The Barber of Seville & The Marriage of Figaro - Beaumarchais

Now mostly famous for their inspiration of opera masterpieces by Rossini and Mozart, these two plays are (in John Wood's translation for Penguin Classics) highly readable and thoroughly entertaining in their own right. In his introduction, the translator draws parallels between the character of Figaro and that of his creator and it's Figaro's resourceful and determined challenging and outwitting of the established order of the day that drives the action of both plays. Great fun!

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