Tartuffe and Other Plays [Paperback]

The Ridiculous Precieuses * The School for Husbands * The School for Wives * The Critique of the School for Wives * The Versailles Impromptu * Tartuffe * Don Juan

This memorable collection gathers the plays of the great social satirist and playwright Molière, representing the many facets of his genius and offering a superb introduction to the comic inventiveness, richness of prose, and insight that make up Molière’s enduring legacy to theater, literature, and the world.

Translated and with an Introduction by Donald M. Frame, a Foreword by Virginia Scott, and a New Afterword“Molière is probably the greatest and best-loved French author, and comic author, who ever lived. To the reader as well as the spectator, today as well as three centuries ago, the appeal of his plays is immediate and durable; they are both distinctly accessible and inexhaustible.”—Professor Donald M. FrameMolière, born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin in1622, began his career as an actor before becoming a playwright who specialized in satirizing the institutions and morals of his day. In 1658, his theater company settled in Paris in the Théâter du Petit-Bourbon. The object of fierce attack because of such masterpieces asTartuffeandDon Juan, Molière nonetheless won the favor of the public. In 1665, his company became the King’s Troupe, and the following year saw the staging ofThe Misanthrope, as well asThe Doctor in Spite of Himself. In 1668, he produced his bitterly comicThe Miserand, in the remaining years before his death, created such plays asThe Would-Be Gentleman,The Mischievous Machinations of Scapin, andThe Learned Women. In 1673, Molière collapsed onstage while performing his last play,The Imaginary Invalid, and died shortly thereafter.

Donald M. Framewas Moore Professor of French at Columbia University and an acclaiml£§