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A genre of its own
I read this in the Russian so can't guarantee anything about this translation.

This is a biography, a novel and an experimental work all rolled into one. Bulgakov describes the life of one of the most famous and beloved French playwrights and indeed authors. He goes into the intrigue between him and his enemies, the controversies surrounding his satires, his times and personality. The end result is a magical picture of Moliere's France with the splendour and opulence of the period (the reign of Louis XIV). All this is done in a way that reminds me that common ideas about writing (eg. show don't tell) are just that: ideas. Bulgakov definitely tells more than he shows and the work ends up being a crossover genre piece rather than a straight novel. But this does not detract, in fact his intrusions into the text with respect to the evidence for certain periods in Moliere's life work well.

This may not be a masterpiece of world literature but it depicts Moliere in a very interesting way and it's from a writer who felt a special connection with him because of Bulgakov's own troubles with censorship and being ahead of his time. In fact, he refers to Moliere as a wolf of his time in the book, the same image he speaks of himself in one of his poems about how he was hounded; which makes this a splendid exposition of one literary wolf by another...

A very pro Moliere book that is a pleasure to read.
Mikhail Bulgakov's book The Life of Monsieur de Moliere is a very biased book that is uncritical of the great French writer Moliere.Despite the author's unabashed love of Moliere, the book is a treat from beginning toend.Bulgakov feels an affinity with Moliere because he wrote under atotalitarian regime headed by Stalin in Russia and Moliere wrote during thereign of Louis XIV.Although Moliere certainly had much more freedom thanBulgakov did, he still felt the sting of censorship from religious zealotsand was often persecuted by those whom he made fun of in his plays, (nobles, doctors, the affected ladies of French society).Bulgakov praisesMoliere as the greatest French writer and as one of the greatest comediensever.Indeed history has proven him correct.Three centuries laterMoliere's works are performed in almost every nation in the world.Thegreat joy that Bulgakov feels towards Moliere infuses the entire book(sometimes to the point of unintentional farce.) But he paints a vivid andenergenic portrait of the playwright, actor and director that captures theessence of his work.Many of the details of Moliere's life are unknown andBulgakov does take Moliere's side wherever there is ambiguity.( Forexample, many of his enemies have said that Moliere married his owndaughter and knew that in fact she was his daughter.)Bulgakov refutesthis charge as ridiculous and indeed, without proof, it should bediscounted.Bulgakov takes us from Moliere's birth (a very funny tellingof how the midwife who delivered him couldn't realize he was more importantto history than any royal baby she may have delivered) to his tragicallyironic death right after a performance of his play The Imaginary Invalid. Bulgakov wheres his love of Moliere on his sleeve and it works toperfection in this book.Moliere's plays have an energy that imbues everyverse.This book is the same way. Most other biographies are staid incomparison.They rarely capture the true genius of the great writer andalmost never convey the great fun embodied in his works.MikhailBulgakov's biography is the best book, even though it is biased, everwritten about the great French playwright. ... Read more

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Molière"s satirical examination of religious hypocricy: a controversial classic ... Read more

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5 stars for supplementary content, 1 star for binding quality
My comments are not about the play "Le Tartuffe" itself, but about this edition of the book. I teach French literature and often choose Petits Classiques Larousse editions because they contain excellent supplementary resources to facilitate comprehension, analysis and discussion. Each text includes an author biography, background information situating the work in its historical and social context, discussion questions after each act/section/chapter, and an analysis of major themes of the work. These editions are also reasonably priced...but poorly bound. After one reading the pages begin to fall out.

Moliere takes aim at the hypocrisy of neoclassical France
I often taught Moliere's "Tartuffe" as an example of the neoclassical form of comedy in contrast to the romantic comedy represented by Shakespeare. We would read "Twelfth Night," a play set in a faraway exotic land where the point was simply romance, and then turn to "Tartuffe," where the contemporary society becomes one of the primary concerns of the comic dramatist. During the neoclassical period society was concerned with norms of behavior, and in a Moliere play you usually find a eccentric individual, out of step with the rest of society, who is laughed back to the right position. Moliere was concerned with social problems, which was while this particular play, dealing with the issue of hypocrisy, was banned for years. Keep in mind that originally hypocrisy was specific to religion, although today it can be used with regards to politics, sex, or even uncontroversial subjects. Consequently, the idea of characterizing Tartuffe as an imposter, would miss the point; he might be misrepresenting himself, but he is, indeed, Tartuffe.

The central character in "Tartuffe" is not the title character, but Orgon, a reasonably well to do man of Paris who is married to his second wife, Elmire, and has a song, Damis, and a daughter, Mariane, from his first marriage. He also has the misfortune of living with his mother, Madame Pernelle. Tartuffe is a religious hypocrite who worms his way into Orgon's confidence in order to take him for everything he is worth. Orgon is completely duped, and disinherits his son when Damis tries to prove Tartuffe is fraud. The other key character in the play is Dorine, who is Mariane's maid and the smartest person in the house, which allows her to both manipulate the action and comment on the play.

There are three crucial scenes in the play that readers should appreciate, even if it will not be covered on a future exam. The first is the opening scene (in Moliere's comedies the scene changes every time a character enters or exits) where we are introduced to Madame Pernelle, who promptly proceeds to criticize everybody in Orgon's household while praising Tartuffe. The result is that because she is so obnoxious, we have a low opinion of Tartuffe before he ever appears on stage. So, in addition to being a funny scene, it serves an important function in terms of the play. The second key scene comes when Orgon realizes he has been duped, and instead of continuing to ridicule his central character, Moliere turns him into a sympathetic figure. We laugh at Orgon while he does not have a clue as to his culpability in his coming demise, but once he starts to lose everything we stop laughing.

The final scene of interest, for mostly reasons external to the story, is the conclusion, where Moliere pulls what could only be called a "roi ex machina." This is because instead of dropping a god out of the sky in the manner of Euripides, Moliere has a representatative of the King arrive to set everything to rights. Tartuffe might pull the wool over the eyes of ordinary folk, but the King--in this case, King Louis XIV--is not fooled. The play "Tartuffe" was banned by the clergy after its first performance because it was seen as a thinly veiled attack against the Jansenists (a rather puritanical Catholic sect), and Moliere literally spent years rewriting it before the King gave his approval. It is not surprising that the playwright makes his patron the hero at the end of the play.

If you are only going to read (or teach) one Moliere play, then my choice would be "Tartuffe," even over "The Misanthrope," "The Imaginary Invalid," or "The Bourgeois Gentleman." I would argue that "Tartuffe" is the paradigmatic Moliere play, which best represents his comic techniques while also having a historical context that speaks to the tenor of the times in which he wrote. I also think it is the funniest of his plays.

... Read more

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This volume brings together five of Moliere's finest and best-known plays. The three verse plays, The Misanthrope, Tartuffe and The School for Wives, have been skilfully turned into sparkling English couplets by Richard Wilbur's 'brilliant rhymed translation' Sunday Telegraph; while the playwright Alan Drury has translated the two prose comedies, The Miser and The Hypochondriac ('a cherubically funny translation' Independent). ... Read more

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In one of Moliere's most popular plays, Scapin, that monarch of con men, puts his store of ingenuity to work, getting two lovesick young men married to the girls they pine for and, along the way, taking revenge on their grasping old fathers. Closed down after its first, highly successful run because of opposition from powerful enemies of the playwright, Don Juan was performed in a bowdlerized version for almost two hundred years, until actors, directors and critics restored the original text, recognizing it as the most ambitious and mightiest of Moliere's prose plays. Bermel's translations of the scripts as presented here have received rave reviews. ... Read more

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Bermel is the BEST!
If you're producing Moliere for an American audience, Bermel's translations/adaptations are the BEST! His texts play magnificently and his ability to transcode Moliere's sense of humor into an American-accessible format is extraordinary. ... Read more

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Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, dit Molière, (1622-1673) est un dramaturge et acteur de théâtre français. Considéré comme l'âme de la Comédie-Française, il en est toujours l'auteur le plus joué. Impitoyable pour le pédantisme des faux savants, le mensonge des médecins ignorants, la prétention des bourgeois enrichis, Molière aime la jeunesse qu'il veut libérer des contraintes absurdes. Très loin des rigueurs de la dévotion ou de l'ascétisme, son r?'le de moraliste s'arrête là où il l'a défini: "Je ne sais s'il n'est pas mieux de travailler à rectifier et à adoucir les passions des hommes que de vouloir les retrancher entièrement", et son but a d'abord été de "faire rire les honnêtes gens". Molière dispose d'un grand talent comique. Molière partage, en 1661, le théâtre du Palais-Royal avec la troupe de Domenico Biancolelli, dit Arlequin. Il présente Dom Garcie de Navarre qui est un échec et L'École des Maris qui triomphe. La même année, Molière emménage en face du Palais-Royal. Le 17 août il crée Les Fâcheux, sa première comédie-ballet. ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Drama / Continental European; ... Read more

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This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

Product Description
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery. ... Read more

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Few plays have generated more controversy or had a more extraordinary performance history than Molière's Don Juan. David Whitton's study examines various ways in which this enigmatic masterpiece has been interpreted in performance through the vision of different directors and in a variety of cultural and social contexts. In a series of critical studies, key productions are reconstructed using prompt books, production notes, photographs, contemporary reviews, and memoirs. Among the interpretations discussed are those of Meyerhold and Brecht, Ingmar Bergman, Jouvet, and Chéreau. The book is illustrated with numerous photographs and contains a geographical-chronological table of productions. ... Read more

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The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Drama / General; Drama / American; Drama / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Drama / Continental European; Fiction / Literary; Literary Criticism / Drama; ... Read more

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Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin in 1622, the French playwright Moliere became one of the most influential dramatists of the 17th century. His comedies shaped the development of theater in Europe, inspired his contemporaries in England, and left a lasting dramatic legacy after his death in 1673. Molire has also inspired a vast body of scholarship, and recent work has dispelled many of the myths surrounding his career. This reference provides English-speaking readers with a current and comprehensive guide to his life and works. ... Read more

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Written during the highly successful final years of his life, the plays contained in this edition represent the pinnacle of Moliere's artistry and the most profound demonstration of his vision of humanity: "The Misanthrope," "The Doctor in Spite of Himself," a hilarious example of Molière's long-standing skepticism of the medical profession, "The Miser," "The Shopkeeper Turned Gentleman," "The Impostures of Scapin," "The Learned Women," and "The Imaginary Invalid," the play that Molière appeared in only hours before his death. These works combine all the traditional elements of comedy-wit, slapstick, spectacle and satire, with a certain deep understanding of character that Molière was notorious for. His highly popular work, "The Misanthrope," satirizes the hypocrisies of aristocratic French society, and paints an accurate picture of the upper-class world in which Molière, looked down upon as a playwright, was ultimately denied membership to. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Greatcompany
Great customer service.This company listed the book as used.Actually it was a brand new. They could have easily sold it as new instead ofas used. I really appreciate their honesty. It was shipped by Fedex ground and got here much earlier than I have expected. I am really happy. Thank you and I recommend this company to anyone.

Housism
The Misanthrope is one of the best Moliere's plays but also one of the hardest to play.
Why ? The problem, actually, is if that sounds like a drama it's a comedy.
One (it might be Gide) used to say that "If the Misanthrope is a comedy, and if it is about virtue, then we have to laugh at virtue" - but it isn't.
Reading the play again two weeks ago, I was amazed to see that the two main characters, Alceste and Philinte, really looked like House and Wilson (yes, those from the show !).
What is funny, both in the show and in the play, is neither the insults nor the "idealism" of both lead characters (that tendancy to think that "truth is everything") but this little embarrassment to see your best friend in trouble because he doesn't know how to move into our socialized world, and seems to have not the right code nor the good manneers ("Please, for Christ's sake !... That's not so important ! Keep cool ! Why don't you try to be just nice and polite, even if you don't really believe what you say ??? You see, that's what we call diplomacy - that sort of thing that avoid wars most of the time")
Alceste and House are just fantasies : everybody would like to be just like them, telling the truth all the time, as pure as fire, like Jeremiah- but it is just impossible, not in our world - and that gap is funny.

Good Introduction to Moliere - A Comedy of Manners, A Light-Hearted Satire
The Misanthrope (1666) is a short play, one that can be read in a single sitting. Moliere's humorous style has weathered the centuries quite well, and footnotes are not needed.

The protagonist is the misguided misanthrope, Alceste. His distaste for mankind does have one exception.He is enamored with the attractive, vivacious Celimene, but seemingly so is everyone else including Alceste's chief rival, Oronte, the two marquises, Acaste and Clitandre, and unnamed others in the background.

The first scene introduces Philinte, an avowed friend of Alceste, that is unsuccessfully trying to moderate Alceste's adamant refusal to adhere to any social convention, custom, or civility which involves any form of dissimulation or flattery.Philinte argues that Alceste should torment himself a little less about the vices of his period and be more lenient of human nature and foibles. Good sense avoids all extremes.And Philinte questions whether Alceste is perhaps inconsistent in that he applies a different standard to the coquettish Celimene.The more pragmatic Philinte suggests that Celimene's cousin, Eliante, is more sincere and stable, and would be a more compatible choice. With uncompromising honesty Alceste agrees: "It is true; my good sense tells me so every day; but good sense does not always rule love."

As the play proceeds, Moliere's misanthrope does become increasingly irritable with those about him, but I still found Alceste less mean-spirited than other misanthropes found in literature. Despite his sincere philosophical stance, Alceste remains in his awkward, humorous position relative to Celimene. It proves difficult to be a fully committed misanthrope while in love with a coquette.

I am reviewing a Dover Thrift edition reprint of Moliere's famous comedic satire.

wow!
I haven't read this book. But Lindsey Beisel likes it, so you should probably get it.

No comedy without truth and no truth without comedy
Moliere said that ' there is no comedy without truth, and no truth without comedy'. And his plays are a scathing and humorous depiction of a simplified, and stylized human nature. Whether it is religious hypocrisy in ' Tartuffe' , miserliness in 'The Miser' or misanthropy in ' The Misantrhope' Moliere often focuses on one quality in order to satirize and society and mankind in general. In the Misanthrope the main character Alceste tells the truth to everyone ( except himself) and in so doing alienates everyone. This is against the advice of his best friend Philinte. At the same time he is in love with the frivolous Celimene who he attempts to change by constantly criticizing. He begs that she retire with him away from the corruption of society but she prefers society to him. The play ends with Philinte and his fiancee trying to persuade Alceste to remain.
Moliere writes in a clear, simple direct language and the surface sense of his work is readily understood. His view of human nature is harsh and critical , but redeemed by a comic laughter suggesting we are wiser if we do not take ourselves all that seriously. ... Read more

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The Blunderer is generally believed to have been first acted at Lyons in 1653, whilst Moli?re and his troupe were in the provinces. In the month of November 1658 it was played for the first time in Paris, where it obtained a great and well-deserved success. It is chiefly based on an Italian comedy, written by Nicolo Barbieri, known as Beltrame, and called L'Inavvertito, from which the character of Mascarille, the servant, is taken, but differs in the ending, which is superior in the Italian play. ... Read more

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This file includes: Amphitryon, translated by A.R. Waller, 1668; The Blunderer or the Counterplots [L'Etourdi], 1653; The Bores [Les Facheux], 1661; The Countess of Escarbagnas [La Comtesse d'Escarbagnas], translated by Charles Heron Wall,1671; Don Garcia of Navarre or The Jealous Prince [Le Prnce Jaloux]. 1661; The Flying Doctor [Le Medecin Volant], 1659; The Imaginary Invalid [Le Malade Imaginaire], translated by Charles Heron Wall, 1673; The Impostures of Scapin [Les Fourberies de Scapin], translated by Charles Heron Wall, 1671; The Jealousy of le Barbouille [La Jalousie du Barbouille]; The Learned Women [Les Femmes Savantes], translated by Charles Heron Wall, 1672; The Love-Tiff [Le Depit Amoureux], 1656; The Magnificent Lovers [Les Amants Magnifiques], translated by Charles Heron Wall, 1670; The Middle Class Gentleman [Le Bourgeois Gentihomme], translated by Philip Dwight Jones, 1670; The Miser [L'Avare], translated by Charles Heron Wall, 1668; Monsieur de Pourseaugnac, translated by Charles Heron Wall. 1669; The Pretentious Young Ladies [Les Precieuses Ridicules], 1659; Psyche, translated by Charles Heeron Wall; The School for Husbands [L'Ecole des Maris], 1661;
Sganarelle or the Self-deceived Husband], 1660; The Shopkeeper Turned Gentleman [Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme], translated by Charles Heron Wall, 1670; Tartuffe or the Hypocrite, translated by Curtis Hidden Page, 1664. According to Wikipedia: "Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, mostly known by his stage name Molière, (January 15, 1622 – February 17, 1673) was a French playwright and actor who is considered one of the greatest masters of comedy in Western literature. Among Molière's best-known dramas are Le Misanthrope (The Misanthrope), L'École des femmes (The School for Wives), Tartuffe ou L'Imposteur, (Tartuffe or the Hypocrite), L'Avare ou L'École du mensonge (The Miser), Le Malade imaginaire (The Imaginary Invalid), and Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (The Bourgeois Gentleman). From a prosperous family and having studied at the Collège de Clermont (now Lycée Louis-le-Grand), Molière was well suited to begin a life in the theatre. Thirteen years as an itinerant actor helped him polish his comic abilities while he began writing, combining Commedia dell'Arte elements with the more refined French comedy." ... Read more

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A detailed introduction to Molière and his plays, this Companion evokes his own theatrical career, his theatres, patrons, the performers and theatre staff with whom he worked, and the various publics he and his troupes entertained with such success. It looks at his particular brands of comedy and satire. L'École des femmes, Le Tartuffe, Dom Juan, Le Misanthrope, L'Avare and Les Femmes savantes are examined from a variety of different viewpoints, and through the eyes of different ages and cultures. The comedies-ballets, a genre invented by Molière and his collaborators, are re-instated to the central position which they held in his œuvre in Molière's own lifetime; his two masterpieces in this genre, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme and Le Malade imaginaire, have chapters to themselves. Finally, the Companion looks at modern directors' theatre, exploring the central role played by productions of his work in successive 'revolutions' in the dramatic arts in France. ... Read more