1982 Six Tragedies

Description

Illustrated, Leather Binding, Limited Edition, Publishers' Original Binding

Limited Edition, published exclusively for subscribers to The Franklin Library collection. 

Bound in full-morocco with gilt illustration on boards and spine. 

Illustrations include seventeen full-page engravings taken from the work of Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (1767-1824), a French painter of the early Romantic movement. 

This is a lovely work which contains the classical tragedies of Jean-Baptiste Racine (1639-1699), one of the three prominent French playwrights of the seventeenth century. As well as writing plays and poetry, Racine was a historiographer for King Louis XIV. 

Contents include 'Andromache' (1667), Racine's first theatrical masterpiece, as well as 'Britannicus and 'Bernice', two tragedies that are set in Rome. Another play, 'Iphigenia' (1674), revolves around classical Greek mythology.

Translated by John Cairncross (1913-1995), a British civil servant and spy during World War II. Cairncross worked as a Soviet double agent, providing the Soviet Union with the Tunny decryptions as part of the Cambridge Five. He was also notable for his work as a literary scholar and translator. 

Collated, complete.