The Cambridge Companion to Moliere

A detailed introduction to Molire 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 Molire and his collaborators are re-instated to the central position which they held in his uvre in Molire''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.