The Complete Plays of Jean Racine

Volume 3: Iphigenia

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, French, Drama History & Criticism
Cover of the book The Complete Plays of Jean Racine by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent, Penn State University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent ISBN: 9780271073835
Publisher: Penn State University Press Publication: November 15, 2011
Imprint: Penn State University Press Language: English
Author: Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
ISBN: 9780271073835
Publisher: Penn State University Press
Publication: November 15, 2011
Imprint: Penn State University Press
Language: English

This is the third volume of a projected translation into English of all twelve of Jean Racine’s plays—only the third time such a project has been undertaken. For this new translation, Geoffrey Alan Argent has rendered these plays in the verse form that Racine might well have used had he been English: namely, the “heroic” couplet. Argent has exploited the couplet’s compressed power and flexibility to produce a work of English literature, a verse drama as gripping in English as Racine’s is in French.

Complementing the translation are the illuminating Discussion, intended as much to provoke discussion as to provide it, and the extensive Notes and Commentary, which offer their own fresh and thought-provoking insights.

In Iphigenia, his ninth play, Racine returns to Greek myth for the first time since Andromache. To Euripides’s version of the tale he adds a love interest between Iphigenia and Achilles. And dissatisfied with the earlier resolutions of the Iphigenia myth (her actual death or her eleventh-hour rescue by a dea ex machina), Racine creates a wholly original character, Eriphyle, who, in addition to providing an intriguing new denouement, serves the dual dramatic purpose of triangulating the love interest and galvanizing the wholesome “family values” of this play by a jolt of supercharged passion.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

This is the third volume of a projected translation into English of all twelve of Jean Racine’s plays—only the third time such a project has been undertaken. For this new translation, Geoffrey Alan Argent has rendered these plays in the verse form that Racine might well have used had he been English: namely, the “heroic” couplet. Argent has exploited the couplet’s compressed power and flexibility to produce a work of English literature, a verse drama as gripping in English as Racine’s is in French.

Complementing the translation are the illuminating Discussion, intended as much to provoke discussion as to provide it, and the extensive Notes and Commentary, which offer their own fresh and thought-provoking insights.

In Iphigenia, his ninth play, Racine returns to Greek myth for the first time since Andromache. To Euripides’s version of the tale he adds a love interest between Iphigenia and Achilles. And dissatisfied with the earlier resolutions of the Iphigenia myth (her actual death or her eleventh-hour rescue by a dea ex machina), Racine creates a wholly original character, Eriphyle, who, in addition to providing an intriguing new denouement, serves the dual dramatic purpose of triangulating the love interest and galvanizing the wholesome “family values” of this play by a jolt of supercharged passion.

More books from Penn State University Press

Cover of the book Friendship and Politics in Post-Revolutionary France by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book I Saw Water by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Poetic Remaking by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Argentina's Radical Party and Popular Mobilization, 1916–1930 by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Divided Empire by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book The Complete Plays of Jean Racine by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Ireland and the Problem of Information by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Art for Animals by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Posters for Peace by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Elections in Pennsylvania by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Lessons from America by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Reactions to the Market by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Is Philosophy Androcentric? by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Before the Revolution by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
Cover of the book Gendered Paradoxes by Jean Racine, Geoffrey Alan Argent
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy