Three Plays of Racine: Phaedra, Andromache, and Britannicus

By Jean Racine

Book Overview

"George Dillon has elected for speed and clarity; his speed, of which short quotations can impart no notion, is his equivalent for Racine's impetuous dexterity with the French Alexandrine. . . . Momentum, in such a version, is everything. It stands as a homage to Racine's strength of construction . . . and to the expressive power of his themes, on which Mr. Dillon's prefaces have eloquent and sensible things to say."-Hugh Kenner, National Review

"His literal and flexible blank verse actually forms the nearest thing in English to the longer-measured rhymed couplets of Racine; even an ordinary reading aloud of so faithful a rendering provides something of the experience that Proust described."-Elliott Coleman, Poetry

"A superb introduction . . . flawless translations, infused with poetic fire and charm."-Margaret Carpenter, Norfolk Virginian-Pilot

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226150771
• ISBN13: 9780226150772
• Release Date: September 1961
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Good play, great translation

Racine's "Phaedra" is based on Euripedes' "Hippolytus", and it is a very respectable retelling of the story. Racine writes especially well in the imagery of light and darkness struggling in Phaedra's soul, which he puts in her first and final lines.The translation by George Dillon is excellent.