Toy Gods: A Scarce Novel Illuminates Eliza Doolittle's Plea, "I Only Want to Be Natural"

The feminist concerns of the group of artists and socialists in which Shaw was an active voice were expressed in numerous ways. Wilhelmina Stirling in 1904 published a novel, Toy Gods, virtually unknown today, which has plot elements similar to those of Pygmalion. As she and her family, which included Pre-Raphaelite artists and writers, were themselves in society and experienced its constraints, her observations are particularly relevant. Her novel illuminates the social and feminist concerns so important to Shaw, in particular those expressed by Eliza when she told Higgins, "I only want to be natural." Written by Mary De Morgan (Stirling's sister Evelyn's sister-in-law), the fairy tale "A Toy Princess" further expresses these concerns. The romanticization of Shaw's play is discussed in the context of these issues.