Reviews with content warning for Classism - Pygmalion

A play once ahead of it's time, now is a bit archaic. Good for Shaw being a feminist before it was cool. Someone had to do it. But these days, it's soaked with misogyny. It still has very witty dialogue and banter that I thoroughly enjoyed, and it's still an entertaining and engaging story. It's easy to step into the shoes of Liza and feel her struggle and her victories. It is unfortunate that Shaw saw the need to write an epilogue later on. It is deeply shaded by developments in Shaw's personal life and completely undermines the ending of the original writing. In the end, I enjoyed reading it.

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c_lizziebeth's review against another edition

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funny hopeful informative reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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velokei's review against another edition

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funny informative lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This was really interesting, at first I hated it, and found it super boring. The final two acts made me enjoy it and the ending section bumped it up to 3.5 stars!
I liked how Eliza remained independent in

her choices by getting married to Freddy and getting a flower shop.

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kathshiroma's review against another edition

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4.25

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decembermagpie's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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ran_sophia's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted relaxing sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Pygmalion is a very well written play and I loved to read it. I love the great storyline and character development. The author has done a very good job of describing class differences at the beginning of the 20th century.

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akissforcatullus's review against another edition

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informative reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The likely destructive relationship of the artist and the muse.

Being the first play I’ve read, it felt essential to listen to the audiobook while I read it (it’s free on youtube) and gosh, everything felt much more fluid and distinguishable and easy while listening to the different accents being read aloud. Pygmalion is a thought-provoking play centred around a poor, Cockney, flower-girl named Eliza. The setting is early 20th century London, so class is certainly a focal point. We have Mr Higgins, a tyrannical phoneticist, and Mr Pickering, a much more gentler phoneticist. Both are intrigued by Eliza’s request for lessons to make her speak more genteel—so she can get a job in a nice flower shop. Pickering offers to pay for her lessons and bets Higgins that he can't teach Eliza to speak so well that she passes as a noble at an ambassador's garden party coming up. Higgins and Pickerings incentive to help her is solely for the reason of seeing if they can fool the upper class—being that Higgins at least sees through the hypocrisy of the Victorian social hierarchy, and because of it, relishes in the opportunity to beat high society at its own game. Mr Higgins agrees and becomes her teacher, but since he’s incredibly callous and insulting to Eliza, Mr Pickering finds himself being a sort of mediator for the two, as well as, a person that Eliza learns the proper manners of a gentle person from.

It’s a great play that touches upon sexism and classism, as well as puts into question the absurd idea of Victorian/middle class manners and the belief that such things are either innate or not. It was lovely to see an outspoken, female character like Eliza. I revel in this sentence written after the play has ended (sequel): ‘Eliza has no use for the foolish romantic tradition that all women love to be mastered, if not actually bullied and beaten.’

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ninahuynh's review against another edition

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funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Love Mrs. Higgins! She was the balance to the characters.
Read it along with the audiobook and got to say, it's a new experience! Plays are meant to be performed, so hearing it while also reading along help me visualize the scene and characters better.

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