Moliere

the long version

"Moliere wrote, directed, and starred in comedies for public and court audiences in seventeenth-century France. He is perennially successful, but perennially subject to critical controversy: do his plays aim to do more than make audiences laugh? This book focuses on a group of characters in the plays, the interpretation of whose role lies at the heart of any answer to this question. For over a century critics have baptised them 'raisonneurs'. They are characters who engage with some of Moliere's most foolish protagonists, but they have been variously interpreted as exponents of wisdom or as ridiculous bores. This is the first book-length treatment of the topic."--Jacket.