/lit/ - Literature

Nobody ever mentions Racine. Unfortunate but understandable since english translations of the past have generally sucked, though there's a new one from 2010 that won some prize so that's probably worth looking into for anyone interested. Esther, Berenice, Phedre, and Athalie are my favorites. Andromaque is possibly the most popular and Britannicus is widely read as well. Alexandre le Grand, Thebaide, and Les Plaideurs (his one comedy, based on Aristophanes' Wasps) are less important. His tragedy is more strictly in line with Aristotle's definition - so no onstage killing, etc - but I'd pit its intensity against Shakespeare any day, especially if you read the french and learn to appreciate the miracle of what he achieves with a self-limited vocab of like 800 words.