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Primary sourceBook1919

The Strongest (Les Plus Forts)

Georges Clemenceau · 1919

A play by Clemenceau, shown in an English translation published in Toronto in 1919. It deals with strength and power, and its opening follows a duelist and adventurer of the Second Empire.

This is Clemenceau's own play, shown in English translation, and it shows his thinking about strength and power beyond politics.

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The Strongest (Les Plus Forts)PDF · 328 pages
Georges Clemenceau, The Strongest (Les Plus Forts), English translation, 1919. Scanned book, Internet Archive.

About this source

What it is

This is a play written by Georges Clemenceau, titled Les Plus Forts in French and The Strongest in this English translation. The copy here was published in Toronto by S. B. Gundy for Humphrey Milford, and printed in Garden City, New York. It is a scanned PDF from the Internet Archive. The opening follows Henri Lepastre, Marquis de Puymaufray, a figure of the last years of the Second Empire, who is famous for duels and adventures. The story then turns to the war with Germany.

Why it matters

Clemenceau wrote the play himself, so it shows his ideas and interests outside politics. It reflects his concern with strength and power. The opening's account of the Second Empire's final years and the war with Germany connects the play to the history he lived through. Readers can compare the play's ideas with his public career.

Look closer

  • What kind of man does the opening present, and what does his behaviour in the war suggest about the play's themes?
  • Why might Clemenceau have chosen a story about a duelist and an aristocrat?
  • What does the opening leave out about the people who were not part of this elegant social world?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Georges Clemenceau on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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