"Pygmalion" by Bernard Shaw is a play written in 1912. When phonetics professor Henry Higgins boasts he can transform a Cockney flower girl into a duchess simply by teaching her proper speech, Colonel Pickering takes the bet. Eliza Doolittle arrives at Higgins's door seeking lessons to improve her prospects, setting in motion a social experiment that will test class boundaries and personal transformation. This witty comedy became Shaw's most popular work, later inspiring the musical "My Fair Lady."
Wikipedia page about this book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_(play))