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3.98 AVERAGE
3.98 AVERAGE
This was so good!! I had been wanting to read Cyrano de Bergerac for a while now, and I don't know what took me so long. The text is not long and the story is interesting and honestly so damn funny. Cyrano is a great protagonist and the reader is instantly drawn to his personality and wit. Every single word that he says is pure gold.
The love story was beautiful and heartbreaking. I had no idea what was going to happen, so it caught me by surprise. I love the trope of a ghostwriter who is also in love with the person receiving the letters, so it was very entertaining. I also love to go back and see how many modern love stories were inspired, or were actually retellings of this play.
The love story was beautiful and heartbreaking. I had no idea what was going to happen, so it caught me by surprise. I love the trope of a ghostwriter who is also in love with the person receiving the letters, so it was very entertaining. I also love to go back and see how many modern love stories were inspired, or were actually retellings of this play.
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
I loved this so passionately when I read it at 17, and I kinda wasn't prepared to still love it as much as I did now. I started the Ken/Tom audioplay, but I actually got my book out to read the missing parts. I can't be eloquent about this, I have too many feelings about all of it, and while I'm obviously not nearly as talented and clever, there are few true literary Heroes as close to my heart as much as Cyrano <3
read for class.
not much to say on this one... i did like cyrano's dry, sarcastic wit, but other than that i just thought it was okay. good for teaching heroic drama though.
not much to say on this one... i did like cyrano's dry, sarcastic wit, but other than that i just thought it was okay. good for teaching heroic drama though.
Maravilloso. No esperaba que este libro me emocionase tanto.
A good story, even if Cyrano is frustratingly tragic despite happiness shoving itself in his face
Welp, now I have to see this on stage. This became easily one of my favorite plays. It's hard to pin why... I think I'll have to read it a couple more times but I loved the language. It kind of brought me back to going to Shakespeare plays with my mom when I was really young.
I don't think this was the translation I read as a kid.
This play has it all. It has the power to make you laugh and cry and chambouler you one scene after the other, not just because Cyrano is a great character, but because he attracts such passionate people around him. I'd been meaning to read this for years, because we'd studied part of it in school, and I remember my teacher showing us extracts from the Gerard Depardieu move (which I haven't seen in its entirety, but man, the scenes I did see were spectacular, so I hope the whole lives up to those parts).
A few words about the characters. First, Roxanne is an educated woman who is smitten by looks but falls devastatingly in love with another man's words (not to mention that she is a character in and of herself; she isn't just defined by the men she loves, she also aspires to impress, and she has cunning, humour, and bravery to boot). What I love is that she is a love interest that everyone will love, because Rostand wrote a real person, not a sexy lamp. I truly see why Cyrano loves her, even by the end of the second act. Second, the Cadets de Gascons are the lovable troupe that wins your heart. They are a stereotype but also a grand force that you can't help but support, maybe because of how much Cyrano loves them and how much they love Cyrano in return. Third, De Guiche and Christian, who could have been reduced to mere obstacles in the way of Cyrano's love for Roxanne, receive full character arcs and, in De Guiche's case, redemption. De Guiche is a Gascon no matter how hard he tries, and in trying to bring the Cadets and Cyrano down, he actually remembers what it feels like to be an enfant du pays and reconnects with a prouder, more human side of himself. Christian, the beautiful but inarticulate young man, starts as a comic figure and quickly becomes tragic in his realization that he is only loved for his looks and not even for his looks once Cyrano conquers Roxanne via correspondence. He would rather reveal the entire charade and know whether Roxanne truly loves him or the man behind his words. Maybe that's selfish, but it's also quite honest because as much as he wants to be loved, he also understands the pain that Cyrano must be going through in lending his soul to another man. His death felt anything but empty, and maybe the story becomes soapy by the last two acts, but it's always grounded in human happiness, fear, and grief.
Regarding the play itself, it is remarkably modern in its set-up. Rostand establishes multiple minor characters who remain the background and give the impression that this world of his is lived-in and real. The main characters won't appear until at least ten minutes of small talk have taken place, some relevant, some less so, but always purposeful and amusing. Conversations happen simultaneously and cross over, people joke and tease and ramble, it's got a touch of Ionesco that I never expected to find in a Rostand play.
If you couldn't tell, I loved this play, and I hold it dear to my heart. I first discovered this story by watching the Steve Martin movie "Roxanne," which captures the right Cyrano but fails the other characters miserably (and there's no De Guiche, no war, no stakes, basically, Roxanne is a boring love interest with no facial expressions, and Christian is kind of vapid and useless).
Recommended if you want a story where you can root for the characters and laugh through your tears. It's an "incontournable," and I will come back to it in a few years to revisit my old-yet-new friends.
A few words about the characters. First, Roxanne is an educated woman who is smitten by looks but falls devastatingly in love with another man's words (not to mention that she is a character in and of herself; she isn't just defined by the men she loves, she also aspires to impress, and she has cunning, humour, and bravery to boot). What I love is that she is a love interest that everyone will love, because Rostand wrote a real person, not a sexy lamp. I truly see why Cyrano loves her, even by the end of the second act. Second, the Cadets de Gascons are the lovable troupe that wins your heart. They are a stereotype but also a grand force that you can't help but support, maybe because of how much Cyrano loves them and how much they love Cyrano in return. Third, De Guiche and Christian, who could have been reduced to mere obstacles in the way of Cyrano's love for Roxanne, receive full character arcs and, in De Guiche's case, redemption. De Guiche is a Gascon no matter how hard he tries, and in trying to bring the Cadets and Cyrano down, he actually remembers what it feels like to be an enfant du pays and reconnects with a prouder, more human side of himself. Christian, the beautiful but inarticulate young man, starts as a comic figure and quickly becomes tragic in his realization that he is only loved for his looks and not even for his looks once Cyrano conquers Roxanne via correspondence. He would rather reveal the entire charade and know whether Roxanne truly loves him or the man behind his words. Maybe that's selfish, but it's also quite honest because as much as he wants to be loved, he also understands the pain that Cyrano must be going through in lending his soul to another man. His death felt anything but empty, and maybe the story becomes soapy by the last two acts, but it's always grounded in human happiness, fear, and grief.
Regarding the play itself, it is remarkably modern in its set-up. Rostand establishes multiple minor characters who remain the background and give the impression that this world of his is lived-in and real. The main characters won't appear until at least ten minutes of small talk have taken place, some relevant, some less so, but always purposeful and amusing. Conversations happen simultaneously and cross over, people joke and tease and ramble, it's got a touch of Ionesco that I never expected to find in a Rostand play.
If you couldn't tell, I loved this play, and I hold it dear to my heart. I first discovered this story by watching the Steve Martin movie "Roxanne," which captures the right Cyrano but fails the other characters miserably (and there's no De Guiche, no war, no stakes, basically, Roxanne is a boring love interest with no facial expressions, and Christian is kind of vapid and useless).
Recommended if you want a story where you can root for the characters and laugh through your tears. It's an "incontournable," and I will come back to it in a few years to revisit my old-yet-new friends.