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The Enchanted: A Comedy in Three Acts
A charming young lady in a provincial French town is obsessed by the supernatural. Most are tolerant of her, but the government inspector regards her as a threat to order and security. He summons all of the authority and power of the state to rid her of her obsession. She falls in love, thereby discovering the joys of the normal world and accomplishing in a split second what law, force and logic could not.
Written in 1933 and translated by Maurice Valency.
Written in 1933 and translated by Maurice Valency.
- GenresContemporary
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
1 person is currently reading
87 people want to read
About the author
Jean Giraudoux
464 books76 followersGreek mythology or Biblical stories base dramas, such as
Electra
(1937), of French writer Hippolyte Jean Giraudoux, who also wrote several novels. He fathered Jean-Pierre Giraudoux.
People consider this French novelist, essayist, diplomat. and playwright among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. They note his work for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy. The relationship between man and woman or some unattainable ideal in some cases dominates themes of Giraudoux .
Léger Giraudoux, father of Jean Giraudoux, worked for the ministry of transport. Giraudoux studied at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux and upon graduation traveled extensively in Europe. After his return to France in 1910, he accepted a position with the ministry of foreign affairs.
With the outbreak of World War I, he served with distinction and in 1915 became the first writer ever to be awarded the wartime Legion of Honour.
He married in 1918 and in the subsequent inter-war period produced the majority of his writing. He first achieved literary success through his novels, notably Siegfried et le Limousin (1922) and Eglantine (1927). An ongoing collaboration with actor and theater director Louis Jouvet, beginning in 1928 with Jouvet's radical streamlining of Siegfried for the stage, stimulated his writing. But it is through his plays that gained him international renown. He became well known in the English-speaking world largely because of the award-winning adaptations of his plays by Christopher Fry (The Trojan War Will Not Take Place) and Maurice Valency (The Madwoman of Chaillot, Ondine, The Enchanted, The Apollo of Bellac).
Giraudoux served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding the Prix Blumenthal, a grant given between 1919 and 1954 to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians.
He is buried in the Cimetière de Passy in Paris.
His son, Jean-Pierre Giraudoux, was also a writer.
People consider this French novelist, essayist, diplomat. and playwright among the most important French dramatists of the period between World War I and World War II. They note his work for its stylistic elegance and poetic fantasy. The relationship between man and woman or some unattainable ideal in some cases dominates themes of Giraudoux .
Léger Giraudoux, father of Jean Giraudoux, worked for the ministry of transport. Giraudoux studied at the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux and upon graduation traveled extensively in Europe. After his return to France in 1910, he accepted a position with the ministry of foreign affairs.
With the outbreak of World War I, he served with distinction and in 1915 became the first writer ever to be awarded the wartime Legion of Honour.
He married in 1918 and in the subsequent inter-war period produced the majority of his writing. He first achieved literary success through his novels, notably Siegfried et le Limousin (1922) and Eglantine (1927). An ongoing collaboration with actor and theater director Louis Jouvet, beginning in 1928 with Jouvet's radical streamlining of Siegfried for the stage, stimulated his writing. But it is through his plays that gained him international renown. He became well known in the English-speaking world largely because of the award-winning adaptations of his plays by Christopher Fry (The Trojan War Will Not Take Place) and Maurice Valency (The Madwoman of Chaillot, Ondine, The Enchanted, The Apollo of Bellac).
Giraudoux served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal in awarding the Prix Blumenthal, a grant given between 1919 and 1954 to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians.
He is buried in the Cimetière de Passy in Paris.
His son, Jean-Pierre Giraudoux, was also a writer.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 25, 2022
I was close to crying from this book. I thought it would be a guilty pleasure chicklit, but there was actually a lot of tragedy. I felt so sorry for Madelaine and felt horrible that things only became worse and worse for her. Yes, the bad people got their karma in the end, but it never felt as if she ever got her happiness back. I was actually almost disturbed from this tragedy, I was not expecting it at all. If you easily empathise with characters, and cry when they cry, avoid Enchanted. Without all the heavy stuff, I would have loved this book. It has left me wide-eyed at the cruelty of this world. Madelaine deserved so much more. My heart is broken, because I was rooting for her so much 💔
July 12, 2017
What a story! OMG I felt young again - this was just the time I grew up and I know the 80ies, beginning of 90ies so well and Lucinda Edmonds (aka Riley) caught the tension of this time perfectly!
In this book I found very strong characters: Maddie, who is having the main role, is drawn with so much love - I will miss her now because the book is over (and I wonder if she got a boy or a girl?).
Sebastian her childhood friend and now partner is also such a strong character and nice to have by your side as a husband! Maddie's father is a bit pale, I think there you could have get more out of him, but this is okay. I loved the way Yvette changed through the book - in the beginning I didn't like her at all, but in the end I would love to have a cup of tea with her. Nicole and Sasha - the "evil" ones - nicely drawn too. Nicole stays disgusting while at the end Sacha got the right way...even if it was too late for him.
It is for sure a lovely and entertaining summer read for all who were teenagers that time and remember it so well - nice time travel. And for all those who only heard about those time it is a good stroy to find out how life in those years was.
In this book I found very strong characters: Maddie, who is having the main role, is drawn with so much love - I will miss her now because the book is over (and I wonder if she got a boy or a girl?).
Sebastian her childhood friend and now partner is also such a strong character and nice to have by your side as a husband! Maddie's father is a bit pale, I think there you could have get more out of him, but this is okay. I loved the way Yvette changed through the book - in the beginning I didn't like her at all, but in the end I would love to have a cup of tea with her. Nicole and Sasha - the "evil" ones - nicely drawn too. Nicole stays disgusting while at the end Sacha got the right way...even if it was too late for him.
It is for sure a lovely and entertaining summer read for all who were teenagers that time and remember it so well - nice time travel. And for all those who only heard about those time it is a good stroy to find out how life in those years was.
May 2, 2023
Not too bad, but not the straight romance I expected from a book in this series. It was fun to read about London, and the story was interesting enough. Shame it turned into a soap opera plot towards the end, that really wasn't neccessary.
May 7, 2018
I'm currently reading this novel, I'm going to page 70, and I'm enjoying absolutely, every page.
the story is really, really, absorbing. The story of this girl, the protagonist, is fascinating.
I've been reading novels of all kinds for many years, and I'm super happy to have discovered this novel, because I love it. I will not tell anything about the book, because I do not want to reveal anything, so I can only say that I encourage anyone who wants a fabulous story to read this book.
I'm loving it and just to give you an idea howmuch I love this book that I usually dine, watching TV, well, yesterday, as soon as I got home, I went to my room for the book, went to the kitchen and turned off the TV ¡¡¡ and while I was eating, I read the book!¡¡ So for you to see, how much I like it, and how intrigued I am in this girl's story. It is captivating. I love it, of course, I'm going to read more books by this author that I did not know.
the story is really, really, absorbing. The story of this girl, the protagonist, is fascinating.
I've been reading novels of all kinds for many years, and I'm super happy to have discovered this novel, because I love it. I will not tell anything about the book, because I do not want to reveal anything, so I can only say that I encourage anyone who wants a fabulous story to read this book.
I'm loving it and just to give you an idea howmuch I love this book that I usually dine, watching TV, well, yesterday, as soon as I got home, I went to my room for the book, went to the kitchen and turned off the TV ¡¡¡ and while I was eating, I read the book!¡¡ So for you to see, how much I like it, and how intrigued I am in this girl's story. It is captivating. I love it, of course, I'm going to read more books by this author that I did not know.
December 6, 2024
I wasn't sure what to expect, I heard it was a "light comedy." But Giraudoux's style is something completely unique - full of paradox and philosophical wonder, magical realism and inhabiting a space between and around the genre boundaries of the time. Some of the lines are laugh out loud funny. Others are brimming with a magician's sense of possible impossibilities.
December 17, 2024
Love is an illusion that distracts us from death, and the rational world is always at odds with the irrational. Not the most original ideas in Western letters, but certainly a unique way of presenting it: an offbeat school teacher falls for the “ghost” of a murderer. The only play I’ve read by Giraudoux so far that failed to hit the mark.
December 16, 2019
Lovely play. A Classic and one of my favorites! I had the 2nd lead (the Doctor) in a production of this magical play when I was a Freshman at Oklahoma College for Women in Chickasaw, Oklahoma. Great memories.
October 25, 2014
Fabulous story by Lucinda Edmonds aka Riley.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews