SOURCE: An introduction to The Poetic Style of Corneille's Tragedies: An Aesthetic Interpretation, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1989, pp. vii-xi.

In the essay below, Harwood-Gordon examines Corneille's poetic style.

Perhaps no other writer of the classical age of French literature has undergone such dramatic swings in public acceptance and appreciation as Pierre Corneille. Enthusiastically received by his contemporaries at the time of the première of Le Cid and acclaimed as a genius of theatrical invention for several seasons to follow, Corneille felt for the first time in 1645, with the production of Théodore, the sting of rejection. A series of plays that met with sharp disapproval from both the critics and the public ensued, and, finally, with the failure of Pertharite in 1652 after only one performance, the weary dramatist acknowledged his passing from favor with theatre audiences and withdrew from dramatic production for seven years. However, when he...