Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Les Précieuses ridicules [The Affected Young Ladies]

Mechele Leon (University of Kansas)

Ed. by Julia Prest, University of St Andrews
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.03: French Writing and Culture of the Seventeenth Century: Classical and Baroque, 1600-1700.
Vol. editors: Heather Kirk (University of Western Ontario), Kathrina LaPorta (New York University), Polly Mangerson (DePaul University), Julia Prest (University of St Andrews), Allison Stedman (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1659

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Comedy
Play

Resources

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Les Précieuses ridicules

premiered on 18 November 1659 at Molière’s theatre in the Petit-Bourbon palace in Paris. It was presented as an afterpiece to Pierre Corneille’s 1642 tragedy

Cinna.

This one-act farce in prose has importance in Molière’s oeuvre far more than its categorization as one of his

petites pièces

[minor plays] would suggest. No mere farce, it is a complex combination of farce, Italian comedy and social satire—an amalgam that became a defining feature of Molière’s work. It was his first significant success as a playwright and precipitated his career as a published author. Criticism of the play presaged battles that would resonate for the rest of Molière’s career: charges of plagiarism, claims that he targets individuals for ridicule, denouncements of the…

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3205 words

Citation: Leon, Mechele. "Les Précieuses ridicules". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 January 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4024, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Les Précieuses ridicules [The Affected Young Ladies]

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