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DORANTE: Monsieur Jourdain is right, Madame, to speak so, and he obliges me by making you so welcome. I agree with him that the repast is not worthy of you. Since it was I who ordered it, and since I do not have the accomplishments of our friends in this matter, you do not have here a very sophisticated meal, and you will find some incongruities in the combinations and some barbarities of taste. ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This Book Is In French. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This Book Is In French. ... Read more

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Jean Baptiste Poquelin who is better known by his stage name Moliare was a 17th century French author known for his comedy. After abandoning a law career Moliare began acting, directing and writing plays in Paris and the surrounding area. The scathing satire in his plays made several important him enemies. Shakespeare gave his characters complexity while Moliare used simplicity to produce his memorable characters. Orgon thinks that Tartuffe is a great religious man while in fact Tartuffe is a hypocrite. By the time Orgon realizes Tartuffe's true nature, Tartuffe has control of Orgon's finances and is about to marry his daughter. In the end the king intervenes and Tartuffe is on his way to prison. In France the word Tartuffe now means a person who is a religious hypocrite. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

OK. I confess. I translated the play.
You'll have to forgive me for giving this translation a 5-star rating. You see, I'm the person who did the translation so I may have a bit of a bias. But I'm writing this brief commentary to encourage those who download the ebook to add reviews of their own.

I initially translated the play for a college anthology of literature that I coauthored and coedited (LITERATURE, 5th ed., Prentice Hall, 1997), but I retained the copyright for the translation of Tartuffe in my own name so that I could make it available more widely in subsequent years. Some time ago I decided to make the electronic version of the translation freely available at [...], and Amazon has picked it up from that source. (Apparently, they charge for the Kindle edition in order to help cover the cost of the free Whispernet service on most Kindles.) I'd like people to read the play and enjoy it--maybe even recommend it to others.

My goal in the translation was to take Moliere's 17th-century French verse and translate it into modern English couplets that one can read as fluidly and as effortlessly as good prose. I wanted to take advantage of the way rhyme adds to the wit of the play, but few contemporary plays are written in rhyming verse, so I tried to minimize the jingling, jangling jog-trot of perfectly regular couplets. To do so, I used lots of enjambment, slant rhyme, and metrical variation. I also recognized that Moliere's play was highly controversial in his day, and I wanted my translation of the play to capture his daring and insouciance. Thus, while always trying to stay faithful to the original French text, I used the connotations of words to try to convey to modern readers the shocking freedom of some of his characters' language and actions. Where possible, I used these connotations to underscore some of the key traits of the major characters: Dorine (the impertinent maid), Damis (the hot-headed youth), Orgon (the dupe), and of course Tartuffe (the hypocrite).

If I have done my job as well as I longed to do it, you will find yourself laughing out-loud with some frequency throughout the play. If I have failed, I hope at least that you cannot complain about the price! ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Note: Translated Into English Prose. With Short Introductions And Explanatory Notes. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This Book Is In French. ... Read more

Product Description
This Book Is In French. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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MR. DE BON. What you can do? You can discreetly choose a friend of your wife, to whom you will give all you own in due form by your will, and that friend will give it up to her afterwards; or else you can sign a great many safe bonds in favour of various creditors who will lend their names to your wife, and in whose hands they will leave a declaration that what was done was only to serve her. You can also in your lifetime put in her hands ready money and bills which you can make payable to bearer. ... Read more

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This Book Is In French. ... Read more