Les Précieuses ridicules

by Molière

"Les Précieuses ridicules" by Molière is a one-act comedy first performed in 1659. Two young provincial women, Magdelon and Cathos, reject their suitors as unrefined and dream of romantic adventures like those in fashionable novels. The scorned suitors devise a cunning revenge: they send their valets, disguised as aristocrats, to woo the pretentious young women. What follows is a sharp satire of affectation and social climbing that became Molière's first published work and launched a new literary fashion.