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Molière, or The Cabal of Hypocrites and Don Quixote: Two Plays by Mikhail Bulgakov
“Pevear and Volokhonsky are at once scrupulous translators and vivid stylists of English.” – James Wood, New Yorker Best known for his novel The Master and Margarita , Mikhail Bulgakov had a knack for political allegory. Both Molière, or the Cabal of Hypocrites and Don Quixote were contentious in their time, written as a challenge to Soviet politics of the early twentieth century, especially Stalin’s harsh regime. Charged with cultural subtext and controversial intrigue, the plays in this exceptional new volume from TCG’s Russian Drama Series are given new light by the foremost translators of Russian classic literature, Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, in collaboration with renowned playwright Richard Nelson. Richard Nelson ’s many plays include The Apple Scenes from Life in the Country ( That Hopey Changey Thing , Sweet and Sad , Sorry , Regular Singing ); The Election Year in the Life of One Family ( Hungry , What Did You Expect? , Women of a Certain Age ); Nikolai and the Others ; Goodnight Children Everywhere (Oliver Award for Best Play); Franny’s Way ; Some Americans Abroad ; Frank’s Home ; Two Shakespearean Actors and James Joyce’s The Dead (with Shaun Davey; Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical). Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky have translated the works of Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Nikolai Gogol, Anton Chekhov, Boris Pasternak, and Mikhail Bulgakov. Their translations of The Brothers Karamazov and Anna Karenina won the PEN Translation Prize in 1991 and 2002 respectively. Pevear, a native of Boston, and Volokhonsky, of St. Petersburg, are married and live in France.
240 pages, Paperback
Published August 8, 2017
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99 people want to read
About the author
Mikhail Bulgakov
726 books7,708 followersMikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (Russian: Михаил Булгаков) was a Russian writer, medical doctor, and playwright. His novel
The Master and Margarita
, published posthumously, has been called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century.
He also wrote the novel The White Guard and the plays Ivan Vasilievich, Flight (also called The Run ), and The Days of the Turbins . He wrote mostly about the horrors of the Russian Civil War and about the fate of Russian intellectuals and officers of the Tsarist Army caught up in revolution and Civil War.
Some of his works ( Flight , all his works between the years 1922 and 1926, and others) were banned by the Soviet government, and personally by Joseph Stalin, after it was decided by them that they "glorified emigration and White generals". On the other hand, Stalin loved The Days of the Turbins (also called The Turbin Brothers ) very much and reportedly saw it at least 15 times.
He also wrote the novel The White Guard and the plays Ivan Vasilievich, Flight (also called The Run ), and The Days of the Turbins . He wrote mostly about the horrors of the Russian Civil War and about the fate of Russian intellectuals and officers of the Tsarist Army caught up in revolution and Civil War.
Some of his works ( Flight , all his works between the years 1922 and 1926, and others) were banned by the Soviet government, and personally by Joseph Stalin, after it was decided by them that they "glorified emigration and White generals". On the other hand, Stalin loved The Days of the Turbins (also called The Turbin Brothers ) very much and reportedly saw it at least 15 times.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 19, 2018
Molière: "All my life I've been licking his spurs and thinking just one thing: don't crush me. And all the same—he crushed me! Tyrant!
What for? You see, this morning I ask him, What for? I don't understand… I say to him: Your Majesty, I really hate such acts, I protest, I am insulted, Your Majesty, please explain… Please… Maybe I didn't flatter you enough? Maybe I didn't grovel enough? …Your Majesty, where will you find another kiss-ass like Molière? But what for, Bouton? For Tartuffe. For that I humiliated myself. I thought I'd find an ally." (84-85)
September 29, 2024
(I am just reviewing Molière, or The Cabal of Hypocrites which does not have its own Goodreads listing. I read and reviewed Don Quixote separately.)
This was my second time reading the play Molière (and I also watched a movie version a while ago too). And it is excellent. Bulgakov really has an affinity for Molière (he also wrote a fantastic biography of him, The Life of Monsieur de Molière), both of them living under absolute rulers who had a love/hate relationship with their work and complete control over it. Moreover, it does a great job conveying the frenetic energy of the theater, interspersing it with its interplay with Church and state, and presenting a moving version of Molière's last production.
This was my second time reading the play Molière (and I also watched a movie version a while ago too). And it is excellent. Bulgakov really has an affinity for Molière (he also wrote a fantastic biography of him, The Life of Monsieur de Molière), both of them living under absolute rulers who had a love/hate relationship with their work and complete control over it. Moreover, it does a great job conveying the frenetic energy of the theater, interspersing it with its interplay with Church and state, and presenting a moving version of Molière's last production.
August 4, 2017
This is my first reading of any of Bulgakov’s plays. I recently read his fascinating The Master and Margarita and enjoyed it. This seems like an odd pair of plays to feature in the Russian Classic Drama series. Why not start with Bulgakov’s much more famous The Days of the Turbins? Or one of his other plays based on his own plots? It appears these were chosen because they reflect on the life and art of Bulgakov as he struggled to write in a repressive regime and culture.
Of the two plays, Moliere is a bolder and more creative with a stage within a stage, and dark, spooky atmosphere and an odd format in which scenes flow into one another. Don Quixote has a more traditional narrative and stage structure.
Overall these plays are good. There’s nothing astounding or revolutionary in them. If you are a lover of The Master and Margarita, you might want to read/see these for another perspective into Bulgakov’s struggles. If you haven’t read The Master and Margarita, start with that.
Moliere, or The Cabal of Hypocrites *** – Bulgakov writes about the pressure of the artist working in a repressive regime, struggling against capricious (and sometimes deadly) censorship. Moliere is presented near the end of this life, beaten down by the pressures of performance and in love with a much younger woman. He has previously produced his play Tartuffe to much acclaim, but it has angered religious leaders.
Unknow to Moliere, this woman, the play suggests, is his daughter. Except for one line from Moliere, this is undisputed in the play so the reader/audience is to assume its accuracy. (In real life, Moliere was accused of this but he sloughed it off and no one believed it.)
That is all the religious leaders need to ruin Moliere for producing Tartuffe. The play ends with his wife leaving him, banned from court and excommunicated. He dies during one of his performances.
No single reason is given for Moliere’s downfall. He’s certainly foolish and brings much on himself. The religious leaders are, I suppose, at fault, but Moliere did marry his daughter (or so we’re led to believe). The King is rather unreliable, but he’s just seeking self-preservation and the appearance or propriety. He can’t endorse incest.
The play is called The Cabal of Hypocrites. Maybe it’s a stupid question but: Who are the hypocrites in the play? The Bishop is certainly oversensitive, vindictive, stupid, a kill joy, and a prude – but a hypocrite? I don’t see it in the play.
Everyone and every organization looks out for his/her self or organization. If fate is the culprit, it creates a rather weak, unsatisfying ending in my view.
If you love Bulgakov, then you’ll want to read this. It certainly parallels his artistic life in many ways. But for the rest of us, this can be skipped.
Don Quixote *** – How does one squeeze a long novel into a three-hour play? It’s not easy, but Bulgakov does a pretty good job. He manages to take a rather rambling tale and focus on a several key themes.
I’m not a Don Quixote expert (and it’s been a while since I read the novels), but he appears to stay close to the spirit of the original. However, it feels like something is missing in such a condensed form. The entire play seems to cover about a week in Don Quixote’s and Sancho’s life. The episode where Sancho is made governor could easily be a play all by itself, but here it is but one scene.
This is not Bulgakov’s fault. You can’t put two pounds of sugar in a one-pound bag, as the saying goes. It is an interesting read, but not essential. Read the novel instead.
Of the two plays, Moliere is a bolder and more creative with a stage within a stage, and dark, spooky atmosphere and an odd format in which scenes flow into one another. Don Quixote has a more traditional narrative and stage structure.
Overall these plays are good. There’s nothing astounding or revolutionary in them. If you are a lover of The Master and Margarita, you might want to read/see these for another perspective into Bulgakov’s struggles. If you haven’t read The Master and Margarita, start with that.
Moliere, or The Cabal of Hypocrites *** – Bulgakov writes about the pressure of the artist working in a repressive regime, struggling against capricious (and sometimes deadly) censorship. Moliere is presented near the end of this life, beaten down by the pressures of performance and in love with a much younger woman. He has previously produced his play Tartuffe to much acclaim, but it has angered religious leaders.
Unknow to Moliere, this woman, the play suggests, is his daughter. Except for one line from Moliere, this is undisputed in the play so the reader/audience is to assume its accuracy. (In real life, Moliere was accused of this but he sloughed it off and no one believed it.)
That is all the religious leaders need to ruin Moliere for producing Tartuffe. The play ends with his wife leaving him, banned from court and excommunicated. He dies during one of his performances.
No single reason is given for Moliere’s downfall. He’s certainly foolish and brings much on himself. The religious leaders are, I suppose, at fault, but Moliere did marry his daughter (or so we’re led to believe). The King is rather unreliable, but he’s just seeking self-preservation and the appearance or propriety. He can’t endorse incest.
The play is called The Cabal of Hypocrites. Maybe it’s a stupid question but: Who are the hypocrites in the play? The Bishop is certainly oversensitive, vindictive, stupid, a kill joy, and a prude – but a hypocrite? I don’t see it in the play.
Everyone and every organization looks out for his/her self or organization. If fate is the culprit, it creates a rather weak, unsatisfying ending in my view.
If you love Bulgakov, then you’ll want to read this. It certainly parallels his artistic life in many ways. But for the rest of us, this can be skipped.
Don Quixote *** – How does one squeeze a long novel into a three-hour play? It’s not easy, but Bulgakov does a pretty good job. He manages to take a rather rambling tale and focus on a several key themes.
I’m not a Don Quixote expert (and it’s been a while since I read the novels), but he appears to stay close to the spirit of the original. However, it feels like something is missing in such a condensed form. The entire play seems to cover about a week in Don Quixote’s and Sancho’s life. The episode where Sancho is made governor could easily be a play all by itself, but here it is but one scene.
This is not Bulgakov’s fault. You can’t put two pounds of sugar in a one-pound bag, as the saying goes. It is an interesting read, but not essential. Read the novel instead.
September 16, 2021
Was anybody else missing act IV in Don Quixote?
July 10, 2024
The Moliere play was interesting, the Quixote was pretty dull. Neither lived up to his famous novel.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews