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The Complete Plays of Jean Racine

Volume 5: Britannicus

The Complete Plays of Jean Racine( )
Author: Racine, Jean
Translator: Argent, Geoffrey Alan
ISBN:978-0-271-06407-9
Publication Date:Oct 2014
Publisher:Pennsylvania State University Press
Book Format:Paperback
List Price:AUD $54.99
Book Description:

An English translation, in rhyming couplets, of the French playwright Jean Racine's Britannicus. Includes critical notes and commentary.

Book Details
Pages:248
Detailed Subjects: Literary Criticism / Drama
Drama / European / French
Physical Dimensions (W X L X H):12.7 x 20.32 x 1.753 cm
Book Weight:0.568 Kilograms
Author Biography
Racine, Jean (Author)
Jean Racine is considered the greatest of French tragic dramatists. If Shakespeare's (see Vol. 1) theater is characterized by exploration and invention, Racine's is defined by restraint and formal perfection. His themes are derived from Greco-Roman, biblical, and oriental sources and are developed in the neoclassic manner: keeping to few characters, observing the "three unities" defined by Aristotle (see Vols. 3, 4, and 5) as essential to tragedy (i. e., unity of time, place, and action), and writing in regular 12-syllable verses called "alexandrines."

In contrast to Corneille, whose theater is eminently political and concerned with moral choices, Racine locates tragic intrigue in the conflict of inner emotions. He is a master at exploring the power of erotic passion to transform and pervert the human psyche. As a Jansenist who believed that a person deprived of grace was subject to the tyranny of instincts, Racine was interested in portraying human passions---particularly the passion of love---in a state of crisis. Racine is also one of the greatest of all French poets, and his plays are a challenge to any translator. His major tragedies include Andromaque (1667), Britannicus (1669), e Berenice (1670), Iphigenie (1674), and Phedre (1677).

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