John Sayer Bücher

Hinter den Kulissen hat er den deutschen Shakespeare vollbracht; von ihm wurden Molières sämtliche Lustspiele bühnenreif übertragen. Baudissins Leben spiegelt seine Zeit wider: vom holsteinischen Landadel unter dänischer Herrschaft und Napoleons Joch, durch Revolutionen und Kriege mit Dänemark bis zu den Gründerjahren, blieb er in Dresden seiner Mission treu, die deutsche Sprache mit Anderer großen Werken zu bereichern. Lebenslanger Förderer der Künste, täglich mit Bach am Klavier, jugendlicher Goethe-Verehrer, Stütze der Romantiker, doch auch Realisten wie Freytag zugetan, befreundet mit den Schumanns, Mendelssohn, Chopin Diplomat aus Pflicht, Übersetzer aus Liebe, seiner Familie, Holstein und der Dresdner Kultur verbunden, ist er vor allem ein nobler Mensch.

Exploring the influence of Jean Racine's work, this book delves into its resonance throughout Europe, impacting various spheres such as courts, education, and the arts. It highlights the cultural and political significance of Racine's oeuvre, encouraging further examination of its legacy across different regions and disciplines.

This first biography of Racine in over half a century for an English-language readership also traces the impact of Racine over three centuries in England as well as France. The plays and their reception are reviewed, using contextual approaches as part of each phase of Racine’s life-story, with excerpts and quotations translated. Racine’s upbringing and work as poet and historiographer are related to the France of Louis XIV, to audiences and to advancement for this ‘man from nowhere’, with parallels in Britain and elsewhere. Changing attitudes to Racine are traced across the centuries, across literary movements and on stage, including recent productions.The book provides insights in the specialist field of Racine studies and seventeenth-century French literature and theatre, in comparative literary studies, particularly between France and Restoration England, and to the interaction of Racine and European cultural movements to the present day.