"A continuous delight from beginning to end" (Richard Eberhart). Introduction by Richard Wilbur.
One of Moliere's most frequently performed plays, "Tartuffe" has been skillfully rendered into English in brilliant rhymed couplets by Richard Wilbur, who won a share of the Bollingen Translation Prize for his much-acclaimed translation of this satiric turn on religious hypocrisy.
The central character of the play is a rich bourgeois named Orgon, who in middle age has become a bigot and a prude. The title character, a wily opportunist and swindler, affects sanctity and gains complete ascendancy over Orgon, who not only attempts to turn over his fortune but offers his daughter in marriage to his "spiritual guide. It is only when Orgon witnesses Tartuffe's attemps to seduce his wife that he comes to his senses.
"Mr. Wilbur has given us, with great fidelity and charm, the nearest thing to Molière that we have." - Jackson Matthews, New York Review of Books
"Richard Wilbur's translation of Tartuffe is a continues delight from beginning to end." - Richard Eberhart
Molière (1622-1673), born Jean-Baptise Poquelin, was a widely renowned French poet, playwright, and actor.
RICHARD WILBUR, one of America's most beloved poets, has served as poet laureate of the United States. He has received the National Book Award, two Pulitzer Prizes, the National Arts Club medal of honor for literature, and a number of translation prizes, including two Bollingen Prizes and two awards from PEN.