Jean-Baptiste Moliere

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.

The Misanthrope and Other Plays

Molière combined all the traditional elements of comedy - wit, slapstick, spectacle and satire - to create richly sophisticated and enduringly popular dramas. The Miser is the story of Harpagon, a mean-spirited old man who becomes obsessed with making money out of the marriage of his children, while The Hypochondriac, another study in obsession, is a brilliant satire on the medical profession. The School for Wives, in which an ageing domestic tyrant is foiled in his plans to marry his young ward, provoked such an outcry that Molière followed it with The School for Wives Criticized - a witty retort to those who disapproved of the play's supposed immorality. And while Don Juan is the darkest and most tragic of all the plays in this collection, it still mocks the soullessness of the skinflint with scathing irony.

The Miser and Other Plays

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, dit MOLIÈRE, né à Paris, baptisé le 15 janvier 1622 et mort à Paris le 17 février 1673, est un dramaturge auteur de comédies, mais aussi un comédien et chef de troupe de théâtre français qui s'est illustré au début du règne de Louis XIV. Issu d'une famille de petite bourgeoisie parisienne (son père occupe la charge de tapissier du Roi ), Jean-Baptiste Poquelin se consacre au théâtre à 21 ans après la rencontre de Madeleine et Joseph Béjart avec qui il fonde l'Illustre Théâtre et prend le pseudonyme de Molière. Après la faillite de la troupe, il quitte Paris et parcourt les différentes provinces de 1645 à 1658 en écrivant ses premières farces ( L'Étourdi - Le Dépit amoureux ). De retour à Paris en 1658, il obtient la protection du frère du roi: sa troupe prend le nom de Troupe de Monsieur et représente en particulier les tragédies de Pierre Corneille ( Nicomède - Cinna ). Sa carrière d'auteur dramatique commence vraiment avec Les Précieuses ridicules qui remporte un grand succès en novembre 1659. Le Tartuffe (1664). Comédie en vers, en cinq actes. La sérénité d ́une famille est troublée par l ́intromission d ́un personnage hypocrite et faux dévot, qui progressivement accapare des parcelles d ́influence et de pouvoir à cause de l ́aveuglement de la grand-mère Pernelle et de son fils Orgon. Tartuffe est un génie de la pourriture, un germe de la pourriture qui réussit à abîmer, lentement mais inexorablement, la pomme entière.

Molière

Le malade imaginaire

Noyce Burleson

Condemned and banned for five years in MoliA]re's day, "Tartuffe "is a satire on religious hypocrisy. Tartuffe worms his way into Orgon's household, blinding the master of the house with his religious "devotion," and almost succeeds in his attempts to seduce his wife and disinherit his children before the final unmasking.

Tartuffe

Seven plays by the genius of French theater. Including The Ridiculous Precieuses, The School for Husbands, The School for Wives, Don Juan, The Versailles Impromptu, and The Critique of the School for Wives, this collection showcases the talent of perhaps the greatest and best-loved French playwright. Translated and with an Introduction by Donald M. Frame With a Foreword by Virginia Scott And a New Afterword by Charles Newell

Jean-Baptiste Moliere

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