Racine and Shakespeare (Pocket Classics)

Author: (French) Stendhal France/France
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2006-05-01
Features: Stendhal's Racine and Shakespeare is a collection of two pamphlets published in 1823 and 1825, which opposed the academic classicism debate. It is one of Stendhal's important theoretical works and also part of French realist literature. The 1823 portion includes three chapters: "Should We Follow Racine or Shakespeare to Create a Tragedy That Will Interest the Audience of 1823?", "Laughter," and "Romanticism." The 1825 second portion is a direct rebuttal to the classical faction of the French Academy, the official representative of the old regime and old ideas during the Restoration period, attacking Romanticism. Shakespeare and Racine, as representatives of Romanticism and classicism respectively, symbolize the opposition between the aesthetic views of the rising bourgeoisie and the old feudal aristocratic art. In this work, Stendhal proposes the artistic principles of realism, paving the way for the development of French 19th-century realist literature.
Additionally, the book includes selected excerpts from Stendhal's Notes from a Traveler, the preface to A History of Italian Painting, the preface to Armance, and the preface to an unfinished novel by Stendhal titled Lucien Leven, as well as the introduction to the second part of Lucien Leven, a letter to M. de Gaujal, and a will written for the book.
The Century Humanities series encompasses five sub-series: "The Century Library," "The Century Frontier," "Miniature Classics," "University Classics," and "Open Humanities," each a distinct yet complementary collection. "Clarifying the contours of Western thought and renewing the academic tradition of China" serves as the editorial principle of the Century Library. The library is divided into two major book series: the Chinese Studies series, which began in the late Qing and early Republican era, comprehensivelys academic works from modern China to provide a foundation for reflecting on contemporary China's social and spiritual condition; and the Western Studies series, which aims to systematically translate classic texts from ancient Greece and Rome to the present, showcasing the evolution of Western thought and establishing a solid textual basis for addressing core issues in modern China. This book is one of them.