Wilbur, Richard

Average customer rating:

Excellent for those who love satire
Dover is Not the Wilbur translation!
Pleasant & Witty
A simply delightful read!
Witty and Truthful

Tartuffe, by Moliere
Moliere
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156881802

Book Description

The translation into English verse of one of Molière’s most masterful and most popular plays. “A continuous delight from beginning to end” (Richard Eberhart). Introduction by Richard Wilbur.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent for those who love satire.......2007-02-08

For those who knows Shakespeare's story, "Othello", it's amazing how similar this is. The only difference is the knowledge of situation by the sharp-tongued maid. Oh, and the deus ex machina ending that abruptly steals the remainder of your breath away (after having laughed so hard at the ridiculous, satirical antics of the antagonist and the idiocy of the protagonist). If you enjoy French humor, this is for you. If not, or if you prefer to cross the thin line between comedy and tragedy, read Othello instead.

Dover is Not the Wilbur translation!.......2006-09-15

Beware! The Dover edition is NOT the wonderful Wilbur poetry translation. It is a lumbering, stilted prose translation based on an 18th century version. The play comes through, but barely. Since no translator was listed and so many reviewers indicated that this was the Wilbur version, I ordered this for my theatre class to read -- disaster! Spend the money on the Wilbur -- it's worth it.

Pleasant & Witty.......2006-08-20

This book satirizes the conventions of the time period it was written. It is extremely funny, if you can understand it. The translation is a bit difficult, not for the common reader. I had to truly concentrate to understand everything.
It is short and concise, for those who like a fast accelerating plot.

A simply delightful read!.......2006-07-24

I was required to read this book for a course I am taking at Univeristy. I found Tartuffe to be a simply delightful and fun read. The (rhyming) prose is translated well, although I question if the original meter was consistent throughout the play or not. The english meter is not. Tartuffe pokes fun at the neo-classical era religious hypocrite. Even today, hundreds of years after the writing of this book I still found myself laughing at Moliere's jokes and wit.

Witty and Truthful.......2005-12-25

Moliere's Tartuffe has been a great favorite of mine for years. It's just so witty and so truthful. Moliere's satire hits religious hypocrisy harshly, and that's such a valuable message, even several centuries later. Moreover, Moliere's play isn't anti-religious; there is instead an appeal to true religion and toward the development of virtue. So few writers have ever been as witty as Moliere either. There are so many hilarious scenes here, my favorite being the table scene. And the dialogue throughout it just extraordinarily clever as well, particularly during the exchanges between Orgon and either Cleante or Dorine.

Wilbur's masterful translation just enhances the joys of Moliere's classic play. It's a terribly difficult thing to make the couplets of Neoclassical France tenable to a contemporary audience, but of course, Wilbur has made them so. All of the sharpness, the liveliness of the lines is preserved, making Tartuffe accessible, intelligently, to today's audience. Of course, Wilbur's other translations of Moliere are excellent as well.

Wilbur's translation of Tartuffe is really one that can't be missed. The combination of the master French playwright Moliere with Richard Wilbur, a modern poetic master in his own right, is just superb. Wilbur's Tartuffe is a total pleasure.

Average customer rating:

A CLASSIC!
The misanthrope and the religious hypocrite
"Sincerity in excess / Can get you into a very pretty mess"
Brilliant Balletic Comedy & Translation
500 years old and laugh-out-loud funny

The Misanthrope and Tartuffe
Moliere , and Richard Wilbur
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Meeting the Living God

ASIN: 0156605171

Book Description

Two classic plays translated by a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet into English verse. In The Misanthrope, society itself is indicted and the impurity of its critic’s motives is exposed. In Tartuffe, the bigoted and prudish Orgon falls completely under the power of the wily Tartuffe. Introductions by Richard Wilbur.

Customer Reviews:

A CLASSIC!.......2007-03-22

Many people are turned off by the rhyming nature of Tartuffe. Personally I find myself so enthralled with the story that I often fail to notice that the story itself rhymes. Real belly laughs abound as we watch Orgon blindly walk through life, oblivious to the religious-hypocrite's misdeeds. It's an absurd story, but it's meant to be thus. It does miss something if you don't see it performed live but once you have, when you read it as it is presented here, you manage to get full enjoyment!

The Misanthrope exists in much the same credit. This work centers on the protagonist Alceste, whose wholesale rejection of his culture's polite social conventions make him tremendously unpopular. This manifests itself in the primary conflict of the play, which results from Alceste's refusal to compliment a sonnet by Oronte, a character who lacks Alceste's respect for unabashed sincerity.

I'm not as big a fan of The Misanthrope as of Tartuffe but I thoroughly enjoyed this book and was very happy to be exposed to the text this way. This is an excellent rendering.

The misanthrope and the religious hypocrite .......2005-01-20

Moliere's leading characters often have one major negative trait which dictates their behavior throughout the play. In this they often seem to be mechanical stock characters and not flesh- and - blood living human beings. In 'The Misanthrope' Alceste believes he must tell the truth to everyone he sees. This is despite the advice of his best friend Philinte. Alceste alienates everyone. At the same time he is madly in love with with Celimene. He wants her to go away with him to retreat from hypocritical society. She however flirtatious and light - minded prefers society to him. The play closes with Philinte trying to persuade Alceste not to leave society completely.
In the second play in this volume the leading character is a religious hypocrite. He finds his way into the heart and mind of a wealthy gentleman Orgon and dominates his family life. Tartuffe steals his money , leads Orgon to disinherit his son and offer his daughter to Tartuffe in marriage. Tartuffe attempts to seduce Orgon's wife. Orgon is convinced to hide under a table where he overhears Tartuffe's entreaties. Orgon then decides to eject him from the family but cannot. It is only with the intercession of the king that the religious hypocrite is stopped. This play raised a furor in its day and the Church opposed its production. Moliere's patron Louis XIV allowed its production in private but only after five years allowed its public staging.
In both these plays Moliere viciously satires the human propensity to remain fixed and static in one's own character, and reaction to reality. He derides human folly but always with the redeeming grace of laughter.
For the contemporary reader of the work who does not feel the special force of the work in its original language there often may seem something forced and artificial in the work. Moliere's work it seems to me gain much from being staged and to know them truly reading alone is not enough.

"Sincerity in excess / Can get you into a very pretty mess".......2003-06-20

Here they are. The Misanthrope and Tartuffe, arguably Moliere's two most famous plays, translated by Pulizter Prize-winner Richard Wilbur, the crown jewels of his poetic output. These translations are performed all the time, and have proved themselves on the modern stage. But the effect of them is not lessened by reading, as this bookshelf-ready edition shows. They are packed with hilarious observations about the pretentions in us all.

The Misanthrope is about a man who tells the harshest truth to everyone but himself; Tartuffe about hypocricy in religion. They read fast and funny, the rhyming couplets of the original faithfully reproduced. The language seems so natural and witty that you think perhaps these plays weren't written in the seventeenth century. But they were, this species of farce being extinct these days, except in rare places like The Simpsons. I can not only unhesitatingly recommend these, but also all of Wilbur's translations of Moliere. It is rare for a comic author to get such a seriously worthy treatment. Hooray!

Brilliant Balletic Comedy & Translation.......2001-08-12

In both these plays, Wilbur brings Moliere's true genius to real life. Previous translations of Moliere's work pale by comparison to Wilbur's brilliant translations. It was my feeling, that would Moliere by alive today, and writing in American English, he would write the way Wilbur translated it.

In comparison to prose translations in the past, Wilbur, past US Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner, truly gives the reader the real feeling of Moliere's "Balletic Comedy" style, as Moliere used his poetry and comedy to make complex and serious points about life of "regular" people, as opposed to royalty such as Shakespeare concentrated on, and so many other playwrites of the past.

In reading Wilbur's translations, one can virtually imagine the cast prancing and mincing across the stage as they humorously render these rhyming couplets at each other, and the audience. The true genius of both Moliere and Wilbur is illustrated most profoundly and strikingly in these translations. Any true lover of Moliere, and even those who have never read him before, should treat themselves to Wilbur's translations for a Moliere experience, that is unparalleled in any other versions previously published.

500 years old and laugh-out-loud funny.......2000-09-23

It is amazing that a 500 year old rhyming play can be laugh-out-loud funny. Celimene is surely one of the most sharp tounged, wittiest feminine roles in the theater. I saw the very long legged Umma Thurman perform a modern adaption of this play off broadway. Tartuffe is also good but it does not rhyme. Neither does Moilière's "Don Juan".

Average customer rating:

A superb cross-sampling of the best of Wilbur's work
A Library Star
Necessary
One of ours
this book should be in every home

Collected Poems 1943-2004
Richard Wilbur
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156030799

Book Description

With a distinguished career spanning more than sixty years, Richard Wilbur stands as one of America's preeminent men of letters. Collected Poems 1943-2004 is the comprehensive collection of Wilbur's astonishing, timeless work. It will serve as the most referenced trove of this beloved poet's best verses for many years to come.

In Trackless Woods
In trackless woods, it puzzled me to find
Four great rock maples seemingly aligned,
As if they had been set out in a row
Before some house a century ago,
To edge the property and lend some shade.
I looked to see if ancient wheels had made
Old ruts to which the trees ran parallel,
But there were none, so far as I could tell-
There'd been no roadway. Nor could I find the square
Depression of a cellar anywhere,
And so I tramped on further, to survey
Amazing patterns in a hornbeam spray
Or spirals in a pine cone, under trees
Not subject to our stiff geometries.

Customer Reviews:

A superb cross-sampling of the best of Wilbur's work.......2006-05-06

Collected Poems 1943-2004 is an anthology of poetry by Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner Richard Wilbur, who has previously served as poet laureate of the United States. The compendium features works in a variety of formats, meters, and rhyme schemes, with themes ranging from the mundane to the extraordinary. A superb cross-sampling of the best of Wilbur's work, Collected Poems 1943-2004 is a treasury recommended for both libraries and private poetry shelves, and is certain not to disappoint true poetry lovers. "On Having Mis-Identified a Wild Flower": A thrush, because I'd been wrong, / Burst rightly into song / In a world not vague, not lonely, / Not governed by me only.

A Library Star.......2006-03-18

This collection of the poems of Richard Wilbur is in several ways a gem. Not only does it contain the bulk of the works of Wilbur, who is one of the very few major poets of our era, it is also that rarity in today's publishing industry; that is, a beautiful book, well printed on good quality paper in a most readable typeface, and elegantly bound. Wilbur's work is notable for his affinity with the poetry of Europe and elsewhere. His translations from the French, in particular, are all of a high standard. Wilbur is not afraid to write verse which has rhyme, rhythm, and elegance. This is a book to be treasured.

Necessary.......2006-02-08

I first read Richard Wilbur's poems more than 20 years ago, but I have to admit that for most of that time he has been for me like the fire brigade or catastrophic health insurance -- I was glad he was there, but for whatever reason he didn't seem terribly relevant in my life.

This book helped remind me how wrong I have been.

Upon reflection, I realize that at least part of the reason for my undervaluing Mr. Wilbur's work stems from my own shortcoming: I was probably too young to appreciate his delicate insight and wit when I formed my opinions about him. But the main reason is probably because he's such a forgettable personality. He is a white male. Like most men of his generation, he served in the army during World War II. He doesn't use strange punctuation marks or filthy language. I know almost nothing about his personal life, but, as far as I know, he has never considered suicide, he has never been in rehab, he has never gone mad, and he has never been arrested. All he has done is produce beautiful and important poems, virtually non-stop for more than 60 years. In an age in which we are flooded with public personalities that demand to be noticed, that is disappointingly easy to overlook.

Collected Poems, 1943-2004 is probably as close as we're going to get to Mr. Wilbur demanding to be noticed. And if you are the type who enjoys simple pleasures and metrical poise, then you really should notice him as he appears on these pages. Everything Mr. Wilbur wrote through 2004 is included here, including previously unpublished recent poems, song lyrics, children's poems, and the great poet's well-known published works. There is no need to own any other book of Mr. Wilbur's poetry if you buy this.

I'm not enough of a fool to try to use my own words to describe Mr. Wilbur's. Instead, I'll end with the final verse of Seed Leaves, one of my favorite poems in the book:

Forced to make choice of ends,
The stalk in time unbends,
Shakes off the seed-case, heaves
Aloft, and spreads two leaves
Which display no sure
And special signature.

Indeed.

One of ours.......2005-07-28

Wilbur is one of the indispensables; impossible to imagine American poetry, or indeed the American trajectory, without these poems, so deftly shaped, giving such wry light. I am grateful for this book.

this book should be in every home.......2004-11-05

Wilbur's collected poems would be in every American home if poetry was taught better. He is the most technically proficient poet in American literary history. In matters of rhythm, meter, rhyme, shape and form, he is a sculptor, a magician.

Check out these tercets from "First Snow in Alsace," remembering that Wilbur saw pretty much three years of straight combat in World War Two:

The snow came down last night like moths
Burned on the moon; it fell till dawn,
Covered the town with simple cloths.

Absolute snow lies rumpled on
What shellbursts scattered and deranged,
Entangled railings, crevassed lawn.

You think: beyond the town a mile
Or two, this snowfall fills the eyes
Of soldiers dead a little while.

The School for Wives and The Learned Ladies, by Moliere: Two comedies in an acclaimed translation.

Average customer rating:

My favorite of the Molieres by Wilbur
Total Joy

The School for Wives and The Learned Ladies, by Moliere: Two comedies in an acclaimed translation.
Richard Wilbur
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0156795027

Book Description

The School for Wives concerns an insecure man who contrives to show the world how to rig an infallible alliance by marrying the perfect bride; The Learned Ladies centers on the domestic calamities wrought by a domineering woman upon her husband, children, and household. “Wilbur...makes Molière into as great an English verse playwright as he was a French one” (John Simon, New York). Introductions by Richard Wilbur.

Customer Reviews:

My favorite of the Molieres by Wilbur.......2003-04-26

I've read all but one of Pulitzer-Prize winner Richard Wilbur's translations of French master playwright Moliere. This is my favorite. I was provoked to laugh out loud many times while reading it, something I rarely do with contemporary comedies, much less ones written in the 17th Century. The School for Wives I found more fresh and delightful than any present-day television sit-com and The Learned Ladies had its moments as well (especially the poetry reading by the pedantic Trissotin).

The School for Wives centers around a man, Arnolfe, who is afraid of being cuckolded. He has raised a girl from when she was very young to know nothing but praying and sewing, so that when she marries she will not have the wherewithal to cheat on him. Of course, a young man in the neighborhood happens to see her while Arnolfe is out. In a series of misunderstandings, the young man ends up enlisting Arnolfe's aid in wooing the girl. Arnolfe's every attempt to thwart their union is in turn thwarted by her. She may have been raised ignorant, but she is not stupid.

The Learned Ladies is, in present context, somewhat misogynist. Much of the comedy revolves around the matriarch of a family who rules her household "like a man." The plot again involves young lovers separated by a willful parent. The daughter of the matriarch wants to wed a young man who is equally in love with her but her mother wants her to wed the stuck-up court poet Trissotin. This is really just a pretext for a lot of the deflation of pomposity at which Moliere excels. For those who like the old battle-of-the-sexes screwball comedies, here is a likely progenitor.

The most famous of Moliere's plays are The Misanthrope, The Hypocondriac and Tartuffe. If you've already read them and like them, then I have no reservation recommending this delightful double-header.

Total Joy.......2000-05-14

Moliere and Wilbur, though they did not, of course, work together, are a match for Gilbert and Sullivan as a wedding of talents. Each of these plays is very funny and full of insights about human vanity.

Average customer rating:

Moliere Would Have Loved This Translation
A Jocular Portrayal of an Immoral Atheist
Scrumptious

Don Juan
Moliere
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 015601310X

Book Description

Don Juan, the "Seducer of Seville," originated as a hero-villain of Spanish folk legend, is a famous lover and scoundrel who has made more than a thousand sexual conquests. One of Molière's best-known plays, Don Juan was written while Tartuffe was still banned on the stages of Paris, and shared much with the outlawed play. Modern directors transform Don Juan in every new era, as each director finds something new to highlight in this timeless classic. Richard Wilbur's flawless translation will be the standard for generations to come, as have his translations of Molière's other plays. Witty, urbane, and poetic in its prose, Don Juan is, most importantly, as funny now as it was for audiences when it was first presented.

Customer Reviews:

Moliere Would Have Loved This Translation.......2006-02-15

This play is a treat to read, and I can't wait to see it performed. Moliere, however, must share the spotlight with the translator, Richard Wilbur, who shows an elegant flair for conversational prose. The contemporary American reader lives in a land of waning religiosity, yet one in which theocracy is ironically gaining influence in national politics. It is in this context that we have to smile, if not laugh, when Don Juan says,

"It's no longer shameful to be a dissembler; hypocrisy is now a fashionable vice and all the fashionable vices pass for virtues. The part of the God-fearing man is the best possible role to play nowadays, and in our present society the hypocrite's profession has extraordinary advantages. It's an art whose dishonesty always goes unchallenged...The hypocrite, by means of pious pretenses, attaches himself to the devout, and anyone who then assails him is set upon by a great phalanx of the godly...The true believers are easily hoodwinked by the false...I can't tell you how many men I know who, by means of a feigned devotion, have glossed over the sins of their youth, wrapped themselves in the cloak of religion, and in that holy disguise are now free to be the worst of scoundrels!"

Amazon's rules prohibit me from disclosing the ending, though it has been known for some 331 years, but I will tell you that it leaves Don Juan's valet, Sganarelle, wondering how he'll ever get his back pay.

A Jocular Portrayal of an Immoral Atheist.......2003-02-18

"What a fine creed that is! So far as I can see, your religion consists of arithmetic." --said to Don Juan by his valet, Sganarelle

Richard Wilbur won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and he has served as Poet Laureate of the United States. His translation of Moliere's once censored comedy, Don Juan (1665), successfully conveys to English readers not only the words but also the humor of the original. For his translation, Wilbur wrote an insightful Introduction explicating the play's moral subtleties.

The play's renowned French comic dramatist, Moliere (1622-1673), previously authored Tartuffe (1664), a comedy lampooning religious hypocrisy. However, Tartuffe offended pious sensibilities to the point that performances of it halted prematurely. As observed in Wilbur's Introduction, Moliere may have hoped to placate religious militants opposed to Tartuffe with a comedy about a young, wealthy, atheistic, amorous scoundrel that gets his just punishment in hell.

However, if placation of religious scruples partially motivated Moliere to select the Don Juan character, his intention failed. The comedy outraged the pious, forcing him to make cuts after the first performance. Like Tartuffe, Don Juan closed early although it was a box-office success. Wilbur suggests that the primary reason it offended is its moral ambiguity. For although Don Juan gets his just punishment for his wickedness, mockery of orthodoxy is just below the surface of the plot.

For example, in Act 1, Scene 1, orthodox beliefs are implicitly put on a par with superstition when Don Juan's valet, Sganarelle, reports that his master "doesn't believe in Heaven, or Hell, or werewolves even." In Act 3, Scene 1, Sganarelle asks if Don Juan believes in Heaven, Hell, and the Devil, to each of which he makes plain his disbelief. Finally, Sganarelle asks if he believes in the Bogeyman, and he answers, "Don't be an idiot." Sganarelle then objects, "Now there you go too far, for there's nothing truer in this world than the Bogeyman; I'll stake my life on that." Thus, Moliere casts a nincompoop as an apologist of orthodoxy.

Another offensive characterization is the pious Poor Man in Scene 2 of Act 3. He is an idiot living alone for ten years in the woods praying for the prosperity of those who give him alms while he himself lacks "a crust of bread to chew on." Don Juan suggests that he worry less about others and pray to Heaven for a coat. Offering him a gold coin, Don Juan says, "Here it is, take it. Take it, I tell you. But first you must blaspheme." The Poor Man replies, "No, Sir, I'd rather starve to death."

Perhaps most offensive is Don Juan's explanation of why he has decided to become a religious hypocrite in Act 5, Scene 2. Being a hypocrite will make it easier to hide his misconduct and make obtaining forgiveness easier by repentance if found out. Moreover, being the hypocrite will enable him to accuse his enemies of impiety, thereby stirring up against them "a swarm of ignorant zealots."

Thus, in Moliere's Don Juan, nothing is sacred, and Richard Wilbur's translation captures every outrageous bit of it. Buy it, read it and laugh!

Scrumptious.......2001-03-06

I had no intention of reading a romance type novel, I dont even read them and I happenned to pick this up , just to pass the time while I waited in line. I was mesperized and laughing by the time I was at the front of the line. I putt back the book I was going to buy and bought this. You wont be disappointed. Perfect reading for a cold snowy night!

Average customer rating:

no title
Wilbur's Treatment of Phaedra
The essence of Racine -The horses of the night run too fast
Not my favorite of Wilbur's translations
Racine's version of the myth of Phaedrus and Hippolytus

Phaedra, by Racine
Richard Wilbur
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 015675780X

Book Description

Phaedra is consumed with passion for Hippolytus, her stepson. Believing her husband dead, she confesses her love to him and is rebuffed. When her husband returns alive, Phaedra convinces him that it was Hippolytus who attempted to seduce her. In his interpretation, Racine replaced the stylized tragedy with human-scale characters and actions. Introduction by Richard Wilbur.

Download Description

PHAEDRA Ah! Let them take elsewhere the worthless honours They bring me. Why so urgent I should see them? What flattering balm can soothe my wounded heart? Far rather hide me: I have said too much. My madness has burst forth like streams in flood.

Customer Reviews:

no title.......2005-11-09

"Phaedra" has very good suspense, and the language really flowed well. All the grave sins upon which disaster builds are basically sins of the mind only - no incest ever really took place. And Hippolytus was only Phaedra's stepson. Much ado about nothing.

Wilbur's Treatment of Phaedra.......2005-09-12

Wilbur's translation of Phaedra is excellent, and I would highly recommend it.

The essence of Racine -The horses of the night run too fast.......2005-01-23

This is arguably Racine's best known play. It is based on an earlier version of the play by Euripides. It is written at a relatively late period in Racine's career when he was moving back toward Jansensim and a fully religious life. The play is considered the most perfect French example of a tragedy written according to the classic rules. The story is one of illicit passion and its price. One strange idea of Racine was that the 'gods' forced people to sin, and then punished them for this. This cruelty of the gods somehow suits the whole tenor of Racine's work which has a certain fierce kind of cruelty in it. Phaedra the second wife of the king Theseus falls passionately in love with Theseus' son Hippolytus. Hippolytus who supposedly hates woman is in fact secretly in love with Arcis. Upon receiving a message that Theseus has died Phaedra contain contain her passion and confesses her love to a horrified Hippolytus. Then it is revealed that the message of Theseus dead like Mark Twain's has been premature. Theseus returns and urged on by her wicked servant Oenone Phaedra indicates that Hippolytus has attempted to seduce her. Outraged Theseus orders that his son be executed. Phaedra upon learning this thinks to confess, but then learns that Hippolytus is not indifferent women as he has pretended to her but in fact loves Arcis. In a fit of jealousy she allows Theseus to carry out the execution. Upon learning of Hippolytus death, she commits suicide.
The virtous Phaedra who worked so hard to overcome her passion for Hippolytus has been defeated by that passion. The passion, the sinful nature of the human heart has ruthlessly brought to the tragic death of the innocence. This is the harsh and bleak world of Racine's tragedy, the cruel world in which sinner and innocent alike go to their doom.

Not my favorite of Wilbur's translations.......2003-08-15

The play is a good one. Racine manages to make a classical tragedy very real and very resonant (to 17th Century France and to us.) Many translators have tried their hand at it recently, including Ted Hughes.

I'm a big fan of Richard Wilbur's translations of Moliere, so I thought I'd give this one a try. Wilbur manages to reproduce the rhyme and metrical scheme of the original, but compared to his other translations, this one is pretty dead. Where you expect high-flying rhetoric, Wilbur never modulates out of his fusty base tone. The original play is devoid of comedy, which is a shame, since Wilbur is so good at it.

The bottom line is that this translation is quite readable, if not perhaps definitive. Those with access to a library might want to compare all the new translations and see which one suits them best. Fans of Wilbur are advised to stick to his Molieres.

Racine's version of the myth of Phaedrus and Hippolytus.......2002-04-20

This year I am using Jean Racine's "Phaedra" as the one non-classical text in my Classical Greek and Roman Mythology Class (yes, I know, "Classical" makes "Greek and Roman" redundant, but it was not my title). In Greek mythology, Phaedra was the half-sister of the Minotaur who was married to Theseus after the hero abandoned her sister Ariadne (albeit, according to some versions of what happened in Crete). Phaedra fell in love with her step-son Hippolytus, who refused her advances. Humiliated, she falsely accused him of having raped her.

My students read "Phaedra" after Euripides's "Hippolytus" as part of an analogy criticism assignment, in which they compare/contrast the two versions, which are decidedly different, to say the least. In the "original" Greek version Hippolytus is a follower of Artemis, and the jealous Aphrodite causes his stepmother to fall in love with him. Phaedra accuses Hippolytus of rape and then hangs herself; Theseus banished his son who is killed before Artemis arrives to tell the truth. In Racine's version Hippolytus is a famous hater of women who falls in love with Aricia, a princess of the blood line of Athens. When false word comes that Theseus is dead, Phaedra moves to put her own son on the throne. In the end the same characters end up dead, but the motivations and other key elements are different.

While I personally would not go so far as to try and argue how Racine's neo-classical version represents the France of 1677, I have found that comparing and contrasting the two versions compels students to think about the choices each dramatist has made. Both the similarities and the differences between "Hippolytus" and "Phaedra" are significant enough to facilitate this effort. Note: Other dramatic versions of this myth include Seneca's play "Phaedra," "Fedra" by Gabriele D'Annunzio, "Thesee" by Andrea Gide, and "The Cretan Woman" by Robinson Jeffers.

Amphitryon, by Moliere
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Wilbur scores again!

Hilarious! Amazing translation

Amphitryon, by Moliere
Moliere
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Continental European | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
19th Century | British & Irish | Drama | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Moliere | ( M ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The School for Husbands and Sganarelle, or the Imaginary Cuckold

The School for Wives and The Learned Ladies, by Moliere: Two comedies in an acclaimed translation.

Andromache, by Racine

The Misanthrope and Tartuffe

ASIN: 0156002116

Book Description

Wilbur is at the peak of his form in this stellar translation of an unusual Molière play-populated with Greeks and Greco-Roman gods and flavored with the essences of vaudeville, fan-tasy, high comedy, farce, and even opera. Afterword by Richard Wilbur.

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SOS. What the deuce of a fellow is this? My heart thrills with clutching fear. But why should I tremble thus? Perhaps the rogue is as much afraid as I am, and talks in this way to hide his fear from me under a feigned audacity. Yes, yes, I will not allow him to think me a goose. If I am not bold, I will try to appear so. Let me seek courage by reason; he is alone, even as I am.

Customer Reviews:

Wilbur scores again!.......2003-04-26

Wilbur faithfully reproduces some of Moliere's more experimental versification in this update of Plautus' Amphitruo, the story of Greek general who is impersonated by the god Jupiter-- so that Jupiter can share a bed with his wife! Moliere, a master of farce, plays this mistaken identity to its comic hilt.

Wilbur's translation here is peerless and his Afterword is wonderfully informative. This is not my favorite of his Moliere translations (I like The School for Wives and The Misanthrope) but I'd be hard-pressed to name a fault. Voltaire said of this play, "I laughed so hard that I fell over backwards." I didn't fall over backwards, but I got a good chuckle or two out if it.

Hilarious! Amazing translation.......2001-03-28

This is an extremely funny, well written (& translated) play; Wilbur does a terrific job with the English verse, which makes the play read like an original--rather than a translation. Finding a well translated version of non-english written plays can often be difficult (especially with so many translations available), but this one is truly terrific.

Book Description

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Wilbur turns his sharp eye to the noble alphabet and imagines what life would be like without these twenty-six little--but powerful--letters. Packed with humor and subtle wit, the verse in this captivating picture book is splendidly matched by Caldecott Medal winner David Diaz’s hilariously clever illustrations.

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An imaginative ABC book for young and old.......2004-09-15

Richard Wilbur's The Disappearing Alphabet imagines what the world would be like if the letters of the alphabet vanished, in verses on subjects ranging from the ordinary to silly to sublime and existential. For instance, without "G," there would be no green and oak trees would be blue and pastures pink; without "N," birds would have wigs instead of wings; as for "O":

What if there were no letter O?
You couldn't COME, you couldn't GO,
You couldn't ROVE, you couldn't ROAM,
And yet you couldn't stay at HOME!
Where would you be, had heaven not sent you
The letter O to orient you?

Each letter is portrayed on a single page, with verses ranging from two to twelve lines. Each verse is beautifully illustrated by David Diaz's exquisite and unexpected designs, such as a lovely banana with a disgusting eel instead of a peel (illustrating the importance of the letter "P"). Diaz's illustrations are stylized in intense, gradient, glowing colors. The illustrations each overlay a pale yellow version of the letter found somewhere in the background of the page. The type is treated with the same care as the illustrations, with the letter to which the verse is addressed set off in a bold, colorful, sans serif font. Younger children will enjoy the nonsense-like poetry and the playfulness of the language, while older children will discover new and unusual vocabulary words and find inspiration by the possibilities of language. The introduction exhorts children to protect the alphabet: "Be careful, then, my friends, and do not let / Anything happen to the alphabet." This book will offer children of all ages an appreciation of letters, words, and language.

Without F . . . I would be aith.......2001-07-07

What would you do if the first letter of your name would disappear? Richard Wilbur gives a comical way to view the disappearance of the alphabet. He makes his readers think about the importance of the alphabet. 'What if there were no letter A? Cows would eat HY instead of HAY' This would be an excellent book to read to elementary students. After reading this book, they could think of what other words would be or sound like with a letter missing. The illustrations by David Diaz are unique to say the least. He uses vibrant colors and illustraions to stress the importance of what Wilbur is trying to convey. This book made me think about the alphabet in a different way. It will do the same for young readers.

Excellent:for its humor, poetic quality, illustrations........1998-12-17

I highly recommend this book. The lines are easy to remember, and are very quotable. They provide an introduction to poetry and to the play with language. They introduce vocabulary with humor. The illustrations are quite extraordinary, the print of high quality.

The Ancient Tradition of Geometric Problems

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Scholarly, fragmented, but also of interest for non-experts

The Ancient Tradition of Geometric Problems
Wilbur Richard Knorr
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Mathematics | Science | Subjects | Books

A History of Greek Mathematics, Vol. 1
Greek Mathematical Thought and the Origin of Algebra
The Thirteen Books of Euclid's Elements, Books 1 and 2
Proclus
Greek Mathematical Works: Volume II, From Aristarchus to Pappus. (Loeb Classical Library No. 362)

ASIN: 0486675327

Book Description

Highly-regarded study focuses on ancient Greek efforts to solve the 3 classical problems of cube duplication, angle trisection and circle-quadrature by such famed mathematicians as Hippocrates of Chios, Eudoxus, Archimedes and Apollonius, and spans virtually the entire period of ancient geometry. "Essential reading" — Mathematical Reviews. 1986 edition. Bibliography. Includes 255 black-and-white illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Scholarly, fragmented, but also of interest for non-experts.......2006-01-06

This is a history of Greek mathematics from the point of view of problems and problem solving, not least the three classical problems: cube duplication, circle quadrature, angle trisection. Knorr argues that this restriction is not arbitrary: "One seems typically to assume that metamathematical concerns were the effective motivating force underlying efforts of geometers ... In general, I will find most convincing the 'internalist' position that technical research is directed toward the solution of problems arising from previous and current research efforts", mathematics thus being "on the whole autonomous in setting the directions of research". So the focus on problems is a way to understand the development of Greek mathematics by exposing the mindsets of the mathematicians. This aspect is naturally very interesting, and the mere presence of such perspectives sets this book apart from the bare bones histories of Heath et al. However, grand programs and pretty pots on the cover is not everything. Our fragmented knowledge of Greek mathematics does not allow Knorr's program to be carried out in a completely satisfactory manner; neither is the big picture one of Knorr's main concerns. Instead much of the book amounts to quite specialised scholarly analysis of sources and critique of other scholarly interpretations. In the end, one is not entirely convinced that Knorr has unveiled the key to understanding Greek mathematics. His criticism of other interpretative schemes is convincing but sometimes suspiciously convenient. So, for instance, Knorr rather enjoys arguing that philosophy never had a major influence on mathematics (thus supporting his point of view) while the more interesting and relevant questions of the influences of astronomy, mechanics and optics are largely silenced.

Opposites, More Opposites, and a Few Differences

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Opposites, More Opposites, and a Few Differences
Richard Wilbur
Manufacturer: Harcourt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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Collected Poems 1943-2004
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Probuditi!
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ASIN: 0152056122

Book Description

This collection includes the full text and drawings from Opposites and More Opposites, plus seven additional poems and drawings about differences. Readers of all ages will delight in this volume of witty wordplay and clever illustrations from two-time Pulitzer Prize recipient and National Book Award winner Richard Wilbur.

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