Molière: A Theatrical Life

In this biography, Virginia Scott locates Molière’s life and work in the social, literary and theatrical contexts of the period. She offers a narrative account of his life and an overview of his plays in the wider setting of the development of seventeenth-century French drama. Her research extends from Molière’s boyhood and his Jesuit education at the Collège de Clermont, through the beginning of his theatrical career in Paris and as a vagabond actor in the provinces, to his days as a court dramatist under Louis XIV. He was a controversial playwright, striking out against hypocrisy in religion and medicine, and finally a cynical survivor of the literary, cultural, and marital wars. This full-length biography, the first to be written about Molière in English since 1930, will appeal to the general reader as well as specialists in French and Theatre Studies.

• New in paperback: the first full-length biography about Molière to be written in English since 1930 • Scott writes for the specialist as well as for the general reader. The potential audience will include undergraduates, graduates, scholars and theatre enthusiasts • Biography of a widely studied and performed playwright

Introduction; 1. Jean-Baptiste Poquelin; 2. Madeleine; 3. The Illustre Théâtre; 4. Exile; 5. Return to Paris; 6. Husbands and Wives; 7. The Courtier; 8. Enemies; 9. Friends; 10. Marriage (and Love); 11. Last Act; 12. Envoi; Works consulted.

‘ … arrestingly illuminates the complex world of the theatre and court, both in Paris and elsewhere, that finally constitutes almost all that can really be known of Moliere’s life.’ The Economist

‘As the first substantive English-language biography of Molière since 1930, this is a happy arrival for students of the theater and of French literature and culture …’. Publishers Weekly