Paris, Charpentier et Fasquelle, 1898.
8vo [193 x 134 mm] of 225 pp. and (3) bl. pp. Green embroidered overlapping silk bradel, flat spine, havana morocco title-pieces, top edge gilt (P. Goy & C. Vilaine).
First edition of Rostand’s masterpiece.
Rahir, La Bibliothèque de l’amateur, 621; Bibliothèque de Backer, n°2502.
“Heroic comedy in five acts in verse, performed in Paris at the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin on 28 December 1897”.
A precious copy, one of only 50 deluxe copies printed on japan paper, without justification.
On 28 December 1897, Rostand’s heroic comedy became the greatest theatrical success since Hernani. An unprecedented success: forty encores! The play was performed 400 times until 1900 and Coquelin, who had been introduced to the author the previous year by Sarah Bernhardt, played the role until his death, a total of 950 times. Rostand was elected to the Académie française in 1901: he was received at the age of thirty-three, the youngest academician at the time.
“This is the most popular work of French theatre from the end of the nineteenth century […] From a lyrical and dramatic point of view, this comedy is perfect […] one can only admire its poetic quality, flexible and sparkling, through which a whole French literary tradition is crystallized, from Honoré d’Urfé to Dumas father and Richepin, via Scarron and Regnard. Cyrano, the hero with the big nose and the heart of a child, terrible spadassin and ingenuous lover, is a character dear to the French spirit and that each century has represented in one form or another. Here he embodies, in its fullness, the romantic hero of the nineteenth century.” (Dictionnaire des Œuvres, II, p. 190).
A very fine copy of this literary original edition, preserved in a pretty embroidered silk with floral pattern.
Handwritten ex-dono from a curator of the Musée de la Légion d’honneur dated 1926 on one of the endpapers, annotation in pencil on p. 135, stain on 2 ll. of text and 2 ll. of endpapers.
