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| Book cover Via Amazon.com |
Opinion
I picked this up on Kindle Unlimited, and I was sent back to my teenage years. I watched “My Fair Lady,” I think a dozen times when I was in ninth grade. I always found the musical to be such an interesting premise and I thought it was a fantastic story about family dynamics, personal change, peer pressure, society pressures, and also what it means to love your self. My economics teacher continuously used the story to explain why it was essential to understand your wealth, as well as how to keep your books for yourself.
Now, I ’m not about to transcribe lessons of debt ratios that my economics teacher used, but I am confident this story left an impact on me about self-reliance and the knowledge that everything costs something.
My first impressions after picking this up again, was just how startling the role of the character Eliza is. Eliza is every woman for her day, an explanation not only about how women did not have rights but that people thought women were legal property. She faces not only society but her own family, and her life.
Let’s talk about a couple of critiques here, and they come from the “Story Structure, Foundation and Presentation” part of my reviewing. Now, first I need to explain, this is a play. The narrative is not written like a standard novel or short story; it’s written in a theatrical style. That said, there are some seriously frustrating text issues in the story. Some of the fonts appear smaller than the others, though I have a feeling it’s all the same size. Second, when you have oddly shaped typefaces, and then add italics, it makes the eyes suffer as the narrative goes on.
Now that said, I know that theater styled writing needs identification and it requires some stylization that is outside of novels. While there are sections of spaces between paragraphs, it is not during dialog sections of scenes.
Now let’s go into what I enjoyed about “Pygmalion,” and that has to do with the character building. Not only does Eliza have a full arch, but so does Higgins. Higgins, more than anyone else I feel, was transformed through the story, even if he is the antagonist in some ways. He has an exciting run, and by the end of it, the situation did change him.
Another thing I found very interesting was in the play; there is one end, the climax to the main tale. In the whole book though, and why this is a novel more than a play, there is another ending to the story and rest of the plot. Now, there is a fair deal about “Romance” as the author calls it. I am honestly convinced that’s not a romance at all, but rather the difference between marital friendship and lifelong friendship. I dare anyone who reads this story to look deeply into how they would categorize Higgins and Eliza’s association at the end. I like it personally because I love the banter between the two characters and the life that they have, as well as all of the exciting things Eliza learned along the way.
Also, a side thing I loved, there was a lot about the business management of life in Victorian England and how the classes play into it. Well, I loved this part of the story. Often with stories like this, it’s tough to figure out how sometimes the foundation work in a story comes together. Such as “Why does this character have so much money?” when it’s not easily explained. Well, I enjoyed this part of the story. Everyone had a background and an explanation. The frauds were pointed out regardless of their class, and the others were too.
Score
So, what does this beautiful book get? Well, after doing all the math, “Pygmalion” receives an 82/100 which makes this a four-star review on Goodreads and Amazon.
