"He's a beast I tell you - a real animal" What happens when you've lived only for pleasure, and you finally run out of time? When you've broken every promise, outraged every decency and slept your way through half of Europe - where do you turn as the clock starts to tick towards midnight? Neil Bartlett's new translation brings out all the dark undercurrents of Molière's wickedly black comedy.
Don Juan, the "Seducer of Seville," originated as a hero-villain of Spanish folk legend, is a famous lover and scoundrel who has made more than a thousand sexual conquests. One of Molière's best-known plays, Don Juan was written while Tartuffe was still banned on the stages of Paris, and shared much with the outlawed play. Modern directors transform Don Juan in every new era, as each director finds something new to highlight in this timeless classic. Richard Wilbur's flawless translation will be the standard for generations to come, as have his translations of Molière's other plays. Witty, urbane, and poetic in its prose, Don Juan is, most importantly, as funny now as it was for audiences when it was first presented.
DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Sganarelle, or, the Self-Deceived Husband" by Molière. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.
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.
"L'hypocrisie est un vice à la mode, et tous les vices à la mode passent pour vertus" : voilà comment Dom Juan se justifie auprès de son valet Sganarelle, scandalisé de voir son maître tromper tout le monde autour de lui, des femmes les plus naïves qu'il séduit sans vergogne aux hommes les plus nobles qu'il mène par le bout du nez sans se démonter. De fait, Dom Juan n'a qu'une ambition : jouir de tous les plaisirs, sans jamais céder aux sirènes de la morale. Il lui faut toutes les voluptés et il les obtient facilement en manipulant ses victimes avec des mots trompeurs. Seule la mort pourrait l'arrêter : n'est-ce pas elle justement qui vient le chercher, lorsque la statue du commandeur s'anime sous ses yeux?
