Delphi Complete Works of Jean Racine

by Jean Racine, Delphi Classics (editor), Robert Bruce Boswell (translator)

One of the three great playwrights of seventeenth century France, along with Molière and Corneille, Jean Racine is a significant figure of world literature. Primarily a tragedian, producing neoclassical masterpieces such as ‘Phèdre’, ‘Andromaque’ and ‘Athalie’, Racine also composed the comedy ‘Les Plaideurs’. His works demonstrate a mastery of the 12-syllable French alexandrine — a verse form that influenced European literature for over two centuries. Renowned for their elegance, purity, speed and fury, Racine’s dramas are characterised by psychological insight, the prevailing passion of characters and the economy of both plot and stage. This eBook presents Racine’s complete plays, with numerous illustrations, rare texts, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)

* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Racine’s life and works
* Concise introductions to the dramas
* All 12 plays, with individual contents tables
* Translations by Robert Bruce Boswell, 1880
* Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts
* Excellent formatting of the play texts
* Easily locate the scenes you want to read
* Includes rare dramas – available in no other collection
* Features four biographies – discover Racine’s intriguing life
* Ordering of texts into chronological order and genres



The Tragedies
The Thebaid (1664)
Alexander the Great (1665)
Andromache (1667)
Britannicus (1669)
Berenice (1670)
Bajazet (1672)
Mithridate (1673)
Iphigenia (1674)
Phaedre (1677)
Esther (1689)
Athaliah (1691) (tr. J. Donkersley, 1825)

The Comedy
The Litigants (1668)

The Biographies
Racine (1838) by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
Racine (1900) by William Cleaver Wilkinson
Racine (1908) by Lytton Strachey
Jean Racine (1911) by George Saintsbury

1334 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 30, 2023

About the author

Classical Greek and Roman themes base noted tragedies, such as Britannicus (1669) and Phèdre (1677), of French playwright Jean Baptiste Racine.

Adherents of movement of Cornelis Jansen included Jean Baptiste Racine.


This dramatist ranks alongside Molière (Jean Baptiste Poquelin) and Pierre Corneille of the "big three" of 17th century and of the most important literary figures in the western tradition. Psychological insight, the prevailing passion of characters, and the nakedness of both plot and stage mark dramaturgy of Racine. Although primarily a tragedian, Racine wrote one comedy.

Orphaned by the age of four years when his mother died in 1641 and his father died in 1643, he came into the care of his grandparents. At the death of his grandfather in 1649, his grandmother, Marie des Moulins, went to live in the convent of Port-Royal and took her grandson Jean-Baptiste. He received a classical education at the Petites écoles de Port-Royal, a religious institution that greatly influenced other contemporary figures, including Blaise Pascal.

The French bishops and the pope condemned Jansenism, a heretical theology, but its followers ran Port-Royal. Interactions of Racine with the Jansenists in his years at this academy great influenced the rest of his life. At Port-Royal, he excelled in his studies of the classics, and the themes of Greek and Roman mythology played large roles in his works.

Jean Racine died from cancer of the liver. He requested burial in Port-Royal, but after Louis XIV razed this site in 1710, people moved his body to the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont in Paris.

*source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Ra...