Cyrano De Bergerac by Edmond Rostand Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cyrano De Bergerac
Book Review: Good
Summary: 5 Stars
Unfortunately I had to return this item, but the seller made it fast and easy.Book Review: Greatest hero of all time.
Summary: 5 Stars
Presents one of the most heroic characters in fiction. The 1950 movie with José Ferrer is good too. Cyrano De Bergerac
Book Review: Incomparable wit and ingenuity
Summary: 5 Stars
Edmond Rostand established a name for himself, and a superlative magnum opus, when he wrote this singular and playful work of cunning, heroism, & love. While many may know vaguely of the legendary tale of the real Cyrano, few have surprisingly actually read this delightful gem of a play based only nominally on the man himself. Cyrano de Bergerac incorporates all that is 17th century France in a nutshell: the romance, wit, bombast, refinement, gallantry, and pompousness. Cyrano embodies all of these and more. Rostand uses a seemingly endless flow of great witticisms and a keen use of wordplay that make the play enjoyable and fun to read. It reads similarly to a Shakespeare comedy -- albeit in a much more fluid and smooth manner. The outlandish tales of Cyrano single-handedly defeating 100 men in battle, of him being a scientist, poet, and warrior all at once make for an outrageously entertaining tale of bombast and hyperbole. Cyrano, when exhorted to seek his true love Roxane by his friend Le Bret, exclaims, "Come now, think a moment: this nose of mine, which precedes me by a quarter of an inch everywhere I go, forbids me ever to dream of being loved by even an ugly woman."
Our hero, who personifies the intrepid soldier on the battlefield, rebuffs Le Bret's persistence by retorting, "So that she'll laugh in my face? No! That's the one thing in the world that I fear!" Cyrano, our affable and valiant swashbuckling hero, reveals that he is, despite the brazen posturing, a mere human after all. And, like everyone else, possesses his own unique set of fears. In the face of awkward human imperfection, Cyrano teaches us the need to transcend -- that love of another's soul must, in order for true happiness to be fully achieved, supersede the shallowness of physical appearance. A great lesson that more people should learn.
"Pardon me for having involved you in a disastrous adventure."
Edmond Rostand to the actor portraying Cyrano minutes before the play's initial performance.
Book Review: Jimmy Durante's predecessor
Summary: 5 Stars
This play is famous, perhaps more so than most of Shakespeare's plays but how many people have seen or read it? I don't know when I first heard of it but I knew all about it without ever having seen it or read it. It has been compared to "A Tale Of Two Cities", and to other stories with a man substituting himself for another out of some great desire, need, passion, or what have you. Yet Cyrano, with his great nose, rises above them all. Now I have finally read the play, I still need to see it.
I have given the play five stars although it has many defects, one of the most glaring being in the title character, a superman yet also a conceited man except for his looks, here he is glaringly deficient and he knows it yet he allows no one to state it other than himself. In the play he lives up to his conceit but I found it to be so bad I could not like the man himself and I did not care that he thought himself unlovely, incapable of a woman's love because of his looks, a monstrous nose that was large enough to be considered a deformity. Today there is plastic surgery, it is hard to think of a time when it was not available and so I find it hard to put myself in his place and understand all his complaints. Fortunately I grew up before such surgery became commonplace and the remnants of my memory help me almost reach understanding, a slight diminution of Cyrano's great grief would place it in my purview. The worst defect I found was in Cyrano's inability to say anything to Roxanne, and especially after the death of Christian. He is supposed to be smart, yet here he shows only stupidity. Still, it is the author's perogative to bend a character's abilities to suit the needs of the story, it does make for a great play.
Book Review: On My Feet, Sword In Hand
Summary: 5 Stars
Much more of a dark comedy than most of the crap movie translations would have you believe. Cyrano is a classic in every sense of the word and by far my favorite play. Too many times this exquisite work is turned into a comic mess by the schmucks in Hollywood. Do not settle for anything less than the original. If someone tries to persuade you otherwise, let them come, they should find you "on your feet, sword in hand".