When he was twentytwo years old, he married the poet, rosemond gerard, and presented his first book, a volume of poems, to her as a wedding gift. Because the actor who plays cyrano is so very crucial to the success of the play all the other characters are merely supporting roles it. Edmond eugene alexis rostand was a french poet and dramatist. But the audience was swept away by rostands wordplay and wit, and. Despondent and ill, he retired to his estate in the country. Set in 17thcentury paris, the action revolves around the. He gained a major success with his play romanesque in 1894. Edmond rostand was born in marseilles, france, on april 1, 1868. Philosopher, poet, swordsman, soldier and wit, there is an underlying fatalism to cyrano. Edmond rostand was born in 1868 in marseilles, france, on what is now known as rue edmondrostand. Rostand s family was active in the arts, his uncle was a famous composer, his aunt a poet.
The real cyranos writing covered many genres including poetry, love letters, political pamphlets, plays and a novel which was a mixture of science fiction and philosophy. Though its moliere thats more often used as a french answer to shakespeare, edmond rostand s cyrano has to be about the only riposte to hamlet available in human literature. The entire play is written in verse, in rhyming couplets of twelve syllables per line, very close to the classical alexandrine form, but the verses sometimes lack a. But the audience was swept away by rostand s wordplay and wit, and. Verse drama in five acts by edmond rostand, performed in 1897 and published the following year.
The bottom of each page is annotated with a minithesaurus of uncommon words highlighted in the text, including synonyms and antonyms. Description of text a new english verse translation of the play by edmond rostand 18691918, who wrote cyrano in 1897 for the great french actor constant coquelin. Rostands play, written in rhyming verse, tells the story. Rostand s play, written in rhyming verse, tells the story. He is now best remembered for the works of fiction which have been woven, often very loosely, around his life story, most notably the 1897 play by edmond rostand. Rostand always believed that the more flamboyant aspects of his personality came from his paternal grandmother, who was.
Set in 17thcentury paris, the action revolves around the emotional problems of the noble, swashbuckling cyrano, who, despite his many gifts, feels that no woman. Translated from the french by gladys thomas and mary f. Rostand wrote only a few additional plays, none of which were wellreceived. Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by project gutenberg. Read a plot overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter summary and analysis. Another of rostands works, les romanesques, was adapted to the musical comedy, the fantasticks.
Deliberately disavowing realism and contemporary relevance, edmond rostands masterpiece represents a turning back in both time and spirit to an earlier age of high adventure and soaring idealism. It was based only nominally on the 17thcentury nobleman of the same name, known for his bold adventures and large nose. Cyrano s generous offer to act as gobetween sets in motion a poignant and often hilarious lovetriangle, in which each character is torn between the lure of physical attraction and the seductive power of words. He abandoned his studies after his first book of poems was published. In these fictional works he is featured with an overly large nose, which people would travel from miles around to see.
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