Moliere: A Theatrical Life

As the first substantive English-language biography of Moli re since 1930, this is a happy arrival for students of the theater and of French literature and culture. In spite of the intermittent lack of verifiable facts, Moli re's life reliably materializes as high drama, and Scott does not waste time trying to canonize refutable trifles. She makes the leaps necessary to create a strong narrative without sacrificing scholarship, and she paints her mischievous protagonist in front of a set of 17th-century France, magnificently evoked through vivid detail and fluid imagination. Born in 1622 to a bourgeois Parisian tapissier, or furniture merchant and upholsterer, Moli re took a law degree in 1642, but then disappointed his parents by forming the Illustre Theater and becoming an actor, playwright and libertine. One of the central mysteries of Moli re's life is his wife, Armande. She is sometimes identified as the illegitimate daughter of Moli re's former mistress, Madeline Bejart, and Scott agrees with that controversial conclusion, but notes that it is only partly because the information available ""intersects coherently with that conjecture and creates credible character choices."" Scott freely admits that the possibility also ""stirs my imagination and produces a more interesting narrative."" Moli re unwittingly made many enemies through his social satires. The church, the medical profession and the monarchy were among the many institutions lining up to ban Moli re's comic plays, though still he managed to prosper in a violent and restrictive age. He ended his days playing the lead role in his own play The Imaginary Invalid and was very nearly denied the right to be buried in holy ground, because of his failure to repent before God and church for a life misspent, as was believed of actors at the time. (Feb.)