Jean Racine, Echoes Across Europe

«John Sayer is a superb guide, always informed and always courteous, as he leads us on a tour of the courts, theatres, schools and publishing houses of Europe to which Racine was, for a good two centuries after his death, an abiding source of inspiration and also a touchstone by which changing tastes and preferences could repeatedly be assessed. Sayer’s study not only sheds light on the reception of Racine’s most celebrated tragedies but allows room for consideration of his lesser known works, and Sayer interests himself also in the comparative neglect, and the reasons for it, suffered periodically by such works as Bérénice. Sayer picks up echoes of Racine in a multitude and a variety of places which encompass translations, biographies, textbooks, operas and other adaptations. He always trains a wise and critical ear to these resonances and, in the process, leaves us in no doubt as to the stature of Racine as both a French writer par excellence and a genius central to the prestigious but self-questioning culture of Europe throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.» (Dr John Leigh, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge)