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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 842.4
EAN num: 9780140447309
ISBN number: 014044730X
Label: Penguin Classics
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: September 01, 2000
Publishing house: Penguin Classics
Release Date: September 05, 2000
Sale Popularity Level: 620028
Studio: Penguin Classics
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Product Description:
In the seventeenth century, Moliere raised comedy to the pitch of great art and, three centuries later, his plays are still a source of delight. He created a new synthesis from the major comic traditions at his disposal. This collection demonstrates the range of Moliere's comic vision, his ability to move between the broad and basic ploys of farce to the more subtle and sophisticated level of high comedy. The 'Misanthrope' appears along with 'Such Preposterously Precious Ladies', 'Tartuffe', 'A Doctor Despite Himself', 'The Would-Be Gentleman', and 'Those Learned Ladies'.
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Rated by buyers 
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The Misanthrope is one of the best Moliere's plays but also one of the hardest to play.
Why ? The problem, actually, is if that sounds like a drama it's a comedy.
One (it might be Gide) used to say that "If the Misanthrope is a comedy, and if it is about virtue, then we have to laugh at virtue" - but it isn't.
Reading the play again two weeks ago, I was amazed to see that the two main characters, Alceste and Philinte, really looked like House and Wilson (yes, those from the show !).
What is funny, both in the show and in the play, is neither the insults nor the "idealism" of both lead characters (that tendancy to think that "truth is everything") but this little embarrassment to see your best friend in trouble because he doesn't know how to move into our socialized world, and seems to have not the right code nor the good manneers ("Please, for Christ's sake !... That's not so important ! Keep cool ! Why don't you try to be just nice and polite, even if you don't really believe what you say ??? You see, that's what we call diplomacy - that sort of thing that avoid wars most of the time")
Alceste and House are just fantasies : everybody would like to be just like them, telling the truth all the time, as pure as fire, like Jeremiah - but it is just impossible, not in our world - and that gap is funny.
Rated by buyers -
The Misanthrope (1666) is a short play, one that can be read in a single sitting. Moliere's humorous style has weathered the centuries quite well, and footnotes are not needed.
The protagonist is the misguided misanthrope, Alceste. His distaste for mankind does have one exception. He is enamored with the attractive, vivacious Celimene, but seemingly so is everyone else including Alceste's chief rival, Oronte, the two marquises, Acaste and Clitandre, and unnamed others in the background.
The very first scene introduces Philinte, an avowed friend of Alceste, that is unsuccessfully trying to moderate Alceste's adamant refusal to adhere to any social convention, custom, or civility which involves any form of dissimulation or flattery. Philinte argues that Alceste should torment himself a little less about the vices of his period and be more lenient of human nature and foibles. Good sense avoids all extremes. And Philinte questions whether Alceste is perhaps inconsistent in that he applies a different standard to the coquettish Celimene. The more pragmatic Philinte suggests that Celimene's cousin, Eliante, is more sincere and stable, and would be a more compatible choice. With uncompromising honesty Alceste agrees: "It is true; my good sense tells me so every day; but good sense does not always rule love."
As the play proceeds, Moliere's misanthrope does become increasingly irritable with those about him, but I still found Alceste less mean-spirited than other misanthropes found in literature. Despite his sincere philosophical stance, Alceste remains in his awkward, humorous position relative to Celimene. It proves difficult to be a fully committed misanthrope while in love with a coquette.
I am reviewing a Dover Thrift edition reprint of Moliere's famous comedic satire.
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Moliere said that ' there is no comedy without truth, and no truth without comedy'. And his plays are a scathing and humorous depiction of a simplified, and stylized human nature. Whether it is religious hypocrisy in ' Tartuffe' , miserliness in 'The Miser' or misanthropy in ' The Misantrhope' Moliere often focuses on one quality in order to satirize and society and mankind in general. In the Misanthrope the main character Alceste tells the truth to everyone ( except himself) and in so doing alienates everyone. This is against the advice of his best friend Philinte. At the same time he is in love with the frivolous Celimene who he attempts to change by constantly criticizing. He begs that she retire with him away from the corruption of society but she prefers society to him. The play ends with Philinte and his fiancee trying to persuade Alceste to remain.
Moliere writes in a clear, simple direct language and the surface sense of his work is readily understood. His view of human nature is harsh and critical , but redeemed by a comic laughter suggesting we are wiser if we do not take ourselves all that seriously.
Rated by buyers 
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"The Misanthrope" - this is the only play I read. This play is superficial and degrades, as always, women. The woman in this play is stereotyped as a flirtatious girl with many suitors. I did not find this play at all a farce and found the rhyming childish and annoying. The play ends without a true ending and will leave you wanting the time you spent reading it back. I do not recommend.
Rated by buyers -
You might not think a play in verse written in the 17th century would be accessible and entertaining today, but this one's hilarious. Somehow the formal rhyming couplets make everything funnier. Get the Donald Frame translation - I've seen some others that weren't nearly as good.
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