The Figaro Trilogy: The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro, The Guilty Mother (Oxford World's Classics) - Softcover

Beaumarchais, Pierre-Augustin Caron De; Coward, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199539979 ISBN 13: 9780199539970

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2008

Synopsis

Eighteenth-century France produced only one truly international theater star, Beaumarchais, and only one name, Figaro, to combine with Don Quixote and D'Artagnan in the ranks of popular myth. But who was Figaro? He was quickly appropriated by Mozart and Rossini who tamed the original impertinent, bustling servant for their own purposes. On the eve of the French Revolution Figaro was seen as a threat to the establishment and Louis XIV even banned The Marriage of Figaro.

Was the barber of Seville really a threat to aristocratic heads, or a bourgeois individualist like his creator? The three plays in which he plots and schemes chronicle the slide of the ancien régime into revolution but they also chart the growth of Beaumarchais' humanitarianism. They are exuberant theatrical entertainments, masterpieces of skill, invention, and social satire which helped shape the direction of French theater for a hundred years. This lively new translation catches all the zest and energy of the most famous valet in French literature.

About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

About this title

About the Author

David Coward is the author of studies of Marivaux, Marguerite Duras, Marcel Pagnol and Restif de le Bretonne, and of A History of French Literature. For OWC he has edited eight novels by Alexandre Dumas and translated Dumas fils' La Dame aux camelias', two selections of Maupassant short
stories, Sade's Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales and Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist. He reviews regularly for the TLS and the London Review of Books.

Review

`'Coward's introduction is a small masterpiece, weaving information and interpretation into a compelling narrative in a way which makes it alone worth the modest price of the volume.' 'David Coward's translations cope admirably with Beaumarchais' wide range of tones and registers in three
very different plays, and are as speakable as they are readable.' 'this excellent volume provides an admirable introduction for the English-speaking reader to Beaumarchais' greatest creation''
Times Literary Supplement

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0199539979
• ISBN 13: 9780199539970
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352