Life of Monsieur de Molière

Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Life of Monsieur de Moliere is a fascinating portrait of the great French seventeenth-century satirist by one of the great Russian satirists of our own century. For Bulgakov, Moliere was an alter ego whose destiny seemed to parallel his own. As Bulgakov’s translator, Mirra Ginsburg, informs us: "There is much besides their craft that links these two men across the centuries. Both had a sharp satirical eye and an infinite capacity for capturing the absurd and the comic, the mean and the grotesque: both had to live and write under autocracies: both were fearless and uncompromising in speaking of what they saw, evoking storms with each new work: and shared what Bulgakov calls ’the incurable disease of passion for the theater.’" The life of Moliere, born Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, is a story of struggle and dedication, and Bulgakov tells it with warmth and compassion. Indeed, for all Bulgakov’s careful attention to historical detail, his vivid recreation of seventeenth-century France makes The Life of Monsieur de Moliereread more like a novel than a formal biography. Mikhail Bulgakov (1891-1949) is best known in the West for his monumental novel The Master and Margarita. His The Life of Monsieur de Moliere, completed in 1933, was not published until 1962. Mirra Ginsburg’s translation of this neglected masterpiece will find a welcome readership among devotees of the theater and of modern Russian literature.

Mikhail Bulgakov (1891–1940) was a Russian author and playwright — one of the few writers allowed to publish during the Stalin era. His works include The Master and Margarita, Heart of a Dog, and the biography, Life of Mr. de Molière. Mirra Ginsburg (1909–2000) was born in Bobruysk, Byelorussia, and spent her childhood surrounded by nature. This setting was a relief from her family’s extreme poverty and though her parents were poor they raised her with an appreciation of culture and politics. A prolific writer and translator, Ginsburg settled in the United States. She is best know for introducing the West to Siberian and Central Asian folklore, and for her childrens’ books. She has also translated a number of important works of Russian literature, including novels by Mikhail Bulgakov and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.