Recommendations

Books Like On ne saurait penser à tout

Best books to read after On ne saurait penser à tout by Alfred de Musset

Musset's elegant later Proverbe (1849) — a miniature one-act in which a Marquis who forgets to arrange a horse stumbles into a charming social encounter with the host's daughter. The later Musset working in the Proverbe form with lighter stakes and a more comfortable social accommodation.

  1. 1

    Il faut qu'une porte soit ouverte ou fermée

    by Alfred de Musset

    The companion one-act Proverbe that shows the form at its most concentrated and most emotionally resonant — the model that On ne saurait penser à tout follows at slightly lower stakes.

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  2. 2

    Il ne faut jurer de rien

    by Alfred de Musset

    The more elaborate Proverbe that preceded On ne saurait penser à tout — the same type of comedic situation (the young man disarmed by a woman) worked out in three acts rather than one.

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  3. 3

    Fantasio

    by Alfred de Musset

    The major comedy that established the tone for the Proverbes — the lightness of On ne saurait penser à tout is the natural endpoint of what Fantasio began in a more romantic register.

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  4. 4

    Emma

    by Jane Austen

    Austen's social comedy works in the same register as the later Musset Proverbes — the observation of small social encounters, the revelation of character through conversational awkwardness, the comedy of misunderstanding.

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  5. 5

    The Rivals

    by Richard Brinsley Sheridan

    The English comedy of social confusion and charming misunderstanding — the tradition that Musset's lighter Proverbes belong to, when the emotional stakes are lower and the comedy higher.

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  6. 6

    Les Caprices de Marianne

    by Alfred de Musset

    The early Musset play that shows where the lighter later work came from — reading the progression from Les Caprices (1833) to On ne saurait penser à tout (1849) shows how Musset's comedy evolved.

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  7. 7

    Le Misanthrope

    by Molière

    The great ancestor of French social comedy — in On ne saurait penser à tout, as in Molière, the social conversation itself reveals character more than any direct statement could.

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  8. 8

    The Importance of Being Earnest

    by Oscar Wilde

    Wilde's comedy of social accident and charming absurdity — the English equivalent of what Musset achieves in the lighter Proverbes, where the situation is comic but the observation is precise.

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