Reviews for The Misanthrope and Other Plays: A New Selection

The average rating for The Misanthrope and Other Plays: A New Selection based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-06-18 00:00:00 Michael Abramsky Ecce Homo! This time however it's not about the words spoken by Pontius Pilate, nor about the paintings and works of art rendering the passion and life of Jesus Christ, or even about Nietzsche's book 'Ecce Homo'. Well, this time is about Moliere, aka Jean-Baptiste Poquelin by his real name, probably-for some at least-the greatest and best-loved French author and comic actor, who ever lived present included, whose greatness or-the secret of it- is still today, as much as three centuries ago, living in the appeal of his plays- immediate and durable, accessible and inexhaustible, but mostly in the comic inventiveness, richness of fabric and insight (manners, human nature, society, etc). My acquaintance with him is not new, but it is now on a refreshing and invigorating status-plunging head ahead where I see with my eyes, at least the mind eyes if the vision doesn't help me much, sometimes, somehow, somewhere. The Misanthrope, with the subtitle 'Or, The Melancholy Lover'- is a verse comedy in 5 acts, first performed on 4th June 1666, at the Theatre du Palais-Royal in Paris by Moliere's company, the Troupe du Roi. As usual, Moliere acted in the main male character role-this time as Alceste-a most comic hero eventually, even if one can't help thinking that it looks, shows more like a tragic one. Full of himself, an unconscious but tyrannical egoist, Alceste is constant in his excessiveness-from start up the closing of the final act. He gives us a full theory of utter frankness, still unable to apply it on a theoretical practice, as when he is asked to test it, he just fails to implement what he preaches; needless to say, he is fully dressed in a inconsistency of speech, even when it's about his most enduring love-towards Celimene, however, sadly he is misled by his vanity. The virtue ridiculed in Alceste is not basically the virtue itself but more about the unexamined virtue of the theorist-who talks plausibly but does not practice what he preaches-and of the nonconformist, who has eyes for all the vices of society except his own. It turns that all leads to an overall excess: of other vices that naturally accompany Alceste's virtues - self-righteousness, inconsistency and a strong tint of hypocrisy, eager to criticize and correct human foibles. As of these days-my present-I've been bombarded with a strong presence of such a farce of manners and human nature, as coming on-stage. I'm anxious to continue my journey.. (page under construction) ;-) Act II My maternal grandmother used to say that too much knowledge/ instruction/ education/ experiments/ experiences acquired through books only and lived through imagination chiefly and not lived also through physical reality- does make someone look and behave really foolishly in those instants when one ought to be the most able to make the proper decision(s). I even can picture her commenting on Moliere's plays. She would be deeply disappointed as to why to read something that it's so straightforward, simple, and mostly met in real life. IS there something more to learn as long as the life experiences are the best examples ever affected on yourself? Well, yes! You cannot ever know when you are actually the genuine actor of those plays. Like myself, nowadays. It's just there is that someone else that is playing the best part, and not myself.. ≪ I find that to win men, there is no better way than to adorn oneself before their eyes with their inclinations, fall in with their maxims, praise their defects, and applaud whatever they do. One need have no fear of overdoing the complaisance; and even though the way you trick them is visible, even the shrewdest are great dupes when it comes to flattery; and there is nothing so absurd or so ridiculous that you can't make them shallow it if you season it with praise. [...] but when you need men, you simply have to adjust to them; and since that's the only way to win them over, it's not the fault of those you flatter, but of those who want to be flattered. ≫ Act III --> under construction still ;)

Review # 2 was written on 2014-06-19 00:00:00 James Gregory Introduction Chronology Bibliography Note on Money Translator's Note --Such Foolish Affected Ladies --Tartuffe --The Misanthrope --The Doctor Despite Himself --The Would-Be Gentleman --Those Learned Ladies Explanatory Notes