Alex Keane reviewed Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw (Dover thrift editions)
Review of 'Pygmalion' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
As a linguist, I thoroughly enjoyed Shaw's look at the intersection of class and dialect.
Mass Market Paperback, 112 pages
English language
Published July 8, 1973 by Washington Square Press.
When George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion more than a half century ago, it seemed unlikely that his little play would eventually be converted into one of the great musicals of our time, My Fair Lady, and a modtion picture that captured numerous Academy Awards. Yet such popularity should not have been surprising since succeeding generations of readers and playgoers find continual relevance in the story of a speech therapist who successfully converts an untutored flower girl into a darling of high society. The extraordinary wit of the master dramatist of the twentieth century has not lost its sharp edge as it cuts away at the artificiality of lcass distinctions and the callousness of indifference to human worth. (back cover)
As a linguist, I thoroughly enjoyed Shaw's look at the intersection of class and dialect.