Tartuffe

Description

This lively prose translation of Moliere's great comedy remains close to the original French, while casting the speech of characters in a slightly compressed and formalized way that comes very close to the original effect created by Moliere's verse. This edition includes an introductory essay, notes, and translations of Moliere's three appeals to the king.

Prudence L. Steiner took her Ph.D. in American Literature at Harvard University, where she served as Lecturer and Director of the Harvard Extension School Writing Program.

The new Steiner Tartuffe offers welcome relief from all the rhymed translations that make Moliere sound like a third-rate Restoration poet while creating the (false) impression that verbal dexterity and wit trump all other values in the great comic playwright's dramaturgy. Steiner's crisp, lucid prose--her adroitly balanced sentences are especially effective at conveying the slippery rhetoric of Tartuffe's seductions--unfolds the plot and characters of Moliere's play with an unaccustomed clarity, presenting the ideological clashes of the play with a bluntness many other translations attenuate. Roger Herzel's Introduction is well-focused for those encountering Moliere for the first time and informed throughout by his own excellent scholarship. --Jim Carmody, University of California, San Diego This dynamic new translation of Tartuffe conveys the subject matter of Moliere's perennial masterpiece in a way that resonates for contemporary audiences. Prudence Steiner has modernized and revitalized the text, making its burning and scandalous tone stand out, as it does in the original French. The thorough introduction to the play skillfully invites the reader into the dark and controversial world of Tartuffe . --Florent Masse, Princeton University This translation is a welcome relief from the ungainly verse translations of Tartuffe that dominate the field. The introduction by Prof. Herzel is detailed, scholarly, and readable, and the translation of the play is stageable, therefore a good one to teach theatre students. --Dr. Rosemarie Bank, Kent State University