Cyrano de bergerac how many pages

This could be an effect of reading, however, and not one that would've been spotted in a performance. And a play is always fully enjoyed and appreciated when you watch it performed. Updated review with notes on a few available English translations. This is the most beautiful and most heartbreaking love story ever. It never fails to make me laugh and turn me into a sobbing mess by the last line. He is as grand in deeds as he is in words, refuses prestige and the limelight, preferring to keep to himself with his poems and the regiment he leads for company.

He also feels doomed to be forever alone because he has a really, really big nose: he has loved his lovely cousin Roxane from afar for years, but has never dared to declare himself for fear that she will find his appearance ridiculous.

Roxane is beautiful, elegant and witty, but she is shallow: she is in love with the Baron Christian de Neuvillette, who is handsome, but lacks the eloquence to woo her the way she wants to be wooed. So Cyrano hatches a plan: he will write Roxane beautiful poetry, expressing the passionate feelings he arbours for her, and Christian will deliver the love notes and reap the rewards.

The speeches in this play are breathtaking with spirit, humour and wit. The original French version has an almost musical rhythm to every line. The characters are larger than life, passionate and deeply human: all three main characters are absolutely bad-asses in their own way.

This play is a pure delight, to be read and re-read again and again and I cannot recommend it enough. Feel free to skip. French is my first language so when a book is originally written in French, I read the original. Having read a few books both in English and in French namely Du Maurier and Kerouac, of all things , I am all too aware of how easily you can lose subtle things in the translation process and how that can often result in reading a book that simply doesn't carry the same flavor as the original.

This is a play about love, passion, sacrifice and strong characters: if the translator can't carry those things in his version, it just doesn't work. So out of curiosity and stubbornness, I combed bookstores for not one but THREE different English translations of my favorite play to try and figure out which one comes closest to Rostand's original words.

Bear in mind that I have read and seen "Cyrano" a hundred time and basically know most of it by heart. Everybody recommended the Brian Hooker version, which I ended up finding a little bland, despite it being regarded as the "standard" English version.

Hooker was himself a poet, and he tried to keep things as lyrical as he could, but the speeches don't read as fluidly as I had hoped. Then I read Carol Clark's version: she provides a really interesting introduction and notes on translation oh, Penguin Classics editions and all your scholarly extra material, how I love thee!

That version was more dynamic than the Hooker translation, but a few turns of phrases felt like snags in an otherwise smooth ride. Good, but not quite right. I hunted that version down because Burgess is a wizard with words and I just had to see how he worked with Rostand's. In his introduction, he mentions that part of the difficulty in translating this play has to do with the fundamental difference between translating a poem and translating a play, which is invariably meant to be spoken out loud and performed by actors.

Sure, you have to respect the original work, but you also have to think of the actors and the audience: they need to understand what's going on, and they need to have the proper reactions. He points out that Rostand's play has many comedic elements in French, that the Hooker translation, which sticks very faithfully to the original words, doesn't convey - hence why it reads a bit dryly.

Cyrano is a witty man who makes fun of his adversaries and what sounds ironic in French will not necessarily sound ironic in English; you need to shift ever so slightly to convey the right vibe. In my opinion, Burgess' version is the best English translation, because its the one that "feels" the most like the original. The rhythm and delivery are preserved, as are the shift from funny to poignant and romantic. Un movimiento del cual formaron muchos como Marie Robineau, Mlle.

Author 13 books One of the all-time great over-the-top romances - everyone knows the story, and it's been adapted a million times. How they could have given it a happy ending in Steve Martin's "Roxanne" is beyond me. The Depardieu movie is the one to see, of course.

Marty Reeder. Author 3 books 27 followers. They loved it. I can't think of a better endorsement. No other book I know of can get the full enthusiasm of both an English teacher and a classroom full of stratified and unique, individual students--especially when they have been forced to read the book. Because Cyrano has a universal appeal that spans generations. Because Cyrano is funny. Because his tale is adventurous. Because it is unblinkingly sincere and puts away pretenses, if even for a few, beautiful and believable moments.

Because we all hope to attain the kind of love that Rostand presents in his protagonist. Because Cyrano de Bergerac rings true in the deepest and surest sense that any literature I have ever read has ever been able to attain.

That is a pretty epic and sweeping recommendation, you might think, but it only touches on the wide range of emotions I get when I read through it. And now, as I think back on this past reading and the several readings from before it, I cannot think of any book, any piece of literature, anywhere that has a more favorable spot in my heart.

No other piece of literature has the ability to make me laugh, cry, smile satisfied, or yearn tragically with as much poignant ability as this piece. Cyrano is my hero, and, according to his inspiration, I hope to preserve my own white plume up until the very moment of my death. What a beautiful person Cyrano is; what a beautiful character Rostand has created. Read it. Just read it and find the Cyrano in yourself, because he is there, in all of us Plus, I think that Edmond Rostand, besides being extremely clever and funny, has a few scenes of such startling, raw truth and emotion that I've never found an equal in other works I've read.

Debbie Zapata. Ah, Cyrano. Book Reg. Product Description Product Details Widely considered the most popular modern French play, Cyrano de Bergerac has dazzled audiences with its wit and eloquence since it premiered in The Importance of Being Earnest. Much Ado About Nothing. Twelve Classic One-Act Plays. This offer will be for a limited time only.

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See the front cover of this book image will open in new tab. Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in by Edmond Rostand. Hercule Savinien Cyrano de Bergerac, a cadet in the French Army, is a brash, strong-willed man of many talents. In addition to being a remarkable duelist, he is a gifted, joyful poet and is also shown to be a musician. However, he has an extremely large nose, which is the reason for his own self-doubt. This doubt prevents him from expressing his love for his distant cousin, the beautiful and intellectual heiress Roxane, as he believes that his ugliness denies him the dream of being loved by even an ugly woman.

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