Iphigenia, Phaedra, Athaliah
Iphigenia, Phaedra, Athaliah

Author: Jean Racine

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2004-12-02

Total Pages: 445

ISBN-13: 014190934X

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Strongly influenced by Classical drama, Jean Racine (1639-99) broke away from the grandiose theatricality of baroque drama to create works of intense psychological realism, with characters manipulated by cruel and vengeful gods. Iphigenia depicts a princess's absolute submission to her father's will, despite his determination to sacrifice her to gain divine favour before going to war. Described by Voltaire as 'the masterpiece of the human mind', Phaedra shows a woman's struggle to overcome her overwhelming passion for her stepson - an obsession that brings destruction to a noble family. And Athaliah portrays a ruthless pagan queen, who defies Jehovah in her desperate attempt to keep the throne of Jerusalem from its legitimate heir.

Jean Racine: Four Greek Plays
Jean Racine: Four Greek Plays

Author:

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 1982-04-29

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 9780521244152

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Racine's poetry is always thought to be untranslatable; so one of the world's great dramatists remains inaccessible to readers without French. This is the best translation into English; Professor Knight has used a regular English blank verse which conveys remarkably well both the formality and the passion of the original. the plays given here - Andromache, Iphigenia, Phaedra and Athaliah - are chosen because the first three are those which come nearest in subject and feeling to the Attic tragedy that Racine always claimed as his inspiration; while the final biblical drama with its choruses comes nearest to the original Greek form, and perhaps to its spirit. These choruses in Professor Knight's version adhere to the French poetic form, and can be sung to the original music by Moreau. this will be a very helpful group of texts for students of drama. They will act well, and also give the armchair reader a sense of the original.

Iphigenia in Tauris
Iphigenia in Tauris

Author: Euripides

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2013-03-13

Total Pages: 52

ISBN-13: 1625587627

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"The Iphigenia in Tauris is not in the modern sense a tragedy; it is a romantic play, beginning in a tragic atmosphere and moving through perils and escapes to a happy end. To the archaeologist the cause of this lies in the ritual on which the play is based. All Greek tragedies that we know have as their nucleus something which the Greeks called an Aition-a cause or origin. They all explain some ritual or observance or commemorate some great event." So begins the preface to "Iphigenia in Tauris" by Euripides as translated and prefaced by Gilbert Murray.