The School for Wives and The Learned Ladies, by Moliere: Two comedies in an acclaimed translation. [Paperback]

Jean-Baptiste Moliere (Author), Richard Wilbur (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1991

The School for Wives concerns an insecure man who contrives to show the world how to rig an infallible alliance by marrying the perfect bride; The Learned Ladies centers on the domestic calamities wrought by a domineering woman upon her husband, children, and household. “Wilbur...makes Molière into as great an English verse playwright as he was a French one” (John Simon, New York). Introductions by Richard Wilbur.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

About the Author

RICHARD WILBUR, one of America’s most beloved poets, has served as poet

Product Details

• Paperback: 324 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books; Regular Print/Single Titl edition (November 15, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156795027
• ISBN-13: 978-0156795029
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 7.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #224,940 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite of the Molieres by Wilbur, April 25, 2003

By 

J. Ott "John Ott" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The School for Wives and The Learned Ladies, by Moliere: Two comedies in an acclaimed translation. (Paperback)

I've read all but one of Pulitzer-Prize winner Richard Wilbur's translations of French master playwright Moliere. This is my favorite. I was provoked to laugh out loud many times while reading it, something I rarely do with contemporary comedies, much less ones written in the 17th Century. The School for Wives I found more fresh and delightful than any present-day television sit-com and The Learned Ladies had its moments as well (especially the poetry reading by the pedantic Trissotin).

The School for Wives centers around a man, Arnolfe, who is afraid of being cuckolded. He has raised a girl from when she was very young to know nothing but praying and sewing, so that when she marries she will not have the wherewithal to cheat on him. Of course, a young man in the neighborhood happens to see her while Arnolfe is out. In a series of misunderstandings, the young man ends up enlisting Arnolfe's aid in wooing the girl. Arnolfe's every attempt to thwart their union is in turn thwarted by her. She may have been raised ignorant, but she is not stupid.

The Learned Ladies is, in present context, somewhat misogynist. Much of the comedy revolves around the matriarch of a family who rules her household "like a man." The plot again involves young lovers separated by a willful parent. The daughter of the matriarch wants to wed a young man who is equally in love with her but her mother wants her to wed the stuck-up court poet Trissotin. This is really just a pretext for a lot of the deflation of pomposity at which Moliere excels. For those who like the old battle-of-the-sexes screwball comedies, here is a likely progenitor.

The most famous of Moliere's plays are The Misanthrope, The Hypocondriac and Tartuffe. If you've already read them and like them, then I have no reservation recommending this delightful double-header.

4 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Total Joy, May 13, 2000

By 

Richard R. Reynolds "mxpx" (Storrs, CT United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The School for Wives and The Learned Ladies, by Moliere: Two comedies in an acclaimed translation. (Paperback)

Moliere and Wilbur, though they did not, of course, work together, are a match for Gilbert and Sullivan as a wedding of talents. Each of these plays is very funny and full of insights about human vanity.