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Book Overview
Voltaire's Oedipus, first published in French as OEdipe, is a French Enlightenment tragedy drawn from one of the central myths of classical drama. The title of this edition uses the clear Anglicised form Oedipus rather than the original French ligature, making the work easier to identify, search, catalogue, and handle across modern publishing and library systems. Reworking the ancient story made famous by Sophocles, Voltaire presents Oedipus as a ruler caught between public duty, private ignorance, political uncertainty, and the terrible force of revelation.
First performed in 1718, Oedipus was Voltaire's first major dramatic success and helped establish the pen name by which Fran ois-Marie Arouet became known to the world. The plague-stricken city of Thebes demands an answer, and the inquiry that begins as an act of kingship becomes a gradual uncovering of guilt, fate, and identity. The play belongs both to the long tradition of classical tragedy and to eighteenth-century French drama, reshaping ancient material through the order, rational pressure, and public seriousness of Enlightenment theatre.
This edition offers readers a significant early work by one of the defining figures of the Enlightenment. Oedipus is suitable for readers of classic drama, French literature, adaptations of Greek tragedy, eighteenth-century theatre, and the dramatic works of Voltaire.
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