The Life of Monsieur de Molière
by Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov
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Mikhail Bulgakov's The Life of Monsieur de Moliere is a fascinating portrait of the great French seventeenth-century satirist by one of the great Russian satirists of our own century. For Bulgakov, Moliere was an alter ego whose destiny seemed to parallel his own. As Bulgakov's translator, Mirra Ginsburg, informs us: There is much besides their craft that links these two men across the centuries. Both had a sharp satirical eye and an infinite capacity for capturing the absurd and the comic, show more the mean and the grotesque: both had to live and write under autocracies: both were fearless and uncompromising in speaking of what they saw, evoking storms with each new work: and shared what Bulgakov calls 'the incurable disease of passion for the theater.'"The life of Moliere, born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, is a story of struggle and dedication, and Bulgakov tells it with warmth and compassion. Indeed, for all Bulgakov's careful attention to historical detail, his vivid recreation of seventeenth-century France makes The Life of Monsieur de Moliereread more like a novel than a formal biography.Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1949) is best known in the West for his monumental novel The Master and Margarita. His The Life of Monsieur de Moliere, completed in 1933, was not published until 1962. Mirra Ginsburg's translation of this neglected masterpiece will find a welcome readership among devotees of the theater and of modern Russian literature. " show lessTags
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The weakest part of many biographies is the opening. After all, Shakespeare and Lincoln were not actually distinguished by their birth -- or even the first few years of their lives. But you know that this book will be different when it opens with Bulgakov addressing Moliere's midwife, across three centuries, warning her to be careful with the premature infant in her arms and explaining how well he will be remembered all around the world for centuries to come -- more so than Louis XIV even, according to Bulgakov.
The opening announces that this is a biography that will read like a novel. In fact, it is a hybrid with extensive imagined dialogue and scenes, but telling the story from birth to death with relatively little left out along the show more way -- like a conventional biography. In some places it was hilarious (although not quite up to Moliere's level), in other places moving, and everywhere interesting.
In some ways you see more kinship between Bulgakov and Moliere in Bulgakov's play of the same subject than you do in this biography, which tells of all the censorship that Moliere faced but also of all of his court-sanctioned successes as well. Which given that this book itself wasn't published for decades after Bulgakov's life suggests the analogy between them is an imperfect one.
Bottom line, very readable, enjoyable and highly recommended. show less
The opening announces that this is a biography that will read like a novel. In fact, it is a hybrid with extensive imagined dialogue and scenes, but telling the story from birth to death with relatively little left out along the show more way -- like a conventional biography. In some places it was hilarious (although not quite up to Moliere's level), in other places moving, and everywhere interesting.
In some ways you see more kinship between Bulgakov and Moliere in Bulgakov's play of the same subject than you do in this biography, which tells of all the censorship that Moliere faced but also of all of his court-sanctioned successes as well. Which given that this book itself wasn't published for decades after Bulgakov's life suggests the analogy between them is an imperfect one.
Bottom line, very readable, enjoyable and highly recommended. show less
The weakest part of many biographies is the opening. After all, Shakespeare and Lincoln were not actually distinguished by their birth -- or even the first few years of their lives. But you know that this book will be different when it opens with Bulgakov addressing Moliere's midwife, across three centuries, warning her to be careful with the premature infant in her arms and explaining how well he will be remembered all around the world for centuries to come -- more so than Louis XIV even, according to Bulgakov.
The opening announces that this is a biography that will read like a novel. In fact, it is a hybrid with extensive imagined dialogue and scenes, but telling the story from birth to death with relatively little left out along the show more way -- like a conventional biography. In some places it was hilarious (although not quite up to Moliere's level), in other places moving, and everywhere interesting.
In some ways you see more kinship between Bulgakov and Moliere in Bulgakov's play of the same subject than you do in this biography, which tells of all the censorship that Moliere faced but also of all of his court-sanctioned successes as well. Which given that this book itself wasn't published for decades after Bulgakov's life suggests the analogy between them is an imperfect one.
Bottom line, very readable, enjoyable and highly recommended. show less
The opening announces that this is a biography that will read like a novel. In fact, it is a hybrid with extensive imagined dialogue and scenes, but telling the story from birth to death with relatively little left out along the show more way -- like a conventional biography. In some places it was hilarious (although not quite up to Moliere's level), in other places moving, and everywhere interesting.
In some ways you see more kinship between Bulgakov and Moliere in Bulgakov's play of the same subject than you do in this biography, which tells of all the censorship that Moliere faced but also of all of his court-sanctioned successes as well. Which given that this book itself wasn't published for decades after Bulgakov's life suggests the analogy between them is an imperfect one.
Bottom line, very readable, enjoyable and highly recommended. show less
adorable et brillant (?)
Feb 17, 2018French
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Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov was a Russian playwright, novelist, and short-story writer best known for his use of humor and satire. He was born in Kiev, Ukraine, on May 15, 1891, and graduated from the Medical School of Kiev University in 1916. He served as a field doctor during World War I. Bulgakov's association with the Moscow Art Theater began show more in 1926 with the production of his play The Days of the Turbins, which was based on his novel The White Guard. His work was popular, but since it ridiculed the Soviet establishment, was frequently censored. His satiric novel The Heart of a Dog was not published openly in the U.S.S.R. until 1987. Bulgakov's plays including Pushkin and Moliere dealt with artistic freedom. His last novel, The Master and Margarita, was not published until 1966-67 and in censored form. Bulgakov died in Moscow on March 10, 1940. (Bowker Author Biography) A practicing physician like Anton Chekhov, Mikhail Afanasevich Bulgakov became a popular writer and playwright in the comparatively easier political climate of the Soviet Union during the 1920s. The civil war and its internecine horrors became one of his major themes as did the new Soviet society. His early prose is often satiric, with strong elements of the fantastic and grotesque, but it also contains the themes of guilt and personal responsibility that become so crucial in his later work. Bulgakov wrote a number of important plays that provoked bitter attacks in the press, and he was shut out of the theater and literature in 1929. Only a direct appeal to Stalin allowed Bulgakov to resume a professional career. Even then, however, some publishing houses and theaters rejected some of his important works, such as the novel Life of Monsieur de Moliere (1933). Bulgakov's masterpiece written over a number of years and only published decades after his death is the novel Master and Margarita (1966-67). Combining two principal plot lines-Satan's visit to contemporary Moscow and the trial and execution of Jesus in biblical Judaea-the work may be read on many levels, from the purely satiric to the allegorical. It has been acclaimed as one of the most important achievements of twentieth-century Russian fiction. Today, Bulgakov is celebrated for both his plays and his novels. Several of his plays are public favorites and standard fare in Russian theaters. Bulgakov died in Moscow on March 10, 1940. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Life of Monsieur de Molière
- Original title
- Жизнь господина де Мольера
- Original publication date
- 1933
- People/Characters
- Molière
- Original language
- Russian
Classifications
- Genres
- Biography & Memoir, Fiction and Literature, Literature Studies and Criticism
- DDC/MDS
- 842.4 — Literature & rhetoric French Literature French drama Classic period 1600–1715
- LCC
- PQ1852 .B813 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures French literature Modern literature 17th century
- BISAC
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- Reviews
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- Rating
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- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 37
- UPCs
- 1
- ASINs
- 7
