How the Bard Conquered France
John Pemble
It has sometimes been assumed that the difficulty of translating Shakespeare into French has meant that he has had little influence in France. Shakespeare in Paris proves the opposite. Virtually unknown in France in his lifetime, and for well over a hundred years after his death, Shakespeare was discovered in the first half of the eighteenth century, as part of a French growing interest in England. Since then, Shakespeare's influence in France has been enormous. Writers, from Voltaire to Gide, found themselves baffled, frustrated, mesmerised but overawed by a playwright who broke all the rules of French classical theatre and challenged the primacy of French culture. Attempts to tame and translate him alternated with uncritical idolization, such as that of Berlioz. Changing attitudes to Shakespeare have also been an index of French self-esteem, as John Pemble shows in this brilliantly written book.
