This biography of Molière was first published in 2000 and will appeal to general reader and specialists in French and Theatre Studies.

From 1680 until the French Revolution, when legislation abolished restrictions on theatrical enterprise, a single theatre held sole proprietorship of Molière’s works. After 1791, his plays were performed in new theatres all over Paris by new actors, before audiences new to his works. Both his plays and his image took on new dimensions. In Molière, the French Revolution, and the Theatrical Afterlife, Mechele Leon convincingly demonstrates how revolutionaries challenged the ties that bound this preeminent seventeenth-century comic playwright to the Old Regime and provided him with a place of honor in the nation’s new cultural memory. Leon begins by analyzing the performance of Molière’s plays during the Revolution, showing how his privileged position as royal servant was disrupted by the practical conditions of the revolutionary theatre. Next she explores Molière’s relationship to Louis XIV, Tartuffe, and the social function of his comedy, using Rousseau’s famous critique of Molière as well as appropriations of George Dandin in revolutionary iconography to discuss how Moliérean laughter was retooled to serve republican interests. After examining the profusion of plays dealing with his life in the latter years of the Revolution, she looks at the exhumation of his remains and their reentombment as the tangible manifestation of his passage from Ancien Régime favorite to new national icon. The great Molière is appreciated by theatre artists and audiences worldwide, but for the French people it is no exaggeration to say that the Father of French Comedy is part of their national soul. By showing how he was represented, reborn, and reburied in the new France—how the revolutionaries asserted his relevance for their tumultuous time in ways that were audacious, irreverent, imaginative, and extreme—Leon clarifies the important role of theatrical figures in preserving and portraying a nation’s history.

Known as Madame de Villedieu, Marie-Catherine Desjardins (ca. 1640-83) was a prolific writer who played an important role in the evolution of the early modern French novel. One of the earliest women to write for a living, she defied cultural convention by becoming an innovator and appealing to popular tastes through fiction, drama, and poetry. Memoirs of the Life of Henriette-Sylvie de Molière, a semi autobiographical novel, portrays an enterprising woman who writes the story of her life, a complex tale that runs counter to social expectations and novelistic conventions. A striking work, the story skillfully mixes real events from the author's life with fictional adventures. At a time when few women published, Villedieu's Memoirs is a significant achievement in creating a voice for the early modern woman writer. Produced while the French novel form was still in its infancy, it should be welcomed by any scholar of women's writing or the early development of the novel.

Blending biography with fiction, this portrait of the famed French playwright is written by a kindred spirit: the author of The Master and Margarita. Mikhail Bulgakov and Jean-Baptiste Poquelin—more commonly known as Molière—had much in common. The twentieth-century Russian satirist and dramatist and the seventeenth-century French playwright known for Tartuffe and The Misanthrope shared a love for finding material in the shortcomings and follies of the human condition. They both created their art under unpredictable and often repressive regimes—Bulgakov under the Bolsheviks and Molière under King Louis XIV—and often saw their work censored or banned. Both were also favored by influential men: King Louis was Molière’s patron, and Stalin, despite his oppressive rule, was a fan of Bulgakov’s work. Perhaps it is not surprising that Bulgakov penned such a vibrant, affectionate biography of one of the greatest masters of comedy in the Western canon. Written between 1932 and 1933 and eventually published posthumously in 1963, Bulgakov’s portrait of the famed French playwright and actor goes beyond the usual boundaries of biography—the two men at times seem to be communicating with each other across the centuries through Bulgakov’s lively prose and inspired interpretations of the life of a literary kindred spirit. Sliding delightfully between fiction and meticulous fact, The Life of Monsieur de Molière is not to be missed. “In its playfulness and hybridity, this book looks forward to contemporary 'faction' that fuses fiction and biography.” —John Dugdale, The Guardian Book Review

The life of Moliere, Born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, is a story of struggle and dedication, and Bulgakov tells it with warmth and compassion.

Seven plays by the genius of French theater. Including The Ridiculous Precieuses, The School for Husbands, The School for Wives, Don Juan, The Versailles Impromptu, and The Critique of the School for Wives, this collection showcases the talent of perhaps the greatest and best-loved French playwright. Translated and with an Introduction by Donald M. Frame With a Foreword by Virginia Scott And a New Afterword by Charles Newell