L'Épreuve

by Pierre de Marivaux, Henri Coulet (Édition)

Les amours de Lucidor et d'Angélique sont compliquées de stratagèmes, de pièges, d'hésitations. Chacun travaille à rendre l'autre jaloux, pour voir s'il est aimé. C'est une comédie où l'on pleure avant de sourire.
On ne sait où l'auteur a pris l'idée de ses combinaisons incompréhensibles, extravagantes et cruelles. De combien de personnes faut-il faire le malheur, pour s'assurer de la fidélité, de la sincérité de celle qu'on aime ? Marivaux, ici, est, comme Musset plus tard, un petit marquis de Sade : la psychologie blesse plus que le fouet. Et, dans cette pièce, la brièveté renforce la méchanceté.

Genres: Theatre

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 25, 2013

About the author

Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux, commonly referred to as Marivaux, was a French novelist and dramatist.
He is considered one of the most important French playwrights of the 18th century, writing numerous comedies for the Comédie-Française and the Comédie-Italienne of Paris. His most important works are Le Triomphe de l'amour, Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard and Les Fausses Confidences. He also published a number of essays and two important but unfinished novels, La Vie de Marianne and Le Paysan parvenu.

Reviews

[Natacha Pavlov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frontin, to Lisette: "Ma reine, puisque vous aimiez tant Frontin, et que je lui ressemble, j'ai envie de l'être."Translation: "My queen, since you loved Frontin so much, and I look like him, I want to be him." 

280 years ago yesterday, on November 19th, 1740, Marivaux's play L'Epreuve (The Test) was first played by the comédiens of the Nouveau Théatre-Italien. Considered one of Marivaux's finest gems, the one-act play follows Lucidor, a wealthy Parisian, who puts his beloved Angélique to a somewhat cruel test, proposing to marry her to a rich suitor, who is actually his valet Frontin in disguise. The humor in the above quote is that it's the disguised valet talking about himself. Short and filled with nuances, some of which would be enhanced by skilled acting, there's one (surely intentional) open-ended aspect that makes it less comical than I'd like it to be. This may well be on par with a common, biting Marivaux theme that true love is revealed through trials. While there's def truth to that, nowadays suffice to say that it can also backfire real fast depending on how one goes about it!

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5 stars. Anyone who says that Hollywood recycles ideas or makes the same movie over and over again needs to check out Marivaux. He uses the same plot with the same character archetypes and even employs the same names. And it’s not even a novel plot: the master has his servant disguise himself as an aristocrat to put a woman’s love to the test. The only reason I want to read more Marivaux is to discover just how many times this guy gets away with re-writing the same play.

[Dagogo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellente pièce, très drôle, une justesse dans le déroule de l'histoire très agréable à suivre ; fort heureusement, tout se finit bien pour tout le monde (enfin presque...) ; je craignais qu'il en fût autrement. Je conseille !

[Lina H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

ao3 tags: gaslight-girlboss-gatekeep, friendzone,
second-chance, toxic-masculinity, romcom, feminist