Five Plays: Antigone, Eurydice, The Ermine, The Rehearsal, Romeo and Jeannette

by Jean Anouilh

Book Overview

The great French playwright Jean Anouilh (1910-87) wrote both "pink" bittersweet comedies and "black" tragic dramas. Jean Anouilh Five Plays -- the finest English-language anthology of his works --... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374522294
• Release Date: September 1990
• Publisher: Hill and Wang
• Length: 340 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.8" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

Antigone

Worth it for Antigone alone: one of the most amazing plays ever. Check out the DVD with Weaver, Bujold, and Keach -- dark, absurdist, powerful.

Antigo is a masterpiece

Antigone is simply a masterpiece. I read and study the book in highschool (in France) and I really loved it. The English translation is good enough. This is a French classic, extremely powerful, and yet, written in simple words.

One of the best modern theater plays

I have read many times Antigone in its original version, and found it to be one of the most beautiful modern theater plays. The words are simple but so true, it's like you can hear the little voice of Antigone fighting against the rest of the world, fighting for her version of the truth, fighting for and against her love at the same time. Absolutely beautiful...

Excellent French Playwright

I was first introduced to Jean Anouilh during a script analysis class, where I was required to do a scene design. My professor recommended Jean Anouilh's "Antigone" to me and I took his advice. Much to my surprise, "Antigone," set in France after the Nazi invasion, quickly became my favorite play ever. "Romeo and Jeanette" takes place in a poor family's house in France and is highly amusing. Set in the middle of a French train station with a defunct acting troupe and the poor family who runs the cafe there, "Eurydice" is quite entertaining. Anouilh definately puts a different spin on the typical love story. I highly recommend this book to anybody who's looking for something different to read, or maybe looking for a spin on the classics.

review of Anouilh's Five Plays

Did a study of various versions of Sophocles' *Antigone* for a highschool project last year, and used this version of Anouilh's play. I know some French and find it to be a fairly faithful translation into very persuasive English, and a wonderful read both as a version of Sophocles' original and as a political adaptation, used to speak about France under a Nazi regime. After finishing Antigone, I read the other four plays in the book for the fun of it, and thouroughly enjoyed Eurydice and Romeo and Jeannette. Anouilh seems to obsess over young love, loss of innocence, and the ideals of static perfection in a changing world; these themes seem to hold the five plays together. In my opinion, his work is worthy of a broad audience and broad acclaim, and this edition of the plays is a very decent set of translations.