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Title: Cyrano De Bergerac by EDMOND ROSTAND ISBN: 0-553-21360-1 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 November, 1950 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 (23 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: One of the greatest plays ever written
Comment: Edmond Rostand's masterpiece, Cyrano de Bergerac, is one of the greatest plays ever written. It is a mix of everything: a tragedy, romance, comedy, and pseudo-history, all in one. Like all great playwrights, Rostand weaves highly witty remarks throughout his texts, many of them laugh-out-loud funny; Cyrano's famous lengthy monologue about how he could have been insulted better and Christian's "nosy" berating of Cyrano are classic moments. The play is also highly tragic: the plot twists and turns, not playing out as one would expect, and it leaves one absolutely brimming over with emotion by play's end. Cyrano is one of the great tragic characters in all literature -- a sharp-witted, swashbuckling poet, and a big softy to boot. He is one of the most complex characters ever to appear in a play, his range of emotion and depth of complexity presenting a supreme challenge to the actor. The play is also a great romance, tragic as it is, and contains much magnificent poetry, including many romantic lines that rival the best of Keats and Yates. I referred to the play as a "pseudo-history" because it uses the real Cyrano de Bergerac as a basis for the play's title character, referring to real events in his life and extrapolating from there in the grand Dumas style. Those who disparage the play as unrealistic or idealistic are missing the point, not to mention the heart, of the play. This is an epic play in the grand French Romantic tradition; actions are deliberately fanciful, circumstances abound, and actions and situations are occasionally hyperbolic. This is all by design; therein lays the play's appeal. Rostand, in writing it, shows his complete mastery of the art. His ability to take Cyrano, who comes off as such as so pompously arrogant in the first act, and make him imminently lovable by the end of the play is a testament to his brilliance. The quasi-love triangle is also very effective; through it, Rostand is able to comment on the fleetingness and sometimes randomness of love without being too heavy-handed. The suspense is omnipresent, tragedy always looms just around the corner, but a laugh is never too far away. For those who love poetry or romance, this work is an absolute must. Emotions hit a fever pitch at several points in the play; it will reduce many to tears, as it almost did me. This is an absolute and essential masterpiece that remains a cherished classic in the annals of writing for the stage.
Rating: 5
Summary: Dang Awesome Story!!!
Comment: I first read Cyrano de Bergerac when I was in sixth grade and I loved it. When I was in my freshman year at high school, I read in the newspaper that the Utah State Theatre Department at USU would be doing a production of Cyrano. I called as soon as I could to audition. We used this exact book as the script for the play, and it was a smashing success.
This really is a fine version of the original, and I would recommend it to anyone.
Rating: 5
Summary: Incomparable wit and ingenuity
Comment: 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.
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Title: Cyrano de Bergerac (Cliffs Notes) by Estelle DuBose, LaRocque DuBose ISBN: 0822003465 Publisher: Cliffs Notes Pub. Date: 01 February, 1971 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title:Cyrano De Bergerac ASIN: B0000D1FFU Publisher: Gotham Distribution Pub. Date: 18 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $7.98 |
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Title:Cyrano De Bergerac ASIN: B0000YEENU Publisher: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pub. Date: 10 February, 2004 List Price(USD): $19.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $16.38 |
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Title: A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Frederick Busch ISBN: 0451526562 Publisher: Signet Pub. Date: August, 1997 List Price(USD): $4.95 |
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Title: Night by Elie Wiesel, Stella Rodway, Francois Mauriac ISBN: 0553272535 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 March, 1982 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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