Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, Les Précieuses ridicules [The Affected Young Ladies]

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error
Les Précieuses ridicules

premiered on 18 November 1659 at Molière’s theatre in the Petit-Bourbon palace in Paris. It was presented as an afterpiece to Pierre Corneille’s 1642 tragedy

Cinna.

This one-act farce in prose has importance in Molière’s oeuvre far more than its categorization as one of his

petites pièces

[minor plays] would suggest. No mere farce, it is a complex combination of farce, Italian comedy and social satire—an amalgam that became a defining feature of Molière’s work. It was his first significant success as a playwright and precipitated his career as a published author. Criticism of the play presaged battles that would resonate for the rest of Molière’s career: charges of plagiarism, claims that he targets individuals for ridicule, denouncements of the…

3205 words

Citation: Leon, Mechele. "Les Précieuses ridicules". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 January 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4024, accessed 29 March 2024.]

4024 Les Précieuses ridicules 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.