Cinna cover

Cinna

by Pierre Corneille

Cinna, his beloved Emilia, and his friend Maximus are participants in a plot to assassinate the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar. What will happen to them when Augustus learns of the plot? The first performance of Cinna occurred either late in 1640 or early in 1641, most likely at the Théâtre du Marais in Paris, where Le Cid and Horace had previously been performed. The text of Cinna was printed and published in 1643. The subject matter of the play was derived from a chapter in Seneca’s De Clementia. The present volume is a translation of Corneille’s French alexandrine verse into English iambic pentameter. Pierre Corneille (June 6, 1606 – October 1, 1684) was one of the three great seventeenth-century French dramatists, along with Molière and Racine.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?