I read this after seeing the musical, oh a gajillion times. I think my favorite part was actually the Sequel, where Shaw gives his commentary on the characters and what happened to them. Hilarious!

Audiobook which includes a rather realistic but cheery conclusion after the events of the play, and Anton Lesser was an incredibly entertaining Higgins. More nuanced that I first considered, Higgins is considered just as ridiculous as Eliza and it is excellent to see him so eclipsed by his mother. Colonel Pickering is a delight.

I needed a play for my reading challenge and had never read this before. Fascinating.

This has been a favorite since I was a child. I loved old movies when I was a kid and would actually sit through the entire 4 hours of My Fair Lady and love every minute of it. (I actually know all the songs and if you get me drunk enough I'm sure you'll be hearing Just you wait Enry Iggins just you wait... or Wouldn't it be loverly.) So when I was 10 or 11 someone bought me this book for my birthday and it was love all over again. I heart Eliza.

As a lifelong lover of both literature (especially modern drama) and My Fair Lady, I can’t believe I didn’t know that Pygmalion was the inspiration for one of my favorite musicals! I read it to teach to my AP Lit students and I can’t wait for all the conversations we’ll have about the modern implications of linguistic bias. ❤️

Having just finished this in my Brit Lit class, I felt the urgent need to review it on Goodreads. I can't see anything new or brilliant about Pygmalion. If you want to read a brilliant Pymalion review, see the one Nataliya wrote. What I can tell you is that it's funny, insightful, and kind of infuriating with it comes to punctuation. Eliza Dolittle is a strong, independent woman (rock on!), and I hope she hit Higgins really hard with those slippers. I hated Higgins. I hated him. He is a masochist arrogant jerk who needs a good slap to the head Gibbs-style. Colonel Pickering provides the perfect balance. After reading this play, I am desperate to see My Fair Lady because I a) love Audrey Hepburn movies and b) want to see how the play and musical compare despite the difference. Unfortunately, my Brit Lit teacher cannot be convinced to show the whole thing to us, only bits, so I'll have to rent it on my own. Darn! Anyway, I definitely recommend.

Actually very lovely! Didn't realise that this was the premise of My Fair Lady, and started reading it with only some vague notion of the name Pygmalion, which as I recalled featured in some Greco-Roman tragedy. The title reference wasn't touched on until the last line: “Galatea never does quite like Pygmalion: his relation to her is too godlike to be altogether agreeable.” though that's roused all other sorts of memories, and I'll have to suitably satisfy those another time.

I have endless appreciation for Mrs Higgins and her general tastes in the arts (Morris and Burne Jones!); Higgins himself was a splendid character and comes across as an academic entirely devoted to his craft; the Colonel was a gentleman, and Eliza was written sharp as a tack. I am especially pleased she did not fall in love with either man on Wimpole Street (I really like how the power balance and how that would not foster romantic notions etc. was addressed) but gains enough of a happy ending regardless; though the premise of this class changing transformation was very idealistic / fantastical etc. the execution was not, and ultimately that made the book.

A marvellously entertaining play.

I've seen My Fair Lady on stage a couple of times (once a revival with Rex Harrison himself) and it's a grand entertainment. I'm not the greatest fan of the movie for some reason. I actually like the straight play best, and the movie version with Leslie Howard and Wendy Hiller is wonderful. It's also a good play to read, which I do every now and then...

3.5 stars.

The concept of this play is very good, and it’s a thoroughly enjoyable read (especially when you do the Cockney and upper-class accents!).

I do prefer the movie/stage production of this play though, and this is mainly to do with the ending. It probably says a lot about my level of intelligence, that I like the chick flick, romcom kind of interpretation, rather than Shaw’s more highbrow feminist, idealist play, but there we go!

I would probably recommend this is fans of the film, but otherwise, there are probably better plays you could read with your time (I’m thinking Streetcar…).