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Four Plays: Ondine / Enchanted / Madwoman of Challot / Apollo of Bellac
Presents four works by the contemporary French playwright
255 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
3 people are currently reading
99 people want to read
About the author
Jean Giraudoux
466 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 25, 2014
Jean Giraudoux is my favorite playwright. All four of the plays in this book are perfection. I've read and re-read these plays countless times, and enjoyed each read through and picked something out of them each time. I think since they are plays, and mostly dialogue with just a bit of stage direction- they are more humanistic. They read like we interact. This fact makes it that much easier to get into. I fall headfirst into "Four Plays" and don't surface for a while. Considered absurdist theater, these plays have an unconventional and unexpected voice. There is hilarity living simultaneously with tragedy- a pairing that is something I have not found in many texts. "Ondine" is my favorite play of all time. I absolutely adore it, and have since I first read it. I've always had a strong liking of folklore, especially involving Undines. "Ondine" is a stunning play. It its full of heartbreak, humanism, hilarity, absurdism, intellect, and yearning. The characters are clearly laid out and interact in a way that is enjoyable and almost profound as well. I think "Ondine" is one of the very saddest things I've ever read. This is maybe part of why I love it so much. It makes me feel so strongly. I don't know exactly why Giradoux's plays are so potent to me, but I think it may be his crystalline style of writing. His wit is dripping through the text but the wit is not cut and dry, it is pithy and full of depth and an enjoyment to behold. Every time I read "Ondine" I find myself in a pensive and odd state for a few days and I keep thinking about it. The text really draws many questions about the human state and the human psyche that other texts do not do for me. I adore "Four Plays".
September 24, 2019
I wasn't familiar with Giraudoux before picking this up, so I couldn't make it through the lengthy introduction and skipped right to the plays. However, going back the introduction after reading all the plays, this quote: "By the time he was twenty-three, this style was formed. It was characteristic of the man that once he found a good thing he wasted no time splashing about for a better. The youth of twenty-three was simply an early model of the man of sixty-two." partially explains why I didn't enjoy this. Everything is just dripping with an antiquated, sexist egotistical view, and nothing of any real interest comes in the plots.
December 29, 2020
Mallory (below, 2 stars) is, of course, right.
This is a work filled with dated, sexiest language, roles, and relationships.
That said, it is brilliant, biting satire, lampooning everybody - no less the men, no less the powerful, no less the relationships.
Valency's adaptation (for all that Maurice V is not mentioned in authorship) attempts to make the plays more accessible to non-French audiences. I don't know that he succeeds, but only because I find the plots and the telling to be quite accessible in either original translation or in adaptation.
This is a fine collection of Giradoux's works. Volume Two is also worth acquiring, but I like this one better.
This is a work filled with dated, sexiest language, roles, and relationships.
That said, it is brilliant, biting satire, lampooning everybody - no less the men, no less the powerful, no less the relationships.
Valency's adaptation (for all that Maurice V is not mentioned in authorship) attempts to make the plays more accessible to non-French audiences. I don't know that he succeeds, but only because I find the plots and the telling to be quite accessible in either original translation or in adaptation.
This is a fine collection of Giradoux's works. Volume Two is also worth acquiring, but I like this one better.
April 28, 2021
As an actor and director, I would love to work on all of these plays. There are certain antiquated and misogynistic bits that feel especially cringy, which is why I gave it four stars. On the flip side of the antiquated bits, some parts ring incredibly true today. There are moments when Giraudoux puts something into words that I've never been able to express myself. Things I didn’t realize I felt until I read them. He deals with magic such as ghosts and water sprites, but he also deals with the magic of the mundane, and that is the magic that speaks to me most.
June 19, 2018
I've read giraudoux before but with this set of plays he seals it, he is officially my favorite French playwright
July 20, 2016
The Madwoman of Chaillot *** – This acerbic social satire starts out with a whirlwind of interesting and funny characters. I was enthralled and quickly turned the pages. Unfortunately, the second act wasn’t nearly as strong. It was still funny, but it lost its edge and within a few pages of the act when the end became all-too predictable. Even the trial of the presidents, though humorous, seemed rather predictable.
Still, this is an entertaining play. It has the humor and social satire of Shaw, but it seems to veer off of any profound statement about society at the end. The ending is too simple and too pat. A very entertaining play however. (2/15)
Intermezzo (aka The Enchanted) *** – As with Giraudoux’s other plays, this features a beautiful yet haunting environment. The town, and Isabel in particular, is being visited by a ghost causing the most unusual events: As the mayor says, “For the first time chance benefits the most deserving people.”
Giraudoux is a master of this strangely disjointed mood. The ending, though, is a bit of mystery to me. The Ghost refuses to give Isabel the key to bring together infinity and the finite. But instead, she falls in love with the prosaic Robert and the ordinary things of life. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for Isabel.
(The endings of the Maurice Valency and the Robert Grillert translations vary a bit and make his unclear. Grillert has Isabel waking up and speaking to more mundane things like decorations – having seemingly lost the sense of the infinite. Valency has her wake up and say “Oh Robert! Life is so beautiful!” This seems to imply she’s found something new and wonderful in life. Those leave the reader/audience with two rather different feelings about the end. Valency does present his version as an “adaptation.”)
Within this “magic” environment, there is a good bit of sexism with young women achieving the sexual maturation being more in tune with the ephemeral/infinite/death because they are so seemingly simplicity.
Otherwise, this is an entertaining play with some very funny parts and excellent satire. I wouldn’t recommend this as the first Giraudoux play to read/see (that would be the beautifully sad Ondine), one could do worse than spend an hour or so with this play. (07/16)
Ondine ***** – What a strangely beautiful play! The first act is wonderfully weird, and the second act amps up the oddity, only to lead to an achingly sad ending. It’s not that the characters are particularly vivid or real – it’s the disarming honesty, vivacity and charm of Ondine that makes the play come to life. And then there are the strange ways the story unfolds, like the Illusionists scenes in the second act.
But what a sad play. The ending, to moderns especially, is tragic. To earlier generations, relationships between fairies and humans were always doomed and readers/audiences were prepared for this result. But our modern sensibilities refuse to see barriers to love, so I think we’re more surprised and saddened by the harsh finality of the ending. Hans' death and Ondine's loss her human memory makes for a heartbreaking conclusion. (02/15)
Still, this is an entertaining play. It has the humor and social satire of Shaw, but it seems to veer off of any profound statement about society at the end. The ending is too simple and too pat. A very entertaining play however. (2/15)
Intermezzo (aka The Enchanted) *** – As with Giraudoux’s other plays, this features a beautiful yet haunting environment. The town, and Isabel in particular, is being visited by a ghost causing the most unusual events: As the mayor says, “For the first time chance benefits the most deserving people.”
Giraudoux is a master of this strangely disjointed mood. The ending, though, is a bit of mystery to me. The Ghost refuses to give Isabel the key to bring together infinity and the finite. But instead, she falls in love with the prosaic Robert and the ordinary things of life. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing for Isabel.
(The endings of the Maurice Valency and the Robert Grillert translations vary a bit and make his unclear. Grillert has Isabel waking up and speaking to more mundane things like decorations – having seemingly lost the sense of the infinite. Valency has her wake up and say “Oh Robert! Life is so beautiful!” This seems to imply she’s found something new and wonderful in life. Those leave the reader/audience with two rather different feelings about the end. Valency does present his version as an “adaptation.”)
Within this “magic” environment, there is a good bit of sexism with young women achieving the sexual maturation being more in tune with the ephemeral/infinite/death because they are so seemingly simplicity.
Otherwise, this is an entertaining play with some very funny parts and excellent satire. I wouldn’t recommend this as the first Giraudoux play to read/see (that would be the beautifully sad Ondine), one could do worse than spend an hour or so with this play. (07/16)
Ondine ***** – What a strangely beautiful play! The first act is wonderfully weird, and the second act amps up the oddity, only to lead to an achingly sad ending. It’s not that the characters are particularly vivid or real – it’s the disarming honesty, vivacity and charm of Ondine that makes the play come to life. And then there are the strange ways the story unfolds, like the Illusionists scenes in the second act.
But what a sad play. The ending, to moderns especially, is tragic. To earlier generations, relationships between fairies and humans were always doomed and readers/audiences were prepared for this result. But our modern sensibilities refuse to see barriers to love, so I think we’re more surprised and saddened by the harsh finality of the ending. Hans' death and Ondine's loss her human memory makes for a heartbreaking conclusion. (02/15)
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September 13, 2007The Madwoman of Chaillot, The Apollo of Bellac, The Enchanted, Ondine
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews