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Pygmalion Guide 1
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PYGMALIONby Bernard Shaw
, THE AUTHOR
George Bernard Shaw 1856 - 1950
George Bernard Shaw, born in Dublin in 1856, began his plays Arms and The Man, Candida, The Man of Destiny and You
writing career as a novelist and journalist, but gained his great Never Can Tell. In 1897 Shaw attained his first commercial
fame as a playwright. Most people consider Shaw the second- success with the American premiere of The Devil’s Disciple, the
greatest playwright in the English language, after only Shake- income from which enabled him to quit his job as a drama
speare. critic and to make his living solely as a playwright.
Growing up in Dublin, Shaw devel- In 1898 he married Charlotte Payne-
oped a wide knowledge of music, art Townshend, an Irish heiress whom
and literature under the influence of he had met through his Fabian
his mother, a singer and vocal music friends Beatrice and Sidney Webb.
teacher. At age 20 he moved to Lon-
Although Shaw’s plays were not
don, where he spent his afternoons
popular initially, in the period 1904-
in the British Museum and his eve-
07 he began to reach a larger audi-
nings pursuing his informal educa-
ence through an influential series of
tion by attending lectures and de-
productions at London’s Royal Court
bates. He declared himself a socialist
Theatre. His plays became known for
in 1882 and joined the new “Fabian
their brilliant arguments, their wit,
Society” in 1884. Soon he distin-
and their unrelenting challenges to
guished himself as an effective public
the conventional morality of his time.
speaker, and an incisive and irrever-
His best-known play, Pygmalion, was
ent critic of music, art and drama.
first performed in 1913. Two genera-
As a critic, he grew weary of the tions later, it attained even greater
fashionable but intellectually barren fame as the musical My Fair Lady.
melodramas of the 19th century. His
During World War I, Shaw’s anti-war
admiration for the Norwegian play-
speeches and a controversial pam-
wright Henrik Ibsen (about whom he
phlet entitled Common Sense About the
wrote influential essays) encouraged
War made him very unpopular as a public figure. In Heart-
Shaw to reshape the English stage with sophisticated come-
break House (performed 1920) Shaw exposed, in a country-
dies that presented what he considered important social is-
house setting, the spiritual bankruptcy of the generation re-
sues.
sponsible for the carnage. Next came Back to Methuselah
Shaw’s first play, Widowers’ Houses, was produced at a private (1922) and Saint Joan (1923), acclaim for which led to his re-
theatre club in 1892. It was followed by The Philanderer and ceiving the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1925.
Mrs Warren’s Profession. These three plays were published as
Shaw continued to write plays and essays until his death in
Plays Unpleasant (1898). More palatable, though still rich with
1950 at the age of 94.
challenges to conventional middle-class values, were his Plays
Pleasant published the same year: this volume included the
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