Name: Andromache
ISBN: 9780571142491

Douglas Dunn

Jean Racine

Douglas Dunn's translation of Racine's play was commissioned by the BBC's radio drama department as part of their season of French classical drama. Faithful to the original, it yet manages to read like a modern play in English.

Andromache

Gavin

Epic verse always sounds too pat to me, and doubly so when forced to fit dialogue: mumming couples expositing couplets. (“I’ll kill myself. That final ploy shall save / My honour. Then I’ll give back from the grave / What I owe Pyrrhus.”) Not Dunn’s fault – the pentameter’s solid. 

And he agrees: “It was a bloody hard piece of work… and I think it was universally agreed that I didn’t fully succeed.”