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warren1970 's review for:
Cyrano de Bergerac / Lettres de Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand
I reread this as part of my 2015 book challenge... it ticks a lot of boxes for that challenge. But more importantly it is an incredible piece of literature. I read the Project Gutenberg version, translation by Gladys Thomas and Mary Guillemard. The translation seems excellent, more lyrical than the Lowell Bair translation I own and bought originally around 1990/91.
There are many ways you can criticise the play:
> A central character who never develops, simply maintaining a willful idealism, when he knows it is not to his advantage.
> Obvious issues in translating the lyrical verse of the original French to English.
> As a play rather than a novel it does not lend itself to a reader who has not seen a stage/film version in advance.
> A thousand other irrelevances
But just like Cyrano, despite the imperfections it is perfect, and although this is the first time I have read it in about 20 years I'm not ashamed to say it still moved me to tears when I read through Act V.
I think my feelings are best explained by the exchange between Cyrano and De Guiche, when they discuss Don Quixote. Reading the play is just like tilting against windmills. De Guiche thinks the sails will sweep you down into the mire, and I know some critics take that view of the play, but I take Cyrano's side, for me it is a piece of literature that will lift you upward to the stars!
There are many ways you can criticise the play:
> A central character who never develops, simply maintaining a willful idealism, when he knows it is not to his advantage.
> Obvious issues in translating the lyrical verse of the original French to English.
> As a play rather than a novel it does not lend itself to a reader who has not seen a stage/film version in advance.
> A thousand other irrelevances
But just like Cyrano, despite the imperfections it is perfect, and although this is the first time I have read it in about 20 years I'm not ashamed to say it still moved me to tears when I read through Act V.
I think my feelings are best explained by the exchange between Cyrano and De Guiche, when they discuss Don Quixote. Reading the play is just like tilting against windmills. De Guiche thinks the sails will sweep you down into the mire, and I know some critics take that view of the play, but I take Cyrano's side, for me it is a piece of literature that will lift you upward to the stars!