The Complete Plays of Jean Racine (Paperback). This item is unavailable.The Complete Plays of Jean Racine (Paperback)

Paperback. This is the fifth volume of a projected translation into English of all twelve of Jean Racines plays. Geoffrey Alan Argents translations faithfully convey all the urgency and keen psychological insight of Racines dramas, and the coiled strength of his verse, while breathing new vigor into the time-honored form of the heroic couplet. Complementing this translation are the Discussion and the Notes and Commentaryparticularly detailed and extensive for this volume, Britannicus being by far Racines most historically informed play. Also noteworthy is Argents reinstatement of an eighty-two-line scene, originally intended to open Act III, that has never before appeared in an English translation of this play. Britannicus, one of Racines greatest plays, dramatizes the crucial day when Neroson of Agrippina and stepson of the late emperor Claudiusovercomes his mother, his wife Octavia, his tutors, and his vaunted three virtuous years in order to announce his omnipotence. He callously murders his innocent stepbrother, Britannicus, and effectively destroys Britannicuss beloved, the virtuous Junia, as well. Racine may claim, in his first preface, that this tragedy does not concern itself at all with affairs of the world at large, but nothing could be further from the truth. The tragedy represented in Britannicus is precisely that of the Roman Empire, for in Nero Racine has created a character who embodies the most infamous qualities of that empire its cruelty, its depravity, and its refined barbarity. An English translation, in rhyming couplets, of the French playwright Jean Racine's Britannicus. Includes critical notes and commentary. Shipping may be from our Sydney, NSW warehouse or from our UK or US warehouse, depending on stock availability.…