Jean Racine (review)

A number of attractive and popularizing biographies of Racine have appeared in the last twenty or so years. All are indebted to the pioneering scholarship of Raymond Picard, whose La Carrière de Jean Racine appeared in 1956 and whose Nouveau Corpus Racinianum, an indispensable collection of documents of relating to the life and works of Racine, appeared in 1976. Fifty years after Picard's biography, Georges Forestier's can properly claim to supersede it. It exhibits all the characteristics of Forestier's other work. It is transparent, thorough, meticulous, questioning, critical and elegant. Those aware of Forestier's sensitively probing and original readings of plays and dramatic theory will find here the same approach to correspondences, dates and privilèges. All the familiar documents have been dusted down and examined afresh. Forestier makes no claims without patient substantiation, honestly laying bare the gaps and limitations in our knowledge, and offering interpretations in only the most cautious of ways. Such a description, coupled with the length and weight of the volume, might make it seem a work for only the most dedicated scholars. Whilst it is certainly for them, it is also ideal for any student or general reader interested in Racine or the seventeenth century. One of the most attractive features of the work is that Forestier takes no background knowledge for granted (an irritating feature of some more allegedly popular biographies). So Forestier calls constantly on his own vast knowledge of theatre history, publishing history, educational history, political history, church history and theological dispute, and presents it deftly to illuminate the different parts of Racine's story. One instance of Forestier's concern to present an alien world to a modern reader is his rough-and-ready, but very helpful, translation of écus and livres into euros, which, among many other things, reveals how both Racine and his publisher cashed in on the success of Phèdre, charging the equivalent of €35 for the first slender edition of 1677. Careful reading of correspondences and knowledge of different educational practices shed new light on when Racine attended which schools. The reasons for Racine's youthful visit to Uzès and his early search for a benefice are patiently explained after meticulous research into the complex history of the allocation of benefices at the cathedral of Uzès in the mid-seventeenth century. At every stage of Racine's life, Forestier deploys the evidence to offer new insights. This is also a biography that has a great deal to say about the plays. Forestier avoids the amiable belle-lettriste appraisals common in popularizing biographies and shuns all attempts to explain the action and characterization of the plays in terms of Racine's lived experiences: 'Point n'est besoin d'être amoureux pour prêter ces sentiments à des personnages de théâtre. Il fallait d'abord être bon lecteur' (p. 285). This biography is also therefore an outstanding contribution to literary history and to Racine criticism. Readers of Forestier's 1999/2004 Pléiade edition of Racine's theatre and poetry will recognize the approach and much of the material, though it is differently packaged here. Forestier explains the construction of the plays in the light of Racine's knowledge of dramatic theory and his engagement with historical and literary sources. He is alert to all signs of contemporary polemics and to all evidence of Racine's close engagement with actors and actresses. This is more than a monumental biography. It should be a constant source of reference for every racinien for many years to come.