The Miser and Other Plays

by David Coward (Introduction), David Coward (Translator), David Coward (Editor), David Coward (Editor), David Coward (Introduction), David Coward (Translator), John Wood (Translator), Jean-Baptiste Moliere (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2004

  $4.16

  Moliere combined all the traditional elements of comedy - wit, slapstick, spectacle and satire - to create richly sophisticated and enduringly popular dramas. The Miser is the story of Harpagon, a mean-spirited old man who becomes obsessed with making money out of the marriage of his children, while The Hypochondriac , another study in obsession, is a brilliant satire on the medical profession. The School for Wives , in which an ageing domestic tyrant is foiled in his plans to marry his young ward, provoked such an outcry that Moliere followed it with The School for Wives Criticized - a witty retort to those who disapproved of the play's supposed immorality. And while Don Juan is the darkest and most tragic of all the plays in this collection, it still mocks the soullessness of the skinflint with scathing irony.

• Used

  Paperback
  1953

  $3.27

  This volume of Moliere's dramatic commentaries on society presents The Miser, a misguided hero who obsessively disrupts the lives of those around him. The School for Wives is newly translated for this edition and was fiercely denounced as impious and vulgar. Moliere's response to his detractors became The School for Wives Criticized. Even more alarming to critics was his version of Don Juan. In The Hypochondriac, he produced an outrageous expose of medicine.