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Osman
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.
112 pages, Paperback
Published October 28, 2010
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August 11, 2024
It is interesting to me that the themes in Osman are so similar to the themes in La Mort de Sénèque, i.e. the overthrow of an all-powerful emperor and the emperor's response to the complaints of his people. I am fascinated by thinking of both of these plays as responses to the absolute monarchy in France.
Osman is not well plotted (as Lacy Lockert and others have pointed out), but it has some really great sequences, especially 4.2, with the Janissaries on the deck and the emperor on (maybe?) a balcony.
One also can't help comparing this (at least a little bit) to Racine's Bajazet, since the source material is the same. Osman does partially have the structure of a Racinean tragedy—where the person with the power is also the person who loves someone who does not love him/her in return—but it lacks almost everything else that is central to Racinean tragedy. This is a surprising play in that it lacks the claustrophobia of Racine's dramas and it lacks the tension that Racine creates so finely. It also never manages to convince us to care about the Mufti's daughter (the female protagonist), though the tragedy seems invested in her death in act five as an emotional event. Still Osman has its virtues: it's invested in politics in a way that Racine's tragedies never are, and it has at least one sparkling cliffhanger (as does La Mort de Sénèque).
PS I read this in English, not in the original French, despite what I entered into GoodReads.
Osman is not well plotted (as Lacy Lockert and others have pointed out), but it has some really great sequences, especially 4.2, with the Janissaries on the deck and the emperor on (maybe?) a balcony.
One also can't help comparing this (at least a little bit) to Racine's Bajazet, since the source material is the same. Osman does partially have the structure of a Racinean tragedy—where the person with the power is also the person who loves someone who does not love him/her in return—but it lacks almost everything else that is central to Racinean tragedy. This is a surprising play in that it lacks the claustrophobia of Racine's dramas and it lacks the tension that Racine creates so finely. It also never manages to convince us to care about the Mufti's daughter (the female protagonist), though the tragedy seems invested in her death in act five as an emotional event. Still Osman has its virtues: it's invested in politics in a way that Racine's tragedies never are, and it has at least one sparkling cliffhanger (as does La Mort de Sénèque).
PS I read this in English, not in the original French, despite what I entered into GoodReads.
Displaying 1 of 1 review