Eurimedon

Nicolas-Marc DesfontainesProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.7

Word count: 110K words
Chapters: 11

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Eurimedon by Nicolas-Marc DesfontainesAuthor: Desfontaines, Nicolas-Marc, -1652,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Mar 7, 2006

Editor's review

This is a play by the French dramatist Nicolas-Marc Desfontaines, who died in 1652, placing it among French dramatic texts of the first half of the seventeenth century. The electronic edition comes from Project Gutenberg, with the text in French. For general readers, its main value lies not in an easily readable plot but in being a primary-text sample from the formative period of French classical drama: one can observe the genre conventions, language style, and stage tastes of the time. Since the author is little known, this edition is better used as a document than as casual reading. Readers are advised to read it within the framework of seventeenth-century French theater history, noting the rhetoric and character arrangements, and to compare it with works of the same period. Those seeking only story interest may find it remote; those doing linguistic or literary research or textual comparison will find it a convenient and readily available electronic text source.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars and students studying seventeenth-century French drama and literary history
Readers of French who need to engage with early modern French texts
Collector-type readers interested in obscure classical plays and documentary texts

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking light, entertaining stories
Readers with limited French who need a Chinese translation
Beginners expecting modern typesetting, notes, and detailed introductions

Reading tips

First learn the basic conventions of French drama in the first half of the seventeenth century, then enter the text.
Keep French reference works at hand to check archaic spellings and syntax as they arise.
Read alongside works by contemporary playwrights to observe the genre's evolution.
Focus on language style and character arrangement rather than plot progression.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What language is this book written in?

The text is in French, an electronic text provided by Project Gutenberg without a Chinese translation. Some French reading ability is needed beforehand, especially preparation for early modern French spelling and syntax.

Why is it said to be more for research than for casual reading?

The author Desfontaines died in 1652, and the work belongs to French drama of the first half of the seventeenth century, whose language and stage conventions are remote from contemporary readers. Its significance lies more in being a documentary and literary-historical sample than in being an easily readable story.

What are the features of this electronic edition?

It comes from Project Gutenberg's public-domain ebook project: easy to obtain, light to handle, and suitable for searching, excerpting, and textual comparison. But it usually lacks detailed notes and introductions by modern scholars, so readers need to supply background materials themselves.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Nicolas-Marc Desfontaines Author · French · 1610–1652

Nicolas-Marc Desfontaines (1610–1652) was a seventeenth-century French playwright, novelist and actor, born in Rouen around 1610 and died in Angers in 1652; his real name was Nicolas Mary. He wrote some thirteen plays, four of which are held in this collection: L'illustre comédien, ou Le martyre de Sainct Genest, La vraye suitte du Cid (a sequel to Corneille's Le Cid), Eurimedon, and L'illustre Olympie, ou Le st Alexis. His dramas draw largely on religious martyrdom and legendary romance, blending tragic and comic tones and following the rhetorical conventions of classical French theatre; his sequel to Le Cid also shows his active place in Parisian theatrical circles. Public information on his early education and personal life remains limited and awaits further verification.