About this title: Strongly influenced by Classical drama, Jean Racine (1639-99) broke away from the grandiose theatricality of baroque drama to create works of intense psychological realism, with characters manipulated by cruel and vengeful gods. "Iphigenia" depicts a princess' absolute submission to her father's will, despite his determination to sacrifice her to ...
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Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books
Date Published: 1964
ISBN-13:9780140441222ISBN:0140441220
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Text in English, French. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 320 p. Penguin Classics. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Date Published: 1964-02-28
ISBN-13:9780140441222ISBN:0140441220
Description: Good. An average used paperback with wear, corner bumps, small creases, etc. Binding is tight and square. No names, no stickers. Poss. remainder mark. Text is clean but pgs lightly tanned. Careful packaging and fast shipping. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Books; Penguin Classics, Harmondsworth
Date Published: 1970
ISBN-13:9780140441222ISBN:0140441220
Description: Good. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Later printing, 1983. Good+. Tight, clean copy. Browning. "Themes of ruthless and unrelenting tragedy are at the heart of these plays. The first two are based on Greek legend, while Athaliah depicts the vengeance and the power of the Old Testament Jehovah. / Jean Racine was born in 1639 at La Ferté Milon, sixty miles east of Paris. Orphaned at an early age, he was educated at the Little Schools of Port Royal and the pro-Jansenist College of Beauvais. He soon ... read more
"For no reason given by the play, Venus tortures Phaedra, wife to Theseus King of Athens, with a passion for her stepson Hippolytus. She struggles valiantly against the passion, and only confesses her love to him when she received news of Theseus' death. She is rebuffed by the prince, and then learns that the king is not dead but is returning home. Wild with guilt and fear, she allows her nurse Oenone to lie to Theseus that Hippolytus hit on her, and inner torture becomes also external tragedy.
The construction of the play is brilliant, as the coils of the plot strangle any hope of escape. A series of confessions in the first movement, the action reverses itself when characters try to take back what has been said. Phaedra, a descendant of the sun-god, has nowhere on earth to hide from the eyes of judgment. Even in Hades, she will have to face her father, Minos, who judges the dead.
The poetry, as conveyed through John Cairncross' translation, is dramatic and moving. The figure of the monster, first seen as proof of Theseus' heroism, recurs throughout the play wearing different faces, and speaking with intensifying alarm, until it appears finally as the devastating gift of Neptune. The horses that ate out of Hippolytus' hand kill him in the end.
The French hexameter is rendered in iambic pentameter, giving such beautiful lines to Phaedra:
Since Venus wills it, of this unblest line I perish, I, the last and the wretchedest.
and, after a long recitation of all the ways she tried to dismiss Hippolytus from her mind,
Venus in all her might is on her prey. I have a fitting horror for my crime; I hate this passion and I loathe my life . She has not done anything yet, but already feels criminal. Love is turned into hate, and life into death."
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