The ancient Greeks tell the legend of the sculptor Pygmalion, who created a statue of a woman of such surpassing beauty that he fell in love with his own creation. Then, Aphrodite, taking pity on this man whose love could not reach beyond the barrier of stone, brought the statue to life and gave her to Pygmalion as his bride. Centuries later, George Bernard Shaw captured the magic of this legend in his celebrated romantic play, Pygmalion. Pygmalion became Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, his statue an untutored flower girl from the streets of London, and the barrier between them the difference in their stations in life. In My Fair Lady, Alan Jay Lerner takes the legend one step further--the barrier is swept away and Higgins and Eliza are reunited as the curtain falls on one of the loveliest musical plays of our time-winning seven Tonys(R) for its original Broadway production, and seven Oscars(R) for its film adaptation.

Пигмалион - одно из величайших произведений Джорджа Бернарда Шоу. Это история простой цветочницы Элизы Дулиттл, которая решила стать настоящей леди, обратившись за помощью к вздорному и высокомерному профессору лингвистики. Тот берётся научить Элизу правильному произношению и избавиться от её кокни-акцента. Остроумная комедия показывает искусственность различия социальных классов и обнаруживает, что говорить, как леди - не то же самое, что быть ею. Читайте зарубежную литературу в оригинале!

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. George Bernard Shaw's classic play and satire of the British class system, first performed in 1913.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. George Bernard Shaw’s classic play and satire of the British class system, first performed in 1913.

Unique edition presented in its definitive 1941 version with footnotes indicating the textual variants from the first volume edition of 1916 When professor of phonetics Henry Higgins wagers with Colonel Pickering that he could teach even a gutter-mouthed flower seller how to speak like a duchess, little does he expect that his social experiment will be riddled with difficulties, and that behind her cockney parlance the girl in question, Eliza Doolittle, has a mind, ideas and aspirations of her own. Things come to a crux when the creature starts to rebel against her creator – and the scene is set for a play that questions the class system, social appearances and the role of women in society. Universally regarded as Shaw’s most successful work, Pygmalion – here presented in its definitive 1941 version, with footnotes indicating the textual variants from the first volume edition of 1916 – has spawned a great number of adaptations, among them the famous 1956 Broadway musical My Fair Lady, and shows ancient myth’s undiminished ability to find new incarnations in modern life.

George Bernard Shaw is one of the most famous and celebrated Irish playwrights and this new collection brings together the very best of his witty and entertaining comedies in one volume; Pygmalion, Major Barbara and Androcles and the Lion. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket-sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition has a preface by Oscar-winning actress Judi Dench. Pygmalion was first performed in 1914 and was an instant hit which then inspired the hit musical and award winning film, My Fair Lady. It tells the story of Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins, who tries to elevate a feisty flower girl out of her working-class roots and into high society. In Major Barbara, idealistic Barbara is a major in the Salvation Army, at odds with her millionaire father as they war over the best route to salvation. Androcles and the Lion is a clever retelling of the Bible story about a gentle Christian who pulls a thorn from a lion's paw. All three plays are not only wonderfully amusing, they also showcase Shaw's intense concerns about poverty, class and inequality. Shaw's sparkling fable New York Times on Androcles and the Lion Major Barbara is a rich play, but also a peculiar one, made up in equal measures of drawing room comedy, philosophical debate and a tale of salvationism that wouldn't embarrass Guys and Dolls. Variety

Издание на английском языке. Полный неадаптированный текст произведения. A rousing success on the London and New York stages, a popular film and a great musical hit (My Fair Lady), this brilliantly written play, with its irresistible theme of the emerging butterfly, is one of the most acclaimed comedies in the English language.

В издание вошли две пьесы автора. Одна из них - "Пигмалион" (1914) - повествует о простой цветочнице, ставшей настоящей леди. Другая - "Цезарь и Клеопатра" (1899), в которой юная девушка на глазах читателей превращается в настоящую царицу. В книге представлен неадаптированный текст на языке оригинала.

Джордж Бернард Шоу - ирландский прозаик и критик XX века и самый прославленный - после Шекспира - драматург, писавший на английском и языке. "Кандида" - это остроумная лирическая комедия о вечных и вечно новых отношениях мужчин и женщин. Пьеса расскажет читателю о непонятном и загадочном, не поддающемся рациональному объяснению, и о том, за что женщина может любить мужчину... Читайте зарубежную литературу в оригинале!

Джордж Бернард Шоу (1856-1950) выдающийся британский драматург, один из основателей реалистической драмы ХХ века, сатирик, юморист, лауреат Нобелевской премии в области литературы. Он внес неоценимый вклад в развитие национального театра, и в Англии имя Бернарда Шоу стоит в одном ряду с именем Шекспира. Основным оружием борьбы с несправедливостью любого рода драматург считал смех. В издание вошли две лучшие пьесы автора "Пигмалион" (1913) и "Тележка с яблоками" (1929). Издание на английском языке.

George Bernard Shaw demanded truth and despised convention. He punctured hollow pretensions and smug prudishness—coating his criticism with ingenious and irreverent wit. In Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, and Man and Superman, the great playwright satirizes society, military heroism, marriage, and the pursuit of man by woman. .

George Bernard Shaw demanded truth and despised convention. He punctured hollow pretensions and smug prudishness—coating his criticism with ingenious and irreverent wit. In Mrs. Warren’s Profession, Arms and the Man, Candida, and Man and Superman, the great playwright satirizes society, military heroism, marriage, and the pursuit of man by woman. .

When Ellie Dunn joins a house-party at the home of the eccentric Captain Shotover, she causes a stir with her decision to marry for money rather than love, and the Captain's forthright daughter Hesione protests vigorously against the pragmatic young woman's choice. Opinion on the matter quickly divides and a lively argument about money and morality, idealism and realism ensues as Hesione's rakish husband, snobbish sister and Ellie's fiance - a wealthy industrialist - enter the debate. Written between 1916 and 1917 as war raged across Europe, Heartbreak House is a telling indictment of the generation responsible for the First World War. With its bold combination of high farce and bitter tragedy, Shaw's play remains an uncannily prophetic depiction of a society on the threshold of an abrupt awakening.

Andrew Undershaft, a millionaire armaments manufacturer, loves money and despises poverty. His estranged daughter Barbara, on the other hand, shows her love for the poor by throwing her energies into her work as a Major in the Salvation Army, and sees her father as another soul to be saved. But when the Army needs funds to keep going, it is Undershaft who saves the day with a large cheque - forcing Barbara to examine her moral assumptions. Are they right to accept money that has been obtained by 'Death and Destruction'? Full of lively comedy and sparkling debate, Major Barbara is one of Shaw's most forward-looking plays, brilliantly testing the tensions between religion, wealth and power, benevolence and equality, and metaphors and realities of war.

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 idealism in Candida, when a young poet becomes infatuated with the wife of a Socialist preacher. The Man of Destiny is a witty war of words between Napoleon and a ‘strange lady’, while in the exuberant farce You Never Can Tell a divided family is reunited by chance. Although Shaw intended Plays Pleasant to be gentler comedies than those in their companion volume, Plays Unpleasant, their prophetic satire is sharp and provocative.

With Plays Unpleasant, Shaw issued a radical challenge to his audiences' complacency and exposed social evils through his dramatization of the moral conflicts between youthful idealism and economic reality, promiscuity and marriage, and the duties of women to others and to themselves. His first play, Widowers' Houses, depicts Harry Trench's dilemma on learning that the inheritance of his fiancee comes from her father's income as a slum landlord. In The Philanderer, charismatic Leonard Charteris proposes marriage to Grace, while he is still involved with the beautiful Julia Craven - who is not inclined to give him up so easily. And in Mrs Warren's Profession, Vivie Warren is forced to reconsider her own future when she discovers that her mother's immoral earnings funded her genteel upbringing.