This is a digital reprint of Mme de Mourgues' critical introduction to the work of Racine for the student and the general reader. It concentrates entirely on the plays themselves, and attempts to say what they are and how they work on the mind of the spectator or reader. Mme de Mourgues' main point is admirably expressed in her title. Everything in Racine's plays is directed to a single end: the heightening of the feeling of tragic conflict. The separable literary or dramatic conventions have no importance in themselves - their only claim on the attention is their function in the drama, their...