Product Description

Eighteenth-century France produced only one truly international theater star, Beaumarchais, and only one name, Figaro, to combine with Don Quixote and D'Artagnan in the ranks of popular myth. But who was Figaro? He was quickly appropriated by Mozart and Rossini who tamed the original impertinent, bustling servant for their own purposes. On the eve of the French Revolution Figaro was seen as a threat to the establishment and Louis XIV even banned The Marriage of Figaro. Was the barber of Seville really a threat to aristocratic heads, or a bourgeois individualist like his creator? The three plays in which he plots and schemes chronicle the slide of the ancien regime into revolution but they also chart the growth of Beaumarchais' humanitarianism. They are exuberant theatrical entertainments, masterpieces of skill, invention, and social satire which helped shape the direction of French theater for a hundred years. This lively new translation catches all the zest and energy of the most famous valet in French literature.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #668449 in Books
• Published on: 2003-12-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
`'Coward's introduction is a small masterpiece, weaving information and interpretation into a compelling narrative in a way which makes it alone worth the modest price of the volume.' 'David Coward's translations cope admirably with Beaumarchais' wide range of tones and registers in three very different plays, and are as speakable as they are readable.' 'this excellent volume provides an admirable introduction for the English-speaking reader to Beaumarchais' greatest creation'' Times Literary Supplement

About the Author

David Coward is the author of studies of Marivaux, Marguerite Duras, Marcel Pagnol and Restif de le Bretonne, and of A History of French Literature. For OWC he has edited eight novels by Alexandre Dumas and translated Dumas fils' La Dame aux camelias', two selections of Maupassant short stories, Sade's Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales and Diderot's Jacques the Fatalist. He reviews regularly for the TLS and the London Review of Books.

Customer Reviews

The Figaro Trilogy (Oxford World's Classics)
For any Mozart/Rossini opera fan who wants to read the book from which
the "Barber or Seville" and the "Marriage of Figaro "came from, this
book is for you. It is a good background to understanding these works.
Best of all, the concluding play in the Trilogy "The Grieving Widow"
brings to close the story of these beloved opera characters. It's light
reading and fun.

Gets the message across
This is a pretty good new translation, although it does have some grammatical errors. So, have a pencil in hand when you read it if you want to touch up the missing conjunction words and misused words. I'm sure translating from the old French is not easy, so I don't hold it against Mr. Coward. But he should have not been a coward when it came to proofreading...his editor should have been reading more carefully as well.
Enjoy!