Pygmalion was written by George Bernard Shaw and first published in 1913. It is the story of Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics who makes a bet with his friend Colonel Pickering that he can successfully pass off a Cockney flower girl, Eliza Doolittle, as a refined society lady by teaching her how to speak with an upper class accent and training her in etiquette. In the process, Higgins and Eliza grow close, but she ultimately rejects his domineering ways and declares she will marry Fr...

Saint Joan is a 1923 play written by Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw depicting the life of Joan of Arc and first published in 1923.

George Bernard Shaw based his 1913 play "Pygmalion" on the Greek legend of the sculptor, Pygmalion. According to the classic tale, Pygmalion despised women but fell in love with his own sculpture of the goddess Aphrodite. He appeals to Aphrodite to give his statue life. She answers his prayer, and Pygmalion marries his creation.Shaw’s play takes place in Victorian London, where Henry Higgins, a phonetician, accepts a bet that simply by changing the speech of a Cockney flower seller...

Pygmalion is a 5-act play by George Bernard Shaw. It was written in 1912 and first produced in 1913. The plot revolves around Professor Henry Higgins' bet with a colleague over whether he can transform a low-class flower girl, Liza Doolittle, into the equivalent of a Duchess in just 6 months. Pygmalion was a Greek mythological figure who fell in love with a sculpture he had carved and was a popular theme in Victorian drama.This edition has been carefully proofread and form...

After the Battle of Lodi, General Napoleon is sitting in an inn and eating his dinner when a Lieutenant arrives to tell him that some of his dispatches have been stolen. Napoleon determines that a strange lady also staying in the inn has them in her possession, and thus begins a battle of wits for the papers-and over Napoleon's philosophy.This brisk, witty one-act comedy pits a young Napoleon's cunning against a mysterious woman's nerve, turning a battle for stolen letters into a d...

Following the death of her father, Ann Whitefield becomes the ward of Jack Tanner and Roebuck Ramsden; Jack is a childhood friend, author of The Revolutionist's Handbook, and descendant of Don Juan, while Roebuck Ramsden is a respectable friend of her father's entirely opposed to Jack's philosophy. Also in mourning are Octavius Robinson, who is openly in love with Ann, and his sister Violet, who is secretly pregnant. So begins a journey that will take them across London, Europe, a...

“The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They cannot spell it because they have nothing to spell it with but an old foreign alphabet of which only the consonants – and not all of them – have any agreed speech value.After a chance meeting with fellow linguist Colonel Pickering, phonetics professor Henry Higgins makes a bet that he can pass off a Cockney flower seller as a duchess, simply by changing how she speaks. However, Eliz...

The "Collected Works of George Bernard Shaw" is a comprehensive compendium that encapsulates the sharp wit, social criticism, and innovative theatrical techniques of one of the 20th century's most influential playwrights. This anthology showcases Shaw's extensive oeuvre, from his celebrated plays like "Pygmalion" and "Saint Joan" to his essays and prefaces that unveil his progressive ideas on morality, gender, and politics. Shaw's literary style is marked by a characteristic blend of humor...

“Major Barbara” is a play by George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright who became the leading dramatist of his generation, and in 1925 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.Major Barbara is a three-act English play by George Bernard Shaw. The story concerns an idealistic young woman, Barbara Undershaft, who is engaged in helping the poor as a Major in the Salvation Army in London. For many years, Barbara and her siblings have been estranged from their father, Andrew Undershaft, ...

The Count O'Dowda, a hater of what he perceives as the modern vulgarity of England, hires a professional producer and actors to put on a play in his country estate, and then invites professional critics to attend. But unknown to him, his daughter Fanny, a student at Cambridge and a member of the Fabian Society, has written the play with the intent of morally shocking her father, and she hopes that the presence of professional critics will convince him of its artistic merit.Within t...

In the middle of the 1885 Serbo-Bulgarian war, an enemy soldier escapes a cavalry charge by climbing up a drainpipe into Raina Petkoff's room. Raina is the daughter of one Major and engaged to another, but she chooses to save the soldier's life by concealing him.Arms and the Man, named after the opening lines of Virgil's The Aeneid, is a play that humorously deals with the hypocrisy of humanity and the stupidity of war-a sharp-witted comedy that helped launch Geor...

"Plays Pleasant" is a collection of four plays by George Bernard Shaw, first published in 1898: Arms and the Man; Candida; The Man of Destiny; and, You Never Can Tell.One of Bernard Shaw’s most glittering comedies, Arms and the Man is a burlesque of Victorian attitudes to heroism, war and empire. In the contrast between Bluntschli, the mercenary soldier, and the brave leader, Sergius, the true nature of valour is revealed.Shaw mocks deluded idealis...