The Forfeiture

Dufresny, Charles Rivière, 1657-1724Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.4

Word count: 27K words
Chapters: 3

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.The Forfeiture by Charles Rivière DufresnyAuthor: Dufresny, Charles Rivière, 1657-1724,Language: English, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Dec 1, 2003

Editor's review

The Forfeiture is a play by the French dramatist Charles Rivière Dufresny (1657–1724), available from Project Gutenberg in an English version and classified under French literature (PQ). Dufresny was active in the period when French classical drama was giving way to Enlightenment drama, and his works often observe social mores and human weaknesses. The Forfeiture revolves around contracts, breach of faith, and their cost, with the plot structure of classical comedy and a vein of moral satire; it is a useful sample for understanding French drama from the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth century. This edition is a public-domain e-book, easy to search and cite, suitable for researchers in theater history and comparative literature as a primary text, and for readers interested in French classical drama as further reading. Note that this is an early English translation, distant in style from modern English and lacking modern annotation, so some background knowledge is needed.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars studying French classical drama and the history of European theater from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries
Comparative literature students who need an original or English-translated play script as analytical material
Readers interested in the French comic tradition who are willing to read an early English translation
Those who need a public-domain electronic text for teaching excerpts or citation

Not a good fit for

Beginner readers seeking a modern annotated or introduced edition of the play
Readers who prefer the pacing of contemporary fiction and are unfamiliar with the play form
Readers whose English is not yet strong enough for an early English translation

Reading tips

First learn about Dufresny's era and the basic conventions of French classical drama before entering the text.
Use a plot summary to keep track of characters and relationships so that early English phrasing does not obscure the story.
For research, consult related background materials under the French literature classification for comparison.
Read scene by scene and pay attention to the social satire and moral commentary in the dialogue.

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 kind of work is this book?

It is a play by the French dramatist Dufresny, classified under French literature; this version is an English public-domain e-book from Project Gutenberg, not a novel or a theoretical work.

What language level is needed to read this book?

The book is in English, but it is an early translation whose sentence structures and vocabulary differ from modern English. Readers with good English reading ability and familiarity with the play form will find it easier to enter.

Does this edition have annotations or an introduction?

According to the information, this is a public-domain electronic text from Project Gutenberg, with no modern annotations or introduction mentioned. For background explanation, consult materials on the history of French drama separately.

Comments

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About the author

Dufresny, Charles Rivière, 1657-1724 Author

Dufresny, Charles Rivière (1657–1724) was a French comic playwright, though public information about his life and education is limited. The library holds four of his works—The Double Widowing, The Village Coquette Or, The Supposed Lottery, The Spirit of Contradiction, and The Forfeiture—all of which are plays. His comedies often take marriage, property, and mistaken identity as their themes, with plots revolving around inheritance, remarriage, and emotional conflict; his characters are frequently caught in contradictions and schemes. The plays are lively in language and neatly structured, with a light comic tone. On this Chinese book site they are often classified under inspirational growth, perhaps because of their observation of human relationships and character weaknesses. Overall, he is known for stage comedy, using misunderstanding and reversal to reveal human nature, and he holds a place in the tradition of French classical comedy.