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Recommendations based on Don Juanby Molière
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The Misanthrope
by Molière
A comedic satire of the French social and political elite, exposing their hypocrisies and vices.
The Misanthrope or Le Misanthrope ou l’Atrabilaire amoureux is a comedy of manners in five acts and in verse. It is one of the best of Molière's plays — and one of the greatest of all comedies — ... (Goodreads)
Tartuffe
by Molière
A comedic satire about a religious hypocrite who attempts to manipulate a family for his own gain.
Orgon's family is up in arms because Orgon and his mother have fallen under the influence of Tartuffe, a pious fraud (and a vagrant prior to Orgon's help). Tartuffe pretends to be pious and to speak ... (Wikipedia)
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand
A tale of unrequited love, an unlikely hero's journey for acceptance and admiration.
Hercule Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac , a cadet (nobleman serving as a soldier) in the French Army , is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents. In addition to being a remarkable duelist, he is a ... (Wikipedia)
Candide
by Voltaire
A young man's satirical journey through life, encountering misfortune and eventual optimism.
Candide is the story of a gentle man who, though pummeled and slapped in every direction by fate, clings desperately to the belief that he lives in "the best of all possible worlds." On the surface a ... (Goodreads)
Les Fleurs du Mal
by Charles Baudelaire
Collection of poems exploring the beauty and depravity of human nature.
Charles Baudelaire's 1857 masterwork was scandalous in its day for its portrayals of sex, same-sex love, death, the corrupting and oppressive power of the modern city and lost innocence, Les Fleurs ... (Goodreads)
Oedipus Rex
by Sophocles
Tragic tale of a man's inescapable destiny and the consequences of his actions.
Oedipus, King of Thebes, sends his brother-in-law, Creon, to ask advice of the oracle at Delphi , concerning a plague ravaging Thebes. Creon returns to report that the plague is the result of ... (Wikipedia)
Les Liaisons dangereuses
by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
An intricate game of love, lust and manipulation as two rival aristocrats scheme to outwit one another.
The Vicomte de Valmont is determined to seduce the virtuous, married, and therefore inaccessible Madame de Tourvel, who is staying with Valmont's aunt while her husband is away on a court case. At ... (Wikipedia)
The Gambler
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A story of addiction and gambling, and the psychological depths of a man’s desperation.
The first-person narrative is told from the point of view of Alexei Ivanovich, a tutor working for a Russian family living in a suite at a German hotel. The patriarch of the family, The General, is ... (Wikipedia)
Antigone
by Jean Anouilh
Tragic story of a woman's courage to defy the law in pursuit of justice.
Antigone was originally produced in Paris in 1942, when France was an occupied nation and part of Hitler's Europe. The play depicts an authoritarian regime and the play's central character, the young ... (Goodreads)
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
A Franciscan friar investigates a series of murders in a medieval monastery, uncovering a sinister plot.
In 1327, Franciscan friar William of Baskerville and Adso of Melk , a Benedictine novice travelling under his protection, arrive at a Benedictine monastery in Northern Italy to attend a theological ... (Wikipedia)
Antigone
by Sophocles
A tragedy about a woman's struggle to uphold justice amidst oppressive laws.
The curse placed on Oedipus lingers and haunts a younger generation in this new and brilliant translation of Sophocles' classic drama. The daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Antigone is an ... (Goodreads)
Prometheus Bound
by Aeschylus
Prometheus, a Titan, is punished by Zeus for giving fire to humans. He is chained to a rock and tormented by various gods.
For readers accustomed to the relatively undramatic standard translations of Prometheus Bound , this version by James Scully, a poet and winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize, and C. John Herington, one ... (Goodreads)
Oedipus at Colonus
by Sophocles
An aging Oedipus, on his final journey, finds solace and redemption.
Led by Antigone, Oedipus enters the village of Colonus and sits down on a stone. They are approached by a villager, who demands that they leave, because that ground is sacred to the Furies , or ... (Wikipedia)
Six Characters in Search of an Author
by Luigi Pirandello
A play exploring illusion and reality, as six characters search for a playwright to tell their story.
An acting company prepares to rehearse the play Mixing it Up by Luigi Pirandello. As the rehearsal is about to begin, they are unexpectedly interrupted by the arrival of six strange people. The ... (Wikipedia)
Gargantua and Pantagruel
by François Rabelais
An epic tale of two giants and their humorous adventures.
The full modern English title for the work commonly known as, Pantagruel, is, The Horrible and Terrifying Deeds and Words of the Very Renowned Pantagruel King of the Dipsodes, Son of the Great Giant ... (Wikipedia)
Hedda Gabler
by Henrik Ibsen
A woman's struggle against societal expectations and a search for freedom.
Hedda, the daughter of an aristocratic and enigmatic general, has just returned to her villa in Kristiania (now Oslo) from her honeymoon. Her husband is George Tesman, a young, aspiring, and reliable ... (Wikipedia)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
by Milan Kundera
A story of love and loss in a politically turbulent Czechoslovakia.
In The Unbearable Lightness of Being , Milan Kundera tells the story of a young woman in love with a man torn between his love for her and his incorrigible womanizing and one of his mistresses and ... (Goodreads)
In Search of Lost Time
by Marcel Proust
An exploration of memory, identity and loss of innocence, through the narrator's journey of self-discovery.
On the surface a traditional "Bildungsroman" describing the narrator’s journey of self-discovery, this huge and complex book is also a panoramic and richly comic portrait of France in the author’s ... (Goodreads)
Waiting for Godot
by Samuel Beckett
Two men wait for a mysterious figure who never arrives, reflecting on their lives and existence.
Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, have met near a leafless tree. Estragon spent the previous night lying in a ditch and receiving a beating from some unnamed assailants. The two men discuss a variety ... (Wikipedia)
L'Assommoir
by Émile Zola
An exploration of poverty and alcoholism in the Parisian working class.
The novel is principally the story of Gervaise Macquart, who is featured briefly in the first novel in the series,, La Fortune des Rougon, , running away to Paris with her shiftless lover Lantier to ... (Wikipedia)
Platform
by Michel Houellebecq
Satirical exploration of the modern world and its discontents.
The story is the first-person narrative of a fictional character named Michel Renault, a Parisian civil servant who, after the death of his father and thanks to a hefty inheritance, engages in sexual ... (Wikipedia)
The Insulted and Humiliated
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
A story of revenge, focusing on morality and redemption.
Natasha leaves her parents' home and runs away with Alyosha (prince Alexey) – the son of Prince Valkovsky. As a result of his pain, her father, Nikolai, curses her. The only friend that remains by ... (Wikipedia)
Bel-Ami
by Guy de Maupassant
A man rises to power by manipulating the powerful people around him.
The story chronicles the rise to power of journalist Georges Duroy from a poor ex-NCO to one of the most successful men in Paris – most of which he achieves by means of a series of powerful, ... (Barnes & Noble)
Dawn
by Octavia E. Butler
An epic science fiction story of a post-apocalyptic future and humanity's struggle for survival.
Lilith Iyapo has just lost her husband and son when atomic fire consumes Earth—the last stage of the planet’s final war. Hundreds of years later Lilith awakes, deep in the hold of a massive alien ... (Goodreads)
Eugene Onegin
by Alexander Pushkin
A poetic novel of unrequited love and tragic consequences, set in early 19th century Russia.
In the 1820s, Eugene Onegin is a bored St. Petersburg dandy , whose life consists of balls, concerts, parties, and nothing more. Upon the death of a wealthy uncle, he inherits a substantial fortune ... (Wikipedia)
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov
A fantastical, satirical examination of Soviet life, intersecting with the supernatural.
The novel has two settings. The first is Moscow during the 1930s, where Satan appears at Patriarch's Ponds as Professor Woland . He is accompanied by Koroviev, a grotesquely-dressed valet; Behemoth , ... (Wikipedia)
The Red and the Black
by Stendhal
A young man's ambitious rise in 19th century French society, as he navigates through its politics and passions.
In two volumes,, The Red and the Black: A Chronicle of the 19th Century, tells the story of Julien Sorel's life in France's rigid social structure restored after the disruptions of the French ... (Wikipedia)
Sophie's World
by Jostein Gaarder
A journey of philosophical discovery told through a young girl's exploration of the world.
Sophie Amundsen is a 14-year-old girl who lives in Lillesand , Norway. The book begins with Sophie receiving two messages in her mailbox and a postcard addressed to Hilde Møller Knag. Afterwards, she ... (Wikipedia)
