Tuesday, April 15, 2008

The 306 Greatest Books #72 - Cyrano de Bergerac

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. This book can be found on the Sybervision and My Book Lists.


My wife found a website that sends a portion of a story each day in your email (DailyLit). I thought that I might try it on some of my shorter stories where purchasing the book did not seem like it was going to happen soon. Well after 62 installments, I finished Cyrano de Bergerac and I not only highly enjoyed the story I also enjoyed the daily portions. The story is about an ugly (due to his large nose) but extremely eloquent and proud man named Cyrano who is in love with a beautiful woman, Roxane. Unfortunately, Roxane is in love with another man, Christian, and asks Cyrano to help Christian talk to her. Eventually she falls in love, not with the handsome Christian but with his "soul" that has been expressed through Christian's words and letters, the words and letters written by Cyrano. The story is humorous, heartfelt, and well written. I definitely recommend this to anyone in the mood for a romantic comedy, even though it is a play.