Pygmalion — LibriVox Audiobook

This synopsis covers the underlying book linked to this recording: Pygmalion. Recording-specific abridgements, added material or adaptation changes have not been verified.

Act One

On a rainy summer evening at Covent Garden in London, various pedestrians seek shelter under the portico of St. Paul's Church. Among them are a mother and daughter in evening dress - Mrs Eynsford-Hill and Clara - waiting for Clara's brother Freddy to secure a taxicab. Freddy returns unsuccessful after an extensive search and is dispatched once more by the impatient women. In his haste, he collides with a young flower girl, scattering her violets. Mrs Eynsford-Hill provides the girl with sixpence in compensation.

An elderly gentleman in evening attire then takes shelter. The flower girl attempts to sell him a bloom. A bystander draws attention to a man who has been recording the conversation in a notebook. The flower girl, fearing the note-taker to be a police informant who might compromise her respectability, becomes agitated. The note-taker calms the gathering and proceeds to identify the geographic origins of several individuals solely from their speech patterns, correctly placing the flower girl in Lisson Grove and the elderly gentleman in a sequence of locations including Cheltenham, Harrow, Cambridge, and India.

As the rain ceases, Mrs Eynsford-Hill and Clara depart on foot. The note-taker and the elderly gentleman introduce themselves: the former is Henry Higgins, a specialist in phonetics and author of a universal alphabet; the latter is Colonel Pickering, a student of Indian dialects who has travelled expressly to meet Higgins. The two men arrange to continue their acquaintance. Higgins asserts that, through phonetic training, he could enable the flower girl to pass as a duchess within three months. Before leaving with Pickering, he deposits a quantity of coins in her basket.

Freddy reappears with a taxicab, only to discover that his mother and sister have already gone. The flower girl engages the vehicle and directs it first, for effect, toward Buckingham Palace before instructing the driver to convey her to her modest lodging in Angel Court, Drury Lane. Upon arrival, she counts her unexpected gains and retires to bed.

Act Two

The next morning, in Higgins's laboratory at his residence in Wimpole Street, Higgins and Pickering examine phonetic apparatus and discuss the science of speech. Mrs Pearce, the housekeeper, announces the arrival of a young woman, the flower girl they encountered the previous evening. Identifying herself as Eliza Doolittle, she requests instruction in refined speech so that she may secure employment in a flower shop rather than sell flowers on the street, offering one shilling per lesson. Higgins initially dismisses her as of no further phonetic interest, but Pickering proposes a wager: he will cover all expenses of the experiment if Higgins succeeds in training Eliza to pass as a duchess at an ambassador's garden party within six months. Intrigued by the challenge and by Eliza's pronounced Cockney dialect, Higgins accepts. He instructs Mrs Pearce to bathe and reclothe the girl at once, treating the undertaking as a scientific project.

Mrs Pearce expresses practical and moral reservations concerning Eliza's welfare, family circumstances, and future prospects once the experiment concludes. Higgins remains largely indifferent to these considerations, regarding Eliza primarily as material for linguistic study. After some resistance, Eliza is compelled to bathe and is provided with clean attire. During this interval, Pickering seeks assurance that Higgins will behave honorably toward their pupil; Higgins affirms that pupils are regarded as sacred. Mrs Pearce further admonishes Higgins regarding his habitual language and personal manners, which she deems unsuitable for the girl's presence.

Alfred Doolittle, Eliza's father and a dustman, then arrives. He first appears to demand his daughter's return, but soon reveals that he seeks financial compensation for relinquishing her. He describes himself as one of the "undeserving poor" and argues that middle-class morality systematically disadvantages men of his sort. After a rhetorical exchange, Higgins presents him with five pounds, which Doolittle accepts with the declaration that the sum will be spent promptly rather than saved. Eliza reappears, thoroughly cleansed and dressed in a Japanese kimono. Her transformation astonishes both her father and the two gentlemen. After Doolittle departs, Eliza shows growing awareness of her altered appearance and circumstances, and Higgins and Pickering acknowledge the formidable task they have undertaken.

Act Three

At the residence of Higgins's mother on Chelsea Embankment, Higgins arrives uninvited during her regular afternoon reception and informs her of his progress with Eliza. He has arranged for Eliza to attend the gathering as a preliminary test of her ability to pass in polite society, restricting her conversation to the weather and matters of health. The visitors are the Eynsford-Hills, followed by Pickering. Eliza is elegantly attired and speaks with precise and refined pronunciation. She conducts herself with outward composure and makes a favourable first impression. When the conversation turns to health, however, her recounting of an aunt's death, which contains references to possible foul play and alcoholism, reveals both her original social background and residual habits of speech.

Her utterance of the phrase "not bloody likely" upon her departure causes marked consternation among the company; Clara subsequently adopts the expression as fashionable. After the guests depart, Mrs Higgins confronts her son and Pickering with the experiment's complications, particularly the question of Eliza's future once her linguistic training is complete. The two men remain absorbed in the technical success of their undertaking and dismiss her concerns.

Later, Eliza appears in full evening dress with Higgins and Pickering at a formal reception at a London embassy. A former pupil of Higgins named Nepommuck, acting as an interpreter, examines her speech and concludes that she is a Hungarian of royal blood, precisely because her English is too perfect to be that of a native; the hostess and other guests accept this assessment. Eliza thus succeeds in passing as a person of high rank, thereby fulfilling the terms of the wager between Higgins and Pickering.

Act Four

One midnight in Higgins's laboratory, Higgins and Pickering return from a series of engagements that included a garden party, a dinner, and the opera. They are relieved that the wager has been won and that the lengthy effort is finished, regarding the social obligations as tedious and artificial. Eliza, still in full evening attire, remains silent and largely disregarded while the two men discuss the day's events and prepare to retire. Eliza retrieves Higgins's slippers and places them before him without comment. After Pickering withdraws, she loses her composure and hurls the slippers at Higgins.

She accuses him of indifference to her fate now that the experiment has succeeded and demands to know what is to become of her. Higgins, surprised by her outburst, treats the matter lightly. He suggests that she might marry or that Pickering could establish her in a florist's shop, and he fails to recognize the depth of her distress. Eliza then inquires whether the clothes and accessories she wears belong to her or to Pickering, noting that her original garments were destroyed. She removes and returns the hired jewels and a ring that Higgins had purchased for her. Higgins, chucking the ring into the fireplace, is offended at what he regards as her ingratitude and angrily departs. Left alone, Eliza feels a brief sense of triumph before retrieving the ring.

Act Five

The next morning, Higgins and Pickering arrive at Mrs Higgins's residence in considerable agitation, having discovered that Eliza left Wimpole Street during the night and having informed the police of her disappearance. Mrs Higgins criticizes their conduct and their presumption in treating Eliza as property. Alfred Doolittle enters, transformed in appearance and circumstances. An American philanthropist, acting upon a casual recommendation once made by Higgins, has bequeathed him an annual income of three thousand pounds on the condition that he lecture for a moral reform organization. Doolittle laments that the bequest has destroyed his former independence as one of the undeserving poor and has subjected him to the constraints of middle-class respectability. He is on his way to marry Eliza's stepmother at St. George's, Hanover Square.

Mrs Higgins discloses that Eliza is upstairs and recounts her sense of having been disregarded after the successful conclusion of the experiment. Eliza then appears, composed and self-possessed. She expresses gratitude to Pickering for the courtesy that first gave her self-respect, while observing that Higgins continues to regard her merely as the product of his instruction. She agrees to attend her father's wedding. After the others depart for the ceremony, Higgins and Eliza remain. She refuses to resume a subordinate role in his household and asserts her intention to maintain her independence, whether by teaching phonetics or by marrying Freddy.

Higgins acknowledges that he has grown accustomed to her presence and will miss her, yet he declines to alter his manner or to offer conventional affection. He expresses satisfaction at her newfound strength of character, and Eliza leaves with dignity, declining to perform a list of errands for him. Left alone, Higgins self-assuredly chuckles at the idea of Eliza marrying Freddy.