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Oeuvres de Molière #2
Œuvres Complètes
Naam op titelpagina / Name on title page / / French literature / Frans / French / Français / Französisch / hard cover / dust jacket / 18 x 23 cm / 676 .pp /
675 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1862
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165 people want to read
About the author
Molière
4,621 books1,504 followersSophisticated comedies of French playwright Molière, pen name of Jean Baptiste Poquelin, include
Tartuffe
(1664),
The Misanthrope
(1666), and
The Bourgeois Gentleman
(1670).
French literary figures, including Molière and Jean de la Fontaine, gathered at Auteuil, a favorite place.
People know and consider Molière, stage of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, also an actor of the greatest masters in western literature. People best know l'Ecole des femmes (The School for Wives), l'Avare ou l'École du mensonge (The Miser), and le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid) among dramas of Molière.
From a prosperous family, Molière studied at the Jesuit Clermont college (now lycée Louis-le-Grand) and well suited to begin a life in the theater. While 13 years as an itinerant actor helped to polish his abilities, he also began to combine the more refined elements with ccommedia dell'arte.
Through the patronage of the brother of Louis XIV and a few aristocrats, Molière procured a command performance before the king at the Louvre. Molière performed a classic of [authore:Pierre Corneille] and le Docteur amoureux (The Doctor in Love), a farce of his own; people granted him the use of Salle du Petit-Bourbon, a spacious room, appointed for theater at the Louvre. Later, people granted the use of the Palais-Royal to Molière. In both locations, he found success among the Parisians with les Précieuses ridicules (The Affected Ladies), l'École des maris</i> (<i>The School for Husbands</i>), and <i>[book:l'École des femmes (The School for Wives). This royal favor brought a pension and the title "Troupe du Roi" (the troupe of the king). Molière continued as the official author of court entertainments.
Molière received the adulation of the court and Parisians, but from moralists and the Church, his satires attracted criticisms. From the Church, his attack on religious hypocrisy roundly received condemnations, while people banned performance of Don Juan . From the stage, hard work of Molière in so many theatrical capacities began to take its toll on his health and forced him to take a break before 1667.
From pulmonary tuberculosis, Molière suffered. In 1673 during his final production of le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), a coughing fit and a haemorrhage seized him as Argan, the hypochondriac. He finished the performance but collapsed again quickly and died a few hours later. In time in Paris, Molière completely reformed.
French literary figures, including Molière and Jean de la Fontaine, gathered at Auteuil, a favorite place.
People know and consider Molière, stage of Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, also an actor of the greatest masters in western literature. People best know l'Ecole des femmes (The School for Wives), l'Avare ou l'École du mensonge (The Miser), and le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid) among dramas of Molière.
From a prosperous family, Molière studied at the Jesuit Clermont college (now lycée Louis-le-Grand) and well suited to begin a life in the theater. While 13 years as an itinerant actor helped to polish his abilities, he also began to combine the more refined elements with ccommedia dell'arte.
Through the patronage of the brother of Louis XIV and a few aristocrats, Molière procured a command performance before the king at the Louvre. Molière performed a classic of [authore:Pierre Corneille] and le Docteur amoureux (The Doctor in Love), a farce of his own; people granted him the use of Salle du Petit-Bourbon, a spacious room, appointed for theater at the Louvre. Later, people granted the use of the Palais-Royal to Molière. In both locations, he found success among the Parisians with les Précieuses ridicules (The Affected Ladies), l'École des maris</i> (<i>The School for Husbands</i>), and <i>[book:l'École des femmes (The School for Wives). This royal favor brought a pension and the title "Troupe du Roi" (the troupe of the king). Molière continued as the official author of court entertainments.
Molière received the adulation of the court and Parisians, but from moralists and the Church, his satires attracted criticisms. From the Church, his attack on religious hypocrisy roundly received condemnations, while people banned performance of Don Juan . From the stage, hard work of Molière in so many theatrical capacities began to take its toll on his health and forced him to take a break before 1667.
From pulmonary tuberculosis, Molière suffered. In 1673 during his final production of le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), a coughing fit and a haemorrhage seized him as Argan, the hypochondriac. He finished the performance but collapsed again quickly and died a few hours later. In time in Paris, Molière completely reformed.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 1, 2019
If you plunge fearlessly into Dante and Goethe and Virgil and de Cervantes in hopes that the classic-classics which inspired the modern-classics remain relevant today, Moliere should immediately jump to the top of your reading list. I was intimidated to go back so far and order the exhumation of the works of a French renaissance playwright, but this one was a resounding winner and definitely worth my time.
I think I have the poet Richard Wilbur to thank for that. One of the many commendations I have for this L.A. Theatre Works production of Moliere is that they do interviews and backstory on the works and their translation between plays. As it turns out, the shocking revelation of enjoyment I experienced in the first ten minutes of The Bungler was largely due to the excellent translation work and modernization done by Richard Wilbur. A play written as a poem, whose jargon can be easily comprehended on the first recitation, is a sheer delight, almost regardless of the content. And the content here is quite excellent as well.
Moliere's plays are short rhyming mix-ups, usually involving mistaken identities or overly jealous lovers who suspect the worst of one another and play their own dupes. He marries the mental fun of a P.G. Wodehouse scamper with the action of an Arsenic And Old Lace or Harvey madcap, draped over a french renaissance landscape reminiscent of Shakespeare. Rather than the good-natured Bertie trying to employ a friendly Jeeves to help a pal out of a bind, Moliere's characters tend to be misanthropic, falling away from one another into miscalculated pettiness based on half information. They are characters approaching on revolution, which are understood best through a comic lens.
This was one of the most positive experiences I have had with listening to a dramatization in lieu of a narrator in audiobook. A play really does translate better with a cast, and these plays were greatly enhanced by the theatrical elements. Moliere was known first and foremost as an incredible and improvisational actor, who eventually turned his hand to writing his own plays. I get the sense that some disenchantment with the frivolity of society and the human heart lies behind much of his writing, but he turned it to light-hearted comedy rather than despair. We laugh to keep from crying, and Moliere figured out how to tangle a hilarious skein.
I think I have the poet Richard Wilbur to thank for that. One of the many commendations I have for this L.A. Theatre Works production of Moliere is that they do interviews and backstory on the works and their translation between plays. As it turns out, the shocking revelation of enjoyment I experienced in the first ten minutes of The Bungler was largely due to the excellent translation work and modernization done by Richard Wilbur. A play written as a poem, whose jargon can be easily comprehended on the first recitation, is a sheer delight, almost regardless of the content. And the content here is quite excellent as well.
Moliere's plays are short rhyming mix-ups, usually involving mistaken identities or overly jealous lovers who suspect the worst of one another and play their own dupes. He marries the mental fun of a P.G. Wodehouse scamper with the action of an Arsenic And Old Lace or Harvey madcap, draped over a french renaissance landscape reminiscent of Shakespeare. Rather than the good-natured Bertie trying to employ a friendly Jeeves to help a pal out of a bind, Moliere's characters tend to be misanthropic, falling away from one another into miscalculated pettiness based on half information. They are characters approaching on revolution, which are understood best through a comic lens.
This was one of the most positive experiences I have had with listening to a dramatization in lieu of a narrator in audiobook. A play really does translate better with a cast, and these plays were greatly enhanced by the theatrical elements. Moliere was known first and foremost as an incredible and improvisational actor, who eventually turned his hand to writing his own plays. I get the sense that some disenchantment with the frivolity of society and the human heart lies behind much of his writing, but he turned it to light-hearted comedy rather than despair. We laugh to keep from crying, and Moliere figured out how to tangle a hilarious skein.
January 7, 2015
Poignant and hilarious short stories from a guy that lived 400 years ago.
December 10, 2017
Un classic.
March 29, 2023
Hay que tener mucha paciencia para leer teatro del siglo XVII, y yo he comprobado que no la tengo. Raro me resulta que la traducción no ayude a seguir leyendo, tratándose de Julio Gómez de la Serna, cuya traducción de los cuentos de Wilde es una maravilla. Regularcete este Moliere. Claro que tampoco hay mucho margen para emocionarse con el humor del s.XVII. Seguramente le dé otra oportunidad.
June 28, 2007
I should mention that I don't read/speak much of the French, so this is sort of bullshit, but there was no other complete edition to choose from.
Like my Shakespeare notes, this date is more about discovery than remembering when I really first got them or finally read them each.
Like my Shakespeare notes, this date is more about discovery than remembering when I really first got them or finally read them each.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews