The Cambridge Companion to Moliere [Paperback]

A detailed study of Moli?re as playwright, director and actor, and his life and career.A broad and detailed introduction to Moli?re and his plays, this Companion examines Moli?re's life and career, his theatres, comedy and satire in his plays, and his innovative com?dies-ballets.A broad and detailed introduction to Moli?re and his plays, this Companion examines Moli?re's life and career, his theatres, comedy and satire in his plays, and his innovative com?dies-ballets.A detailed introduction to Moli?re 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'?cole 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 Moli?re and his collaborators, are re-instated to the central position which they held in his Suvre in Moli?re'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.Preface; Acknowledgements; Chronology; 1. The career strategy of an actor turned playwright: 'de l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace' Marie-Claude Canova-Green; 2. The material conditions of Moli?re's stage Jan Clarke; 3. The master and the mirror: Scaramouche and Moli?re Stephen Knapper; 4. Moli?re as satirist Larry F. Norman; 5. How (and why) not to take Moli?re too seriously Richard Parish; 6. L'Avare or Harpagon's masterclass in comedy Robert McBride; 7. Laughter and irony in Le Misanthrope Andrew Calder; 8. Com?dies-ballets Charles MalÎ