La Matrone Chinoise

ou l'epreuve ridicule, comedie (1765)

by Pierre-Rene Lemonnier, edited by Ling-Ling Sheu

Book cover: La Matrone Chinoise

Extent: 160 pages

Publisher: University of Exeter Press

Subjects: Literary Studies

Series: Exeter Textes Litteraires

Language: French

(Paperback) (Published)

(July 2003)

ISBN: 9780859897327

5.91 x 9.02 inches

Price: $30.00

In stock

La Matronne Chinoise is a new critical edition of a two-act comedy by Pierre-RenE Lemonnier. The edition is accompanied by a full introduction setting out the play’s historical and thematic context, along with an analysis of its versification, and by an appendix reproducing earlier versions of the tale from Petronius to Voltaire.


La Matronne Chinoise is a new critical edition of a two-act comedy by Pierre-RenE Lemonnier, first performed in paris in 1765. Lemonnier adapted a theme which dates back to the Latin writer Petronius, and is also present in an old Chinese story, which had recently been taken up by Voltaire, that of the apparently inconsolable widow who rapidly finds consolation in the arms of another. The edition is accompanied by a full introduction setting out the play’s historical and thematic context, along with an analysis of its versification, and by an appendix reproducing earlier versions of the tale from Petronius to Voltaire.

  • By (author) Pierre-Rene Lemonnier
  • Edited by Ling-Ling Sheu