The Cid ; Cinna ; The theatrical illusion
by Pierre Corneille
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The Cid, Corneille's masterpiece set in medieval Spain, was the first great work of French classical drama; Cinna, written three years later in 1641, is a tense political drama, while The Theatrical Illusion, an earlier work, is reminiscent of Shakespeare's exuberant comedies.Tags
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The blank verse translation by John Cairncross has lots of energy, but I can only assume the French has more interesting imagery or something else that couldn’t be brought across, because I found these plays quite dull and one-dimensional. The characters just seem to take turns saying what they mean; there’s little subtext or double meaning here, just ideas being opposed and worked out to a formula. The Cid and Cinna are untragic tragedies; The Theatrical Illusion a mild and inoffensive comedy. Glad to have read some Corneille, I suppose.
I give it the 4 stars for Theatrical Illusion, which is very funny, and the Cid, which is gorgeous melodrama. Cinna, to me, is less exciting -- in real life, political forgiveness is a good thing, but it does not make for high tragedy
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Corneille is a part of the greatest period of French drama. His artistic model and theory of the drama were to be followed by successive generations of dramatists, including Racine. His plays deal with noble characters in closely defined situations of high moral intensity. After modest success as a writer of complex, baroque comedies, Corneille show more achieved fame with Le Cid (1636--37), adapted from Guillen de Castro's three-day comedy Las Moceddes del Cid. It vividly represents the dominant theme of his tragedies: the inner struggle between duty and passion. Corneille went on to dominate the French theater of his day with plays that reflect the changing relationships between the aristocracy and the new absolutist state. Some of Corneille's other major tragedies include Horace (1640), Cinna (1640), and Polyeuctus (1643). In his shaping of language and form to his dramatic purposes, Corneille had a great effect on the development of French literature; more specifically, it can be said that he gave form and aim to French neoclassicism. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Canonical title
- The Cid ; Cinna ; The theatrical illusion
- Original title
- Le Cid . Cinna . L’Illusion comique
- Original publication date
- 1636 (l'Illusion comique) (l'Illusion comique); 1637 (le Cid) (le Cid); 1639 (Cinna) (Cinna)
- Important places*
- Rouen, Normandië, Frankrijk; Frankrijk
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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- Members
- 251
- Popularity
- 129,612
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.41)
- Languages
- Dutch, English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
