Tartuffe

by Moliere

Overview

Teeming with lively humor and satirical plot devices, this timeless comedy by one of France's greatest playwrights follows the outrageous activities of a penniless scoundrel and religious pretender. Invited to live in his benefactor's house, he wreaks havoc among family members by breaking off the daughter's engagement, attempting to seduce his hostess, and resorting to blackmail and extortion. Essential reading for students of theater and literature.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596741904
Publisher:	Digireads.com Publishing
Publication date:	01/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Molière (1622-73) is known as the greatest French writer of comedy. His plays include The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, and The School for Wives, all available in an omnibus edition from Methuen Drama.

Award-winning poet, playwright and children's author Roger McGough made his name as one of the 'Liverpool Poets' with Adrian Henri and Brian Patten. His most recent book of poetry is Everyday Eclipses (2002) and his Collected Poems was published in 2003. He is a National Curriculum recommended poet for secondary English.

What People are Saying About This

Florent Masse

This dynamic new translation of Tartuffe conveys the subject matter of Molière's perennial masterpiece in a way that resonates for contemporary audiences. Prudence Steiner has modernized and revitalized the text, making its burning and scandalous tone stand out, as it does in the original French. The thorough introduction to the play skillfully invites the reader into the dark and controversial world of Tartuffe. (Florent Masse, Princeton University)

Jim Carmody

The new Steiner Tartuffe offers welcome relief from all the rhymed translations that make Molière sound like a third-rate Restoration poet while creating the (false) impression that verbal dexterity and wit trump all other values in the great comic playwright's dramaturgy. Steiner's crisp, lucid prose - her adroitly balanced sentences are especially effective at conveying the slippery rhetoric of Tartuffe's seductions - unfolds the plot and characters of Molière's play with an unaccustomed clarity, presenting the ideological clashes of the play with a bluntness many other translations attenuate. Roger Herzel's Introduction is well-focused for those encountering Molière for the first time and informed throughout by his own excellent scholarship. (Jim Carmody, University of California, San Diego)

Editorial Reviews

Much of the credit for the evening's success belongs to Bolt's superb translation.” —Guardian

“Bolt's irreverent, colloquial translation, in neat, octosyllabic rhyming couplets, is blessed with a filthy wit” —Daily Telegraph

From the Publisher

Classic stage actor Brian Bedford, a Molière specialist, anchors this famous comedy with a vivid, credible Tartuffe, a scheming religious hypocrite, by turns oily, whiny, prurient, and ferocious. The other performers, while not as inspired, are solidly proficient and do especially well at subtly underscoring the laugh lines. A list of the characters, especially beforehand, is sorely missed; those unfamiliar with the play may have trouble pinning down who’s who, especially by voice alone. The rhyming verse of premier Molière translator Richard Wilbur, while clever and facile, and recited with easy naturalness by the actors, may occasionally sound jingly to modern ears. But this is a fine performance of a classic that is still relevant and often funny. W.M. © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2010 - AudioFile