The Other Molière
Original title: L’Autre Molière
Synopsis
Did Corneille write Moliere’s most famous theatrical works? This is a novel about one of the most controversial of literary enigmas.
A mystery that unleashes passion
In the dead of night on 21st February 1673, a weeping crowd buried Moliere at the Saint-Joseph cemetery. Considering he died in full swing of his activities, no manuscript was itemized on the inventory at his place of work. This mystery has never been explained. In 1919, Pierre Louÿs was the first to assert that a writing agreement existed between Corneille and Molière and that the tragedian was the ghostwriter of the actor’s great works. The controversy burst into flames and has aroused passions for a hundred years.
Deciding to turn it into a novel
Using a novel format, Ève de Castro plunges us into the heart of this enigma with details that official biographies have ignored. Who knows if Moliere, an amazing actor, had any intellectual abilities to technically enable him to write without help? Who is aware that Corneille started his career by writing seven comedies, that he had a wicked sense of humor and that he was infatuated with Armande Béjart, Moliere’s wife?
A construction of narrative voices
Ève de Castro decided to construct a narrative of voices where each protagonist tells their point of view one by one. Little by little the mystery deepens. We imagine the epoch, we experience the two men’s everyday existence; their shared passion for the theatre, for the king, and for the young Armande Béjart.
The strengths of the novel:
• A novel at the forefront of “The Year of Moliere” that begins in January 2022, four hundred years since his birth.
• The first novel that dramatizes this passionate controversy.
• Ève de Castro excels at bringing the 17th century to life, the period in which she has set her greatest literary successes.
EXTRACT:
It is a rumored story that has pulsated underground for three centuries, patiently awaiting your deaths. An insolent story where both good and evil go hand in hand. We enter into it with masked faces; we lie our way in with our profession, with vice, and by necessity; we enjoy mixing the best with the worst; we betray and we succeed.