4 h 1 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
He can face a drawn sword without fear—but can he let the woman he loves hear his own heart?
In seventeenth-century Paris, Cyrano de Bergerac fights with a sword and dazzles with words. A soldier and poet, he fiercely guards his independence. Yet he believes his appearance makes him impossible to love. When Roxane, his intelligent, poetry-loving cousin, asks to meet him privately, he dares to hope.
Roxane admires Christian, a handsome young soldier who cannot find the words she longs to hear. Cyrano lends him his own, hiding his love behind another man’s face. In Edmond Rostand’s play, this fragile arrangement unfolds amid theatrical quarrels, friendship, and war, while the powerful Count de Guiche pursues Roxane.
What you’ll discover
- A sword and a sentence Meet a man whose dazzling wit is as ready as his blade.
- Words beneath the balcony Enter the darkness where Cyrano can speak with an honesty that daylight forbids.
- Love behind another face Feel the strain as Christian borrows the words Cyrano cannot claim as his own.
- Pride without protection Watch Cyrano refuse compromises that might bring him powerful friends or advancement.
- Courage with a hidden cost Explore the painful gap between bold public gestures and the fear of being unloved.
Who will love it
Readers who love sparkling wit, duels fought in rhyme and a love story built on a daring secret will find a great deal to enjoy, and so will anyone who likes a hero with a big voice and a bigger heart.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Hero Stops the Show
- A Duel Fought in Verse
- A Secret Love and a Rendezvous
- Roxane Confesses Her Love
- The Balcony and the Wedding
- Hunger and Arras
- What the Play Is About
Who’s who
- Cyrano de BergeracA Gascon cadet, poet and peerless swordsman, ashamed of his huge nose, who secretly loves his cousin Roxane.
- RoxaneA clever, refined young woman who adores beautiful words and falls in love with the cadet Christian.
- Christian de NeuvilletteA handsome, brave and shy young baron who joins the Cadets and cannot find words to tell Roxane of his love.
- Count de GuicheA powerful nobleman and nephew of Richelieu who wants Roxane for himself and seeks revenge on Cyrano.
- Le BretCyrano's loyal friend and fellow officer who worries about his reckless pride and scolds him out of love.
- RagueneauA pastry cook who adores poets, pays for verses with cakes and becomes Cyrano's faithful friend.
- Carbon de Castel-JalouxThe captain of the Gascon Cadets, proud of his hungry, boastful company and loyal to Cyrano.
Formats and delivery
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- Audiobook
- 4 h 1 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand · 1898
A swordsman with a huge nose lends his poetry to a handsome rival and woos the woman he loves for another man.
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In short
Cyrano de Bergerac is a verse play in five acts by the French dramatist Edmond Rostand, first staged in 1897. It is set in Paris and at the siege of Arras in the 1640s, and ends in 1655.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Hero Stops the Show
The play opens in 1640 at the Hotel de Bourgogne, a Paris theater where the audience mills about before a performance of a pastoral play called La Clorise. Soldiers fence, pages play tricks, pickpockets give lessons and fashionable marquises arrive to be seen. Among the crowd is a young man named Christian de Neuvillette, new to Paris and about to join the Guards.
Christian is distracted. He keeps looking toward an empty box, where a lady named Roxane will sit. His friend Lignière, a drinking poet, tells him who she is, a clever and refined young woman, an orphan, and a cousin of Cyrano de Bergerac.
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What is Cyrano de Bergerac about?
It is a verse play about a brilliant poet and swordsman with a huge nose who loves his cousin Roxane. He helps a handsome cadet win her with his own words, and keeps his love secret.
Is Cyrano de Bergerac a true story?
Rostand wrote the play in 1897 and based the hero on a real seventeenth century writer and duellist. Most events, including the love story, are invented for the stage.
Who is Roxane in Cyrano de Bergerac?
Roxane is Cyrano's cousin, a clever, refined young woman who loves poetry and fine speech. She falls in love with the cadet Christian and is moved by the letters she thinks are his.
The author
Edmond Rostand
1868–1918 · French poet and dramatist
Edmond Rostand was a French poet and playwright born in Marseille in 1868. He lived in Paris and later in Cambo-les-Bains in southwestern France. He wrote Cyrano de Bergerac, first performed in 1897, and L’Aiglon, first performed in 1900. He died in Paris in 1918.
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