{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20261010T034321Z-reviewed-full-unique-works","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0374526168?tag=bookfrontie00-20","asin":"0374526168","authors":["Jean Racine"],"book_id":"9780374526160","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/phedre-9780374526160","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780374526160.jpg?v=837b7b39c3f36cba","description":"A lean, high-tension version of a classic tragedy. The myth of Phaedra is one of the most powerful in all of classical mythology. As dramatized by the French playwright Jean Racine (1639-99), the dying Queen's obsessive love for her stepson, Hippolytus, and the scrupulously upright Hippolytus' love for the forbidden beauty Aricia has come to be known as one of the great stories of tragic infatuation, a tale of love strong enough to bring down a kingdom. In this \"tough, unrhyming avalanche of a translation\" (Paul Taylor, The Independent) , Hughes replaces Racine's alexandrines with an English verse that serves eloquently to convey the passions of his protagonists. The translation was performed to acclaim in London in 1998, and the London production, starring Diana Rigg, was staged in 1999 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. \"We are still catching up with Ted Hughes's gift for narrative verse after his Tales from Ovid ,\" one English critic observed after the London premiere. \"Little needs to happen on stage when there's a swirling action-packed disaster movie-riddled with sex and violence-in Hughes's free verse.\"","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780374526160","publication_date":"20000228","publisher":"Farrar Straus & Giroux","slug":"phedre","subtitle":"A Play","title":"Phedre"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"DRA004010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"French Plays","score":0.7606,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LCO008020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"French Literary Collections","score":0.6857,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"PER011030","confidence_band":"low","label":"Playwriting","score":0.6725,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"DRA004010","confidence_band":"medium","label":"French Plays","score":0.7606,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"LCO008020","confidence_band":"medium","label":"French Literary Collections","score":0.6857,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"PER011030","confidence_band":"low","label":"Playwriting","score":0.6725,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"DRA004010","confidence_band":"high","label":"French Plays","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"French Plays","score":0.7606,"slug":"french-plays"},{"label":"French Literary Collections","score":0.6857,"slug":"french-literary-collections"},{"label":"Playwriting","score":0.6725,"slug":"playwriting"}],"reader_fit":["Readers drawn to high-tension classical tragedy","Good for readers interested in stories of obsessive, forbidden love"],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Sophocles","Hugh Lloyd-Jones"],"book_id":"9780674995581","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780674995581.jpg?v=edf2c8baf0ec0627","score":0.6843,"title":"Antigone. Women of Trachis. Philoctetes. Oedipus at Colonus","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780674995581"},{"authors":["Sophocles","Hugh Lloyd-Jones"],"book_id":"9780674995574","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780674995574.jpg?v=82307dc4c7709247","score":0.6804,"title":"Ajax. Electra. Oedipus Tyrannus","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780674995574"},{"authors":["Sophocles"],"book_id":"9780062132086","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062132086.jpg?v=c903dbc014de410e","score":0.6557,"title":"Oedipus the King","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062132086"},{"authors":["Sophocles"],"book_id":"9781681464060","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781681464060.jpg?v=8100f2c6c1138d8b","score":0.6511,"title":"Philoctetes","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781681464060"},{"authors":["Adèle Geras"],"book_id":"9780152045708","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780152045708.jpg?v=63f0ff81f6869032","score":0.6498,"title":"Troy","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780152045708"},{"authors":["Sophocles","Aeschylus","Euripides","Mary Lefkowitz"],"book_id":"9780812983098","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780812983098.jpg?v=3b7843daa2566668","score":0.6447,"title":"The Greek Plays","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780812983098"}],"topics":[],"what_you_get":["Themes: Obsessive love, Forbidden love, Tragic infatuation.","Pacing: fast, momentum-driven storytelling.","Story elements: Forbidden love."]},"llm_signals":{"confidence":0.9,"pacing":"fast","reader_fit":["Readers drawn to high-tension classical tragedy","Readers interested in stories of obsessive, forbidden love"],"themes":["Obsessive love","Forbidden love","Tragic infatuation"],"tropes":["Forbidden love"]},"source_presence":{"amazon":true,"book_detail":true,"goodreads":true,"llm_signals":true,"similarity_seed":true},"stats":{"amazon_ratings_count":40,"goodreads_ratings_count":25113,"goodreads_reviews_count":1097,"quality_score":0.9701}}