author
Jean Racine
1639–1699
A master of French classical tragedy, this seventeenth-century playwright became famous for intense, elegant dramas built on love, duty, ambition, and ruin. His plays, especially Andromaque, Bérénice, and Phèdre, have remained central to the French stage for centuries.
6 Audiobooks
Esther
by Jean Racine
Phaedra
by Jean Racine
Mithridate
by Jean Racine
De Pleiters
by Jean Racine
Athaliah: A Tragedy Intended for Reading Only, Translated Into English Blank Verse, From Racine (A. Gombert's Edition, 1825)
by J. Donkersley, Jean Racine
Phaidra: 5-näytöksinen runomittainen murhenäytelmä
by Jean Racine
About the author
Born in La Ferté-Milon in 1639, Jean Racine was orphaned young and educated at Port-Royal, where he received a rigorous classical training that shaped his language and dramatic style. He went on to become one of the defining writers of French classicism, often named alongside Molière and Pierre Corneille as one of the great playwrights of the age.
Racine is best known for tragedies that turn powerful emotions into clean, concentrated drama. Works such as Andromaque, Britannicus, Bérénice, Bajazet, Iphigénie, and Phèdre are admired for their clarity, psychological force, and musical verse. Rather than relying on spectacle, his plays focus on inner conflict, showing characters trapped between desire, honor, religion, and power.
Later in life, he served as royal historiographer and eventually returned to writing with biblical dramas including Esther and Athalie. He died in Paris in 1699, but his reputation only grew, and he is still read as one of the finest tragic writers in European literature.