Audiobook · read by volunteers
Pygmalion
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
Read by Kirsten Ferreri, Mary Anderson, Gesine, Kristin Hughes (1974-2021), Martin Clifton, Alex Foster, Peter Yearsley, ianish, Susie G., David Barnes · 7 chapters · 2 h 54
About the book
Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics who can place anyone’s birthplace within a few streets just by listening to them speak. One rainy night in Covent Garden, he overhears a flower seller with an accent as thick as London fog, and he makes a rash boast to his new friend Colonel Pickering: within six months, he says, he could pass her off as a duchess.
Eliza Doolittle takes the offer more seriously than he does. She arrives at his door and the lessons begin. What follows is a sharp comedy about class, language and the strange rules of polite society, but also about something more uncomfortable: what we owe the people we change, and whether a transformation is a gift or a possession.
Seven parts, about three hours: witty, quotable and still provocative.
Introduction
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was born in Dublin and spent most of his working life in London, where he became the leading dramatist of his generation. He was also a critic, a political activist and a famously combative public figure, and he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925. Pygmalion belongs to his most celebrated plays, alongside Man and Superman, Major Barbara and Saint Joan.
The title comes from a Greek myth, told by Ovid, in which a sculptor falls in love with a statue he has carved and sees it come to life. Shaw adapts the idea to modern London: his sculptor is a professor of speech, and his statue a young woman from the street. The play was first staged in German in Vienna and then in English in London in 1914, and it has been revived countless times. It was also the basis for the musical My Fair Lady. Shaw was passionate about phonetics and spelling reform, and the play reflects his belief that the way people speak governs the way they are treated.
This recording is a dramatic reading by LibriVox volunteers, with the parts divided among several voices. It has seven sections and lasts nearly three hours, a good length for a single evening. Because the play was written to be spoken, the text works well in audio form, and the humour comes across immediately.
More than a century later, the questions it raises about class, speech and respect are still lively, and its wit has not aged.
Public domain
George Bernard Shaw died in 1950: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text