Aspects of Racinian Tragedy

Racine has been the subject of innumerable critical articles and books since the seventeenth century; of these a small minority has been written in English. Not much remained to be said about Racine as a dramatic artist, but as one brought up to consider Shakespeare as the model of tragedy, the author brings a fresh approach to a dramatist who has been to a great extent a Gallic monopoly. The main road to any understanding of Racinian tragedy must lead through a careful examination of its form, which is chiefly what Lapp contributes to the study of Racine's form and offers in this book.

JOHN C. LAPP holds degrees from Queen's University and from Cornell Unviersity. He has taught French in a number of American colleges and unviersities, including Oberlin College and the University of California at Los Angeles. Since 1963 he has been Executive Head of the Department of French and Italian at Standford University. His most recent book was Aspects of Racinian Tragedy.