system. The most delectible characters and lively script, make for great reading and marvellous watching. Superb!!!
Rating: 
Summary: What a piece of crap.
Review: This play was very, very horrible. I give it a second star because at least Shaw (being a dramatist) at least had the sense to realize that this was long enough as it is, why make it longer by making it prose. It was boring, and frankly, I hated EVERY LAST CHARACTER. Shallow, self-absorbed, and the odd thing is, Shaw was celebrating these traits, rather than mocking them. For a while, I thought maybe I was missing some kind of sly mockery, but I went back and checked, and I hadn't. Shaw--who was a socialist, which should tell you something right there--probably should've gone with his beliefs celebrated the worker a little more (he got his licks in with Mr. Doolittle) and the elitist, idle rich a little less, in order to make me believe he was something other than a hypocrite and an elitist himself. And everyone winds up idle rich in the end, after all. Frankly, why did I read this five-act wasteland of aborted jokes and hateable characters in the first place?
Rating:
Summary: This book is a VERY different story than the popular film!
Review: If you have seen any of the popular film versions of "My Fair Lady" -- then you really owe it to yourself to read the book and find out what G.B. Shaw intended the story to be -- you'll learn a lot more about Eliza -- and there's an epilogue which tells you about Eliza's ultimate choice between Prof. Higgins and Freddy! The book is head and shoulders above the movie as a story!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful. A classic!
Review: Beautiful. A classic! Grabbing romance and play. If you like it, see " My Fair Lady " which is equally wonderful! I've had since 94' and have read it repeatedly time and time again!
Rating:
Summary: English Classes Put Down
Review: I think that this timeless classic, otherwise known as "My Fair Lady", is a book in which Shaw wishes to show how the English Classes work. When Liza was a flower girl, it was her speech that made her "Lower Class". When she went to Higgens for help with her speech, she went to the lowest class possible until her speech improved, then she was classified as, and mistaken as a princess (at the hostess' party. Shaw many times puts down the society saying that "speech is the discifer of classes, not birth or position."
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Film -- the Drama of My Fair Lady
Review: This is an enchanting film for which George Bernard Shaw won an Oscar (which I believe he displayed proudly) for best screenplay after adapting the play "Pygmalion." It is true that the movie lacks the grand production values of "My Fair Lady," but it is much closer to the drama that Shaw had in mind. The dialogue is much richer than "My Fair Lady," which still managed to keep much of the language of the play and some of the movie.Like many of Shaw's plays, it is built around his pet ideas -- here (in a simple form) the notion that class distinctions are not genuine and could be overcome through education. Unlike some of Shaw's plays which read like socialist tracts, this one has very human characters who keep your interest throughout (in contrast to "Major Barabara" which was a rather tedious movie). For me, Wendy Hiller make a marvelous Eliza Doolittle. Although Leslie Howard is very good (and presumably what Shaw had in mind), it is hard to forget the bluster Rex Harrison -- a great actor himself -- brought to the role of Professor Higgins. Hiller brings a wonderful dignity and pathos to the role of Eliza Doolittle. The rest of the cast is very good and the sets are very authentically set in Edwardian England. This is definite buy if you like Shaw, theatre in general, good movies from the 30s, or want to see a richer version of "My Fair Lady."
Rating:
Summary: The true version of "My Fair Lady."
Review: If you are a true, non-musical theater preservationist like me, I advise you to skip "My Fair Lady," and read this first. This captures Shaw's characters in all of their original, deliciously sadistic glory. With Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe's musical you get half-backed clones of these characters, not to mention a changed ending that completely insults your intelligence and totally contradicts what the characters of Shaw's play are all about. However, if you are one of those wimpy "TV and Movie Generation" musical enthusiasts who only likes happy endings, ignore this wonderful piece of theater literature and rent the movie starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn. You won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: A bit didactic but full of fun, gaiety, humor & Shavian wit
Review: Published as a play in 1916, 'Pygmalion' is one of Shah's play
not heavy on philosophy. I, personally feel that his plays heavy
on philosophy are his best - 'Man and Superman', 'St.
Joan', 'Androcles and the Lion' et al. Among his plays of 'not
heavy on philosophy' genre, I rate 'Pygmalion' as one of the
best. It is full of fun, gaiety, humor, Shavian wit and is a wee
bit didactic. As Shaw wrote in the preface of 'Man and
Superman', that all good, great writing should be didactic. So,
even in the mildly didactic 'Pygmalion', Shaw had more than one
axe to grind so to say. The central theme of Pygmalion is the gift of speech in human
beings. Shaw has tried to depict as to how a person speaks
affects their own personality and the people around. As a
corollary to this theme, Shaw hoped to popularize the science of
phonetics. In the short preface of the play, Shaw also makes a
plea for enhancement of the English alphabet (with it's too few
vowels and few consonants) to make English reading pronunciation
rational. Both his wishes of popularizing phonetics and getting
the English alphabet enlarged remain unfulfilled even today,
perhaps a measure of how much ahead of the times he was or still
is! The locale is London's Covent Garden vegetable market. The time
is late night. It is pouring heavily, everybody is seeking the
shelter of a church's portico. Among the shelter seekers is an
impoverished, bedraggled flower girl Liza with a terrible
cockney accent. Liza is trying to peddle her flowers to the
crowd of shelter seekers. A middle- aged gentleman, professor
Higgins is taking down her speech (in Bells Visible Speech) in
his notebook. Professor Higgins is an eccentric phonetician,
expert on London accents and can place a person by their accent
to the street they originate from. One other shelter seeker is
an ex-military man, Colonel Pickering (also middle aged) with a
deep interest in phonetics. As professor Higgins Colonel
Pickering get talking, Higgins bemoans the terrible accent of
Liza (most depressing and disgusting sounds) and boasts that if
given a chance to teach and train her to speak for three months,
he could pass her off as a duchess on the basis of her fine way
of speaking! It comes about that Colonel Pickering is willing to
bear the expense of teaching Liza to speak by Higgins. The rest
of the play is about Liza 'the live doll' learning to speak like
a Duchess from two confirmed bachelors Higgins and Pickering and
whether they are able to pass her off as a duchess. The woman protagonist character of the play Liza like all Shaw's
woman protagonist character is strong willed and assertive.
Having to endure during her learning the overbearing ways,
domineering mien, downright bullying from a socially superior
Higgins her teacher, she manages to hold her own. In the latter
stages of the play, she even manages to get the better of him
and Higgins has to tamely acknowledge that he has made a 'woman'
of her after all. (a lame defence) Although there is a romantic
angle, (Liza and Freddy) the relationship between Liza vis-à-vis
Higgins and Pickering are pivotal, focal relationships of the
play. The Liza, Freddy romance is a relegated affair. I feel
only Shaw could do this i.e. make a non-romantic relationship so
interesting over the other. But then Shaw loved debunking
popular notions. All in all a much readable play.
Rating:
Summary: The sweetest thing
Review: It is not very likely that George Bernard Shaw knew he was writing the play that would become one of the seminal romantic comedies of the 20th when he penned `Pygmalion'. The play is delightful, with borrowed elements from many genres. There is comedy and romance, above all, but there is also a very clear social critic -- and even a Marxist idea of class struggle. What only enhances the reading of this masterpiece. Professor Henry Higgins is a linguistic expert who is much more interested in how people say the words rather than what they say. He ends up taking a bet that he is able to transform a simple cockney flower seller, Eliza, into a sophisticated and refined young lady, who would be able to fool the Queen herself. To succeed in such a move he claims he will change only the way she speaks. To work on Eliza he puts her up in his house and starts polishing her speech. This is not an easy job, because what the girl speaks is not English, but a language she has developed herself. After some time, the Professor decides to introduce her to a group of friends, without mentioning her backgrounds. At first the meeting is blast. Although Eliza can use a fine language it is clear she has not backgrounds to develop and keep up a conversation. And her behavior ends up being the laughing stock. But one of the guests notices how beautiful the girl is. Higgins feels sort of jealous and this could lead their relationship to another level. Shaw's prose is funny and touching at the same time. He uses devices, like everybody speaking at the same time, which only enhances the fun of the play and brings more truth to the action. His characters are lively and well developed. His social critic is evident. Eliza doesn't want to be rich or sound as such, she only wants to get a better job in a flower store, in other words, she only wants to be what she is. But the Professor insists on making her another person, very different from what she really is. Eliza's presence is the sweetest thing in the play. She is a nice and good-hearted girl, who suffers the consequence of her surroundings. The play is based on the Greek tragedy `Pygmalion and Galatea', and was the base for one of the most famous musicals of the cinema, `My Fair Lady'.
|
