Authors

French · 1606–1684

Pierre Corneille

Pierre Corneille was the father of French classical tragedy — the playwright whose Le Cid (1636) launched the most important literary controversy in French history (the 'Querelle du Cid') and established the French tragic genre. His heroic plays — Horace, Cinna, Polyeucte — define the Cornelian hero: a figure who chooses duty over desire at enormous personal cost. He shared the domination of French theatre for decades with Racine, who was twenty-seven years younger.