Step inside Cyrano de Bergerac

The film without the cuts. And the book itself.

He gives another man the words his own heart cannot claim.

9:41

The Cast

Cyrano de Bergerac

Main · Gascon cadets

A poet-swordsman whose enormous public brilliance guards a private terror of being unloved.

Locations

Hôtel de Bourgogne

theater

A rowdy Paris theater where candles, cards, actors, nobles, thieves, and swords share one crowded room.

Passage

Before the audience arrives, the theater holds a charged pause before spectacle begins.

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The Author’s Pen

The Empty Theater

The entrance to the theater is in the center of the background, under the gallery of the boxes. A large door, half open to let in the spectators. On the panels of this door, in different corners, and over the buffet, red placards bearing the words, 'La Clorise.'

At the rising of the curtain the hall is in semi-darkness, and still empty. The lusters are lowered in the middle of the pit ready to be lighted.

Reading

Rostand starts his play by showing us a theater that is about to show a different play. The red placards announce "La Clorise," the tedious drama the audience has actually come to see, which Cyrano will soon interrupt and shut down. So before a single person arrives, we are looking at the stage that Cyrano will hijack and make his own. The chandeliers are lowered and unlit, the seats empty: everything is waiting, held in the moment before the evening's real performer takes over.

World Index

The Plot

The theater, the nose, and the midnight duelRoxane asks Cyrano to protect Christian - she is in love with himThe letters, the balcony scene, and the siege of ArrasRoxane comes to the siege - and Christian learns the truthDe Guiche warns Cyrano of an ambush - Cyrano arrives at the convent dyingRoxane names what she has loved - and Cyrano dies fighting

The Cast

Cyrano de BergeracRoxaneChristian de NeuvilletteCount de GuicheLe BretRagueneauCarbon de Castel-JalouxLignièreValvertThe DuennaMontfleuryThe MarquisesThe CadetsSister MarthaMother MargueriteLiseThe MonkThe Pickpocket

Locations

Camp at ArrasHôtel de BourgogneRagueneau’s BakeryRoxane’s House and BalconyThe Convent

Objects of Note

Christian’s Final LetterCyrano’s PlumeCyrano’s SwordDe Guiche’s White ScarfThe Letters

Core Concepts

Comedy Becomes SacrificeHonor Without CompromiseLetters as the Hidden SelfPublic Performance and Private TruthRecognition Arrives Too LateStyle as ArmorThe Voice and the FaceWar Tests the Language of Love

The Author's Pen

Roxane So CalledCyrano's Voice From the PitA Hundred ThingsAt The Envois EndCount Them AllI Love the FairestChristian Catches a PickpocketBut Save Ligniere I MustA Friend of MineNo Patron's SmileThe Letter WithheldRoxane Loves HimCyrano Swears FriendshipMy Nose My TeethYour LetterFeigned Love Words Into TrueThe Hour of the OvenVary ItShadow and RadianceA New ToneWhat Is a KissFalling Out of HeavenOrdered to BattleWhat The Guards MeanSleep Against StarvationWriting Another LetterHere It IsThrough the Spanish LinesYour Letters Brought Me HereLove Beyond BeautyLook At My FaceAutumn in the ParkRoxane Knows the TruthMy PanacheStruck To The Ground

Plot point 01

The theater, the nose, and the midnight duel

Cyrano de Bergerac stops a play, fights a hundred men, and composes a ballade while running one of them through - and goes home to confess he loves a woman he cannot approach.

Objects of Note

Cyrano’s Sword

A blade that lets Cyrano answer an insult in rhyme and win by the final line.

The Cast

Roxane

Main

A brilliant woman whose love follows eloquence so intensely that it mistakes the body carrying the voice.

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Cyrano de Bergerac

Edmond Rostand

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 127 classics in the Literah library

The Cyrano de Bergerac World, as it plays on your phone

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