About the work
The Affected Young Ladies (Les Précieuses ridicules) is a one-act prose comedy by Molière, first performed on 18 November 1659 at the Théâtre du Petit-Bourbon in Paris. The short piece quickly made Molière's troupe known in the capital after years of provincial touring.
Plot
The bourgeois Gorgibus wants to marry off his daughter Magdelon and his niece Cathos, but the two reject their suitors as insufficiently refined, judging them by the précieux style of fashionable courtly romances. The spurned suitors take revenge by having their valets pose as witty, elegant gentlemen. When the trick is exposed, Magdelon and Cathos are left humiliated.
Cultural significance
The play was an immediate success at court and in Paris and established Molière's reputation as a satirist of social fashions. It mocks "préciosité", a literary and social vogue for exaggerated refinement, and is considered his first comedy printed under his own supervision.