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Loading... 3 Plays: Athalie / Britannicus / Phaedraby Jean Racine
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Reading these three tragedies, separated by historical tradition and even when Racine wrote them, demonstrates how wide reaching personal faults can be. In the quest for power and influence and personal honor, men and women are rash and inhuman. Interesting collection of dramas. ( ) no reviews | add a review
Contains
Jean Racine (1639-99) remains to this day the greatest of French poetic dramatists. Britannicus (1669), the first play in this volume, takes its themes from Roman history: the setting is bloody and treacherous court of the Emperor Nero. Phaedra (1677) dramatizes the Greek myth of Phaedra'sdoomed love for her stepson Hippolytus. Athaliah (1691), Racine's last and perhaps finest play, draws on the Old Testament story of Athaliah, Queen of Judah and worshipper of Baal, who is threatened and finally forced to concede victory to Joash, a son of the house of David and survivor ofAthaliah's massacres. Racine's tragedies portray characters wrestling with ambition, treachery, religion, and love. In this translation, specially commissioned for The World's Classics series, C.H. Sisson has captured admirably the lucidity of Racine's language, both analytic and passionate, and the rhythm of hisfour-part Alexandrine, a combination that previous translators have consistently failed to achieve. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)842.4Literature French and related languages French drama Classic period 1600–1715LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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