The School for Husbands

1 hr. 2 min.

Romance & Prose

Language Russian

Author Jean-Baptiste Molière

Narrator Andrey Morozov

Description

“I bring before the judgment of France something that may seem ridiculous. Nothing is more lofty and more glorious than the name standing at the beginning of this book, and nothing is more modest than the contents within. This juxtaposition may strike many as strange; some will even point to this incongruity and ask: does it not amount to the same thing whether one adorns a clay figure with pearls and diamonds, or raises lavish porticoes and triumphal arches before the entrance to a poor little hovel? But, Your Excellency, in my defense I will say: in this case I had no freedom of choice. The desire to be granted the favor of Your Highness compelled me to dedicate to you my first work, which I dared to publish under my own name. I am not offering a gift—I am merely fulfilling an obligation; respect is not measured by outward splendor. I ventured to dedicate to Your Highness a trifle, because I could not evade the payment of a debt. And if I do not here dwell on Your Highness’s brilliant and worthy qualities, it is only for the fair reason that so lofty a subject would make the smallness of my offering stand out even more clearly.

I intentionally keep silent, so as to find for such merits a place more appropriate. In this dedication I ask for only one thing: to justify my action before all of France, and to have the happiness to attest to Your Highness that I have the honor to remain, with the deepest respect, Your Highness’s most humble, most obedient, and most devoted servant.

J.-B. P. Molière”

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