Don Juan
by Molière · Dom Juan, ou le Festin de pierre
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1665
- Form
- Comedy
- Language
- French
- Length
- Short · 90 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendDon Juan, translated by Richard WilburHarcourt, 2001Wilbur's prose version of the one Molière play not written in verse.
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Don Juan, a nobleman who takes any woman he wants and believes in nothing but arithmetic, abandons his new wife Elvire and moves from seduction to seduction with his servant Sganarelle protesting behind him. He mocks a beggar's faith, cheats a creditor, rejects his father's pleas and finally adopts hypocrisy as a strategy. In a cemetery he invites the stone statue of a man he killed to dinner; the statue accepts, returns the invitation, and drags him down to hell. The play was withdrawn after fifteen performances and not printed in full until after Molière's death.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns Don Juan are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.