Product Description

In the seventeenth century, Molière raised comedy to the pitch of great art and, three centuries later, his plays are still a source of delight. He created a new synthesis from the major comic traditions at his disposal. This collection demonstrates the range of Molière's comic vision, his ability to move between the broad and basic ploys of farce to the more subtle and sophisticated level of high comedy. The Misanthrope appears along with Such Preposterously Precious Ladies, Tartuffe, A Doctor Despite Himself, The Would-Be Gentleman, and Those Learned Ladies.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #43702 in Books
• Published on: 2003-08-28
• Original language: French
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Molière was born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin in Paris in 1622. He began studying law but gave it up in favour of an acting career. A gifted actor, director and writer, he is remembered as the creator of French classical comedy. He died in 1673 aftera performance of The Hypochondriac. John Wood was involved with theatrical productions of Molière as a producer and translator. David Coward is a Professor of French at the University of Leeds. He has translated many French novels and plays.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Play
This is a superb play which make slight of human folly and hypocrisy and holds some relevance today. It is written in the 17th century this is regarded as Molière's best work. The play is about a man who passes judgment on the hypocrisy of the other protagonists without seeing his folly and inconsistency of judgement.

The 1992 edition, of which I am writing, is the 1876 Henri van Laun translation and has a very basic introduction and no notes to text.

Crimp's version of the Misanthrope is shallow.
Martin Crimp has taken Moliere's the Misanthrope and turned it into a tale of whiners and one-dimensional characters. The entire play reeks of self-absorption. There is no arch to any of the characters. They each remain the same throughout the entire piece, and no one learns anything in the end of all of it. The play consists of one scene after another of characters who are out to get each other and genuinely do not like one another. It leaves the reader (or audience) with a feeling of hatred towards all of the characters. There is not a single character for a genuine feeling human being to identify with. They are all so self-obsessed and shallow that they do not even think to stop and deal with the problems they have with each other. Even Alceste, who claims to be fed up with all the hypocrisy, leads his own life in hypocrisy because he is too involved in himself to listen to his girlfriend and actually put a little faith in someone besides himself. Crimp needs to go back and revise to have at least one scene in which there is not a major argument. At the moment, there is not a single point at which the audience can relax. They are too caught up in all the tensions between all the characters.