L'Avare

Molière, 1622-1673Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.5

Word count: 136K words
Chapters: 14

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.L'Avare by MolièreAuthor: Molière, 1622-1673,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Aug 1, 2004

Editor's review

L'Avare is a five-act comedy in prose by Molière, centered on the miser Harpagon's obsession with money, portraying avarice as a mania that devours family affection and reason. The play's power comes from exaggeration and repetition: the same trait is pushed to extremes in different situations, laughter accumulates, and behind the laughter lies a cold scrutiny of family relations and attitudes toward property. As a French original reader, its dialogue is colloquial and brisk, easier to enter than Racinian verse tragedy, and suitable as a starting text for reading French drama in the original. Its stage quality is also prominent: entrances and exits, misunderstandings, and conflicts are dense, and reading aloud or role-play reading quickly conveys the rhythm. If one seeks only plot, it is not long; if one seeks language, it merits close reading scene by scene.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Intermediate and advanced learners of French who wish to improve their language sense through original drama
Students and researchers studying French classical comedy and Molière's plays
Theatre and literature readers interested in avarice, family, and money
Teachers who need a short play for classroom reading aloud or role-play reading

Not a good fit for

Readers with no French at all who can only rely on Chinese
Readers expecting modern psychological depth and finely drawn character growth arcs
Readers who dislike exaggerated farcical conflict and prefer realistic narrative

Reading tips

First read a Chinese synopsis to grasp the relationships, then return to the French original scene by scene
Read the dialogue aloud by role, noting how the theme of avarice is reinforced through repeated phrasing and actions
After each act, sort out each character's interests and observe how misunderstandings are created and resolved
Mark colloquial expressions and honorific usage, and compile them into a note on the language of dramatic scenes

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

Can I read this book without knowing French?

The original is in French, and it is difficult to read directly without any French. You can use a bilingual edition or first read a Chinese translation to grasp the plot, then treat the original as language-learning material. If the goal is to understand the play itself, a Chinese translation is sufficient; if you want to feel the rhythm of Molière's dialogue and the comic tone, basic French reading ability is needed.

Is this a verse play or a prose play?

L'Avare is written in prose, with dialogue close to speech, unlike some of Molière's comedies in verse. This makes it faster to read and closer to everyday speech, lowering the threshold for reading the original; but colloquial does not mean simple: the exaggeration and repetition in the characters' tones are precisely the source of the comic effect, and deserve attention.

Is it suitable for classroom or reading-group use?

Fairly suitable. The characters' relationships are clear, the conflicts are concentrated, and the length is manageable, making it convenient for role-play reading and act-by-act discussion. Topics can be set around how avarice affects parent-child relations and the conflict between money and trust, and different characters' accounts of the same event can be compared to train close reading and expression of views.

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About the author

Molière, 1622-1673 Author

Molière (1622-1673), born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, was a leading figure of French classical comedy and worked in the seventeenth-century French theatre as both actor and playwright. The library holds 41 of his works, including such representative plays as Tartuffe, The Miser, and Don Juan, ou le Festin de pierre, as well as multi-volume editions of his complete works. Drawing on everyday life, his comedies expose hypocrisy, greed, and vanity with exaggerated yet incisive satire; his characters are vividly drawn and his dialogue witty and lively, conveying criticism of social ills through laughter. Public information on his early life and education is limited, so no speculation is offered here. His plays have had a profound influence on French and European theatre history and are still frequently staged today.