Andromache

At the height of the golden age of French drama, Jean Racine created his Andromache. Though set in the Trojan era, its characters are sharply motivated by recognizable human emotions, which the baroque, courtly, contemporary tragedies derived from the Greek form avoided. The depiction of men and women ruled by their psyches rather than by the whims of the gods was a revolution in the theater of the time and has the same cogency today.

Richard Wilbur's skillful translation of Andromache recasts the classical French tragedy into English rhymed couplets that retain the simplicity of form and powerful language of the original. This fascinating, moving drama is the only significant English translation of that seminal work in half a century.

Cover design and illustrations by Igor Tulipanov.