The Misanthrope and Tartuffe

by Molière, Richard Wilbur (Editor)

Overview

The Pulitzer Prize winner’s classic translations of Moliere’s comic masterpieces satirizing shallowness, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy.

The Misanthrope is a searching comic study of falsity, shallowness, and self-righteousness through the character of Alceste, a man whose conscience and sincerity are too rigorous for his time. In Tartuffe, a wily, opportunistic swindler manipulates a wealthy prude and bigot through his claims of piety. This latter translation earned Wilbur a share of the Bollingen Translation Prize for his critically acclaimed work of this satiric take on religious hypocrisy.

In brilliant rhymed couplets, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Wilbur renders two of seventeenth-century French playwright Moliere's comic masterpieces into English, capturing not only the form and spirit of the language but also its substance.

“Mr. Wilbur has given us a sound, modern, conversational poetry and has made Moliere’s The Misanthrope brilliantly our own.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Richard Wilbur’s translation of Tartuffe is a continuous delight from beginning to end.” —Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award–winning poet Richard Eberhart

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780547542188
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	08/18/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	334
Sales rank:	1,024,698
File size:	367 KB

About the Author

RICHARD WILBUR, one of America’s most beloved poets, has served as poet laureate of the United States. He has received the National Book Award, two Pulitzer Prizes, the National Arts Club medal of honor for literature, and a number of translation prizes, including two Bollingen Prizes and two awards from PEN.

Molière was a French playwright, actor, and poet. Widely regarded as one of the greatest writers in the French language and universal literature, his extant works include comedies, farces, tragicomedies, comédie-ballets, and more.