Le Voyage de Monsieur Perrichon: Comédie en quatre actes

Le Voyage de Monsieur Perrichon: Comédie en quatre actes

Because Le Voyage de M. Perrichon is a delightful comedy and particularly suitable for use in the class room, it does not follow that the place of its author in the literature of France should be unduly magnified. Eugne Labiche's chief claim to fame is that, as a distinguished critic said of him, for forty years he kept his contemporaries in laughter. From 1838, when he wrote his first play, till 1876, when he voluntarily retired, he produced, generally in collaboration with writers known mainly through their association with him, over one hundred and fifty comedies, in each of which is heard the same dominant note of fun and merriment. But of these plays only a very small number possess the qualities that alone make for durability; neither their formin most cases photographically true to the looseness of the most familiar conversationnor their substanceoften grotesquely impossible adventures, situations supremely laughable because colossally absurdis calculated to embalm his plays against the ravages of time. He thought so himself, and declined for a long time to have them collected into a complete edition; and when, in 1880, he was proposed for a vacant seat in the Acadmie Franaise, he doubted whether he would have voted for his own admission into that illustrious company. Thus Labiche must stand simply as the most prolific and genial of the fun-makers for France during almost half a century. This praise would have satisfied the modest man that he was. Born in Paris in 1815, he had been destined to the bar; but, preferring literature, early betook himself to the newspaper and the drama. Here he found himself, and from the age of twenty-three until he was over sixty filled the comic stage with his light and laughable productions. After his retirement in 1876 the distinctions that were bestowed upon him with no grudging hand brought him as much surprise as pleasure. His published Thtre Complet was received by the public with altogether unexpected enthusiasm; he was elected to the Academy, and his speech on his reception into that body made a marked sensation. He died in 1888 at his country-place in Sologne, full of years and of wonder at the gratitude of his contemporaries for the amusement he had so long afforded them. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 9453
Author: Labiche, Eugène
Release Date: Dec 1, 2005
Format: eBook
Language: French

Contributors

Contributor (Author): Martin, Édouard, 1828-1866