My Fair Lady is based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion, which is in turn based on Ovid's Metamorphoses. Pygmalion was a sculptor who created a statue of surpassing beauty; at his request, the gods animated the statue as Galatea. Shaw added his own twist though - while Henry Higgins successfully teaches Eliza Doolittle to speak and act like a duchess, she adamantly refuses to be his creation. This brilliantly witty exposure of the British class system will always entertain - first produced in 1914, it remains one of Shaw's most popular plays.