San Antonio College Library

From The Books Back Cover: Master of comedy, Moliere constructed his plays upon a foundation of laughter whose range and depth invested comedy with new dimension. His genius transformed the stereotyped comedy of his day into a highly developed form of artistic expression, in plays that are a superbly balanced orchestration of low comedy and elevated wit. Pillorying human vice, folly, and hypocrisy, these plays reveal beneath their high spirits and...

In the years since Molière's death, succeeding generations have emphasized different aspects of his many-faceted genius. As Gertrud Mander points out in this contemporary reassessment "the king of laughter," our own age seems to be particularly fascinated by such complex character studies as "Tartuffe", "The Misanthrope", and "Don Juan". In addition, we respond with knowing laughter to the comedies -- "The School for Wives", "The Learned Women",...

The relation of the comedian to his audience through the comparison of individual works by the three comic playwrights of the seventeenth century.