Misplaced Pages

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in French. (February 2019) Click for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the French article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Misplaced Pages. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing French Misplaced Pages article at ]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|fr|Le Père de famille (Diderot)}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Misplaced Pages:Translation.

Le Père de famille
Title page of first edition (1758)
Written by	Denis Diderot
Characters	The father of the family Saint-Albin Sophie Germeuil Cécile The Commander
Date premiered	1758
Place premiered	France
Original language	French
Subject	Family relations
Genre	Drama
Setting	The Parisian home of the father of the family

Le Père de famille (English: The Father of the family) is a 1758 play by Denis Diderot.

Diderot followed this play with a treatise on theatre entitled Discours sur la poésie dramatique.

In 1765, the play was parodised by Antoine-Alexandre-Henri Poinsinet.

The play was performed at the Richmond Theatre in Richmond, Virginia on the night of the fire of December 26, 1811.

Sophia Lee (English novelist and dramatist) based her first piece, a three-act drama (produced by George Colman the Elder performed at the Haymarket Theatre on 5 August 1780), called The Chapter of Accidents, on Le père de famille.

Plot

In this play, Saint Albin, a young man, falls in love with Sophie, a poor young woman of unknown parentage. His father, the title character, is against the match, and his uncle actively plots against it by trying to force Sophie into a convent. Against her better judgement, Cécile, Saint-Albin's sister, hides Sophie in their home at the behest of Germeuil, a friend of the family. When the father discovers the disobedience of his children, he is dismayed; and the entire situation is exacerbated by the ill-intentioned uncle. When the uncle is confronted by the young woman in person, however, he realizes that she is his niece. With the question of her parentage solved, Saint-Albin is free to marry Sophie, Cécile is free to marry Germeuil, and the father welcomes all his children with open arms.

External links

• Le Père de famille in French at Gallica
• Blog de pere de famille in French at Gallica

This article on a play from the 18th century is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• 1758 plays
• Plays by Denis Diderot
• 18th-century play stubs