Pygmalion (Illustrated by May Wilson Preston)

First performed in 1913, “Pygmalion” is George Bernard’s Shaw’s play regarding two scholars of phonetics, Professor Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering, trying to test their theories on an unsuspecting flower girl. When Higgins boasts he could pass anyone off as a lord or lady simply by teaching them to speak right, Pickering wagers that he can’t and offers to pay for the speech lessons of Eliza Doolittle, a poor flower girl. Eliza accepts the offer for speech lessons because she wants to lose her Cockney accent so she can get a job in a flower shop. A satire of the superficiality of distinctions between social classes, “Pygmalion” is one of Shaw’s most famous comedies, the subject of numerous stage productions. Forever immortalized by the multiple Academy award-winning motion picture “My Fair Lady”, this play is sure to endure as a dramatic classic for years to come. This edition includes the illustrations by May Wilson Preston which appeared in the first serialized American edition.