Books › Tartuffe
Tartuffe
comedie
382 pages
A razor-sharp, rhyming farce that skewers hypocrisy and the hilarious consequences of letting a con artist run your life.
What it feels like
Reading this play feels like watching a brilliantly orchestrated trainwreck in real-time, set to a bouncing, musical rhythm. The experience is incredibly brisk and theatrical, driven by rapid-fire dialogue and rhyming couplets that make every biting insult and clever observation land with a satisfying punch. You sit in a mood of chaotic anticipation, sharing the family's mounting frustration as they try to unmask a blatant con artist to a patriarch who refuses to see the truth. It is a masterclass in satire that balances lighthearted farce with a sharp critique of hypocrisy and blind devotion. Lovers of classic wit, biting social commentary, and stories where pompous fools finally get their comeuppance will devour this timeless comedy.
- Mood
- farcical
- chaotic
- theatrical
- tense
- Tone
- satirical
- witty
- mocking
- playful
- sharp
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- religious hypocrisy · blind devotion · family dysfunction · deception and truth · gullibility
- The writing
- Bouncing, rhythmic rhymed couplets that deliver biting insults and clever wordplay with effortless musicality.
- The arc
- Frustration at a patriarch's willful blindness builds into chaotic desperation before resolving in a swift, satisfying restoration of justice.
- Who it's for
- Readers who delight in classic satire, theatrical farce, and watching a pompous fool get thoroughly outsmarted.
Content notes
- emotional manipulation
- family conflict
About the book
Richard Wilbur's verse translation of Tartuffe has been acclaimed as a masterpiece in its own right. Set in rhymed couplets, it captures not only the tone of the original but the dramatic energy as well. Not surprisingly, the play in this translation has been performed regularly over the years.
One of Moliere's most popular plays, Tartuffe, written in 1669, tells the story of Orgon, a rich bourgeois who has become a prude and bigot in his middle age. He is the perfect mark for Tartuffe, a wily opportunist and swindler, who ingratiates himself with Orgon by affecting an air of piety. Soon the gulled Orgon not only hands over his fortune but offers his daughter in marriage to Tartuffe. But Orgon discovers his "spiritual" master's true nature in a most shocking and hilarious fashion.
Description from Open Library.
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