Includes the plays Britannicus, Phedra and Berenice Jean Racine is the greatest tragedian of the French seventeenth century, using its strict rules and conventions to tell stories of overwhelming passion and cruelty. This volume brings together three of his greatest plays. Britannicus, the earliest, is set in the court of the young Emperor Nero, and in an atmosphere seething with erotic tension, documents the power-struggles surrounding the birth of a legendary despot. Berenice probes the hearts of two lovers as they are torn apart amidst the splendours of Imperial Rome, and in Phedra, the most famous of the three, a woman betrayed by her own desires descends into a personal hell of shame, guilt and remorse. These classic versions, by two of the country's most distinguished director-translators, prove that Racine is far from untranslatable; they offer blisteringly effective poetry, urgent plotting and powerhouse roles for both actors and actresses.

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

Describes the planning, building, and use of canals in nineteenth-century America and their impact on the history, economy, and westward expansion of the United States.

The 'greatest hits' of French classical theatre, in vivid and acclaimed new Penguin translations by John Edmunds and with editorial apparatus by Joseph Harris. The plays in this volume - Cinna, The Misanthrope, Andromache and Phaedra - span only thirty-seven years, but make up the defining period of French theatre. In Corneille's Cinna (1640), absolute power is explored in ancient Rome, while Molière's The Misanthrope (1666), the only comedy in this collection, sees its anti-hero outcast for his refusal to conform to social conventions. Here also are two key plays by Racine: Andromache (1667), recounting the tragedy of Hector's widow after the Trojan War, and Phaedre (1677), showing a mother crossing the bounds of love with her son. This translation of Phaedra was originally broadcast on Radio Three with a cast including Prunella Scales and Timothy West, and was praised by playwright Harold Pinter. This is the first time it has been published. The edition also includes an introduction by Joseph Harris, genealogical tables, pronunciation guides, critiques and prefaces, as well as a chronology and suggested further reading. After a varied career as an actor, teacher, and BBC TV national newsreader, John Edmunds became the founder-director of Aberystwyth University's department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies. Joseph Harris is Senior Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London and author of Hidden Agendas: Cross-Dressing in Seventeenth-Century France (2005).

This is the best translation into English of Andromache, Iphigenia, Phaedra and Athaliah.

Racine’s play Phèdre—which draws on Euripides’ tragedy Hippolytus—is the supreme achievement of French neoclassic theater. In her amusing foreword, Margaret Rawlings explains how this particular translation—made specifically from the actor’s point-of-view—evolved from the 1957 Campbell Allen production. Containing both the French and English texts on facing pages, as well as Racine’s own preface and notes on his contemporary and classical references, this edition of Phèdre is a favorite among modern readers and is of special value to students, amateur companies, and repertory theaters alike. Translated and with a foreword by Margaret Rawlings.

Plutarch of Chaeronea is one of the great story-tellers of antiquity, a writer whose ability to create unforgettable scenes matches the grandeur of his subject matter. The heroes of his Lives were the great men of antiquity, often greatly flawed, but with tragic depth and epic stature.

Are we free agents? This perennial question is addressed by tragedy when it dramatizes the struggle of individuals with supernatural forces, or maps the inner conflict of a mind divided against itself. The first part of this book follows the adaptations of four myths as they migrate from classical Greek tragedy to Seneca and on to seventeenth-century France: the stories of Agamemnon, Oedipus, Medea, and Phaedra. Detailed linguistic analysis charts the playwrights’ contrasting assumptions about agency and autonomy. In the second part, six plays by Corneille and Racine are discussed to show how the problem of agency and free will is explored in scenarios which show protagonists who are in thrall to their past, to their rulers, or to their own ideals.

In two of his most celebrated plays, Britannicus and Bérénice, Racine depicts the tragedies of characters trapped by the ideals, desires, and cruelties of ancient Rome. This international collection of essays deploys cutting-edge research to illuminate the plays and their contexts.

The 17th century dramatist Jean Racine was considered, along with Moliere and Corneille, as one of the three great playwrights of his era. The quality of Racine's poetry has been described as possibly his most important contribution to French literature and his use of the alexandrine poetic line is one of the best examples of such use noted for its harmony, simplicity and elegance. While critics over the centuries have debated the worth of Jean Racine, at present, he is widely considered a literary genius of revolutionary proportions. In this volume of Racine's plays we find "Alexander the Great," the second of twelve plays by the author. As you would expect the drama concerns its titular character and his love for the Indian princess Cleofile. Based largely on the histories of Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus, Alexander finds his pursuit of love of the Indian princess complicated by intrigues between her brother Taxilus and his ally Porus.