Reviews

Berenice / Bajazet by Jean Racine

lilasaitplus's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

3.25

azael_ryhaigarhad's review

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dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

5.0

wrenxavier's review against another edition

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5.0

Um, how did I not know of this playwright sooner?

Berenice was complex, rife with jealousy, spurned love and, surprisingly (given what I've read about Racine), no tragic deaths at all. The ending is still tragic in that everyone is unhappy, but I'll not spoil it.

I don't know if this is a spoiler, but Bajazet is the antithesis of Berenice. Still complex, still lots of jealousy and spurned love, different in its execution. (But the style/language is the same.)

Racine is one of the big three French playwrights of the 17th century alongside Moliere and Tartuffe; if Racine is an indicator of what they're capable of, I'm totally checking them out next. And reading the rest of Racine's backlog translated into English.

lettrine's review

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3.0

Je ne connaissais rien de la pièce en la commençant. J'ai aimé mais la fin m'a laissé sur ma faim.
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