Phaedra

Racine, Jean, 1639-1699Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.4

Word count: 80K words
Chapters: 8

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.Phaedra by Jean RacineAuthor: Racine, Jean, 1639-1699,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Nov 1, 1999

Editor's review

Racine's Phaedra is one of the defining tragedies of French classicism. Drawing on the myth used by Euripides, it shifts the focus to the tearing of the characters' inner lives and to verbal restraint. The plot is tightly concentrated, and the conflict unfolds largely through soliloquy and dialogue; the verse is spare yet charged, dramatizing the tug-of-war between rational order and desire run wild. For Chinese readers it is both an entry point into seventeenth-century French dramatic conventions and a chance to see the psychological depth that a classical subject can acquire when reworked. As you read, watch how knowing and concealing drive the shifts from scene to scene, and how each character justifies the self in the struggle between duty and desire. It is short, and repays close reading and rereading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in French classical drama
Students studying the Western tragic tradition and dramatic structure
Readers who want a short classic to read closely for the tension of its dialogue
Literature lovers interested in myth adaptation and the writing of character psychology

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting complex subplots and multiple settings
Readers who prefer modern colloquial dialogue and are unused to verse
Readers who want only the original myth and are not interested in dramatic adaptation

Reading tips

First sort out the characters and the known mythological background, then start on the dialogue, so that the names do not confuse you.
Read scene by scene; after each scene, summarize where each character stands at that moment and what he or she is concealing.
Pick a central monologue and read it aloud, or compare different translations, to feel the rhythm of the verse and the shifts in tone.
After finishing, compare it with Euripides' treatment and consider what Racine cut, changed, and intensified.

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 understand this play without having read Greek tragedy?

Yes. The characters' relationships and the conflict are gradually established in the dialogue, and no prior knowledge of the myth is required. Knowing the rough outline of the Phaedra legend in advance makes the characters' situation easier to grasp, but it is not a prerequisite for reading.

What makes the language of this tragedy difficult?

It uses classical verse: the syntax is compressed and the rhetoric restrained, and the characters often express strong feelings indirectly. At first the play may feel slow, but precisely because the language is restrained, subtext and pauses become the key to understanding the characters.

Is it suitable as an introductory text for reading drama?

It suits a close-reading approach: it is short and tightly structured, which makes it easy to analyze the conflict and the dialogue. It is not, however, a plot-heavy work with many shifting scenes; if you want to build up the habit of reading drama first, you might read it alongside a more plot-driven work.

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About the author

Racine, Jean, 1639-1699 Author

Jean Racine (1639–1699) was one of the most important tragic poets of the French classical period. The library holds five of his works, whose representative titles include Phaedra, Mithridate, Esther, Athaliah and De Pleiters. His tragedies mostly draw on ancient myth, history and biblical stories, focusing on the intense conflicts of passion, duty and fate within his characters. His language is concise and his structure rigorous, with especially profound psychological portrayal; he is regarded as a model of French classical tragedy and has exerted a lasting influence on later European drama. Public information available here on his life and nationality is limited, so this introduction focuses on the subjects and style of his works.