Educated by the Jansenists at Port-Royal des Champs, Racine studied law in Paris, before spending two years in Languedoc. He returned to Paris and a career in writing in 1663. His first publication, and a great success, was Andromache (1667). His work was primarily dramatic tragedies divided into three types: those where the subjects are taken from Euripides, such as Andromache, Iphigenie (1674) and Phaedre (1677), from historical sources, such as Britannicus (1669), Berenice (1670) Mithridate (1673), and from the Scriptures, such as Esther (1689) and Athalie (1691). Racine also wrote a comedy, Les Plaideurs, (1668), but he is best known for his tragedies. He was elected to the French Academy in 1672. |
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