The Pygmalion story in British literature until 1900, with special reference to the nineteenth century

This thesis presents an account of the development of the Pygmalion story in British literature up to 1900, giving special attention to its use in the nineteenth century. The first part of the thesis follows the development of the story up to the end of the eighteenth century. The second part concentrates on the story in nineteenth-century Britain, when there was a rise in its popularity: initiated, in part, by an interest in Rousseau's Pygmalion. This study shows that while renarrations of the Pygmalion story in the nineteenth century reflect a trend towards giving expression to ideas on the dominance, oppression and controlling of women, this is not their only concern. Nineteenth-century Pygmalion stories are preoccupied with concepts of artistic creativity, with romantic ideas on dream, and with the issue of how to portray the body and soul in art. An appendix contains lists of references to the Pygmalion story in English literature up to the twentieth century, of major renarrations of the story in Latin, Greek, French and German literature, and of its use in painting, sculpture, and music