Le Philinte de Molière

Le Philinte de Molière, or La suite du Misanthrope, was first published in 1791 and is here produced with variants from the manuscript held in the Bibliothèque nationale and with a selection of contemporary reviews of the first performance in 1790.The play is the eighteenth-century continuation of Molière’s classic comedy, Le Misanthrope, influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The first performance caused a stir and was acclaimed by d’Eglantine’s contemporaries. It is an important work, particularly when presented in the context of the author’s life and the political backdrop against which it was written, and it is vital to any study of the legacy of Molière and of the history of the theatre in the late eighteenth century.