Wednesday 9 May 2012

tartuffe (or the imposter) - molier




l will be the first to admit that l had never heard of Tartuffe (or the imposter) until a couple of weeks ago, so, as l have a curious mind, l decided to give the book (by Moliere) a go. You have to give old books some slack, as this was written in 1664, and a lot of the humour does not travel well over the centuries, so l did, but it will definitely not go down as one of my favourite reads. Orgon, the father of the family, is under the influence of Tartuffe, a pious, apparantly extremely religious man (and ex vagrant), and trusts everything he says, even though his loved ones try to convince him Tartuffe is a fraud, not that religious, and has been trying it on with them. Ruses are concocted so Orgon can witness his (so called) friends treachery with his own eyes, until he finally comes to his senses, only to remember he has signed away his deeds to him. I can see why it was banned in those God fearing times, and it could easily be (and probably already has been) updated to appeal to a modern audience, but this is just the sort of thing that, when performed in the original way, with have intellectuals  and pretentious idiots rolling in the aisles with laughter, falsely in my eyes. I'm glad l have read it and understand the significance of the work, but that's about it.

toodle pip

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