Cyrano de Bergerac

Someone recommended that I read an old French play called Cyrano de Bergerac due to its impressive ability to induce laughter and produce happiness. So then I went to the library and while scourging every shelf for something just half decent to read, I found a battered old copy, had a change of heart, and I picked it up. I let it sit there on my desk for several weeks before picking it up just yesterday morning.

I finished it in six hours.

There are few books that I gobble up in mere hours. Harry Potter and Calvin and Hobbes are examples of books that really suck you in, like a triple-cunted hooker. I found it even more amazing that I was engrossed by a play. I usually hate plays!

Anyway, Cyrano de Bergerac is based on the life of Cyrano de Bergerac, a French dramatist and duelist with an acerbic wit and painful heartache. While he kicks a supreme amount of ass, fencing a fatass while soliloquizing and drawing blood as soon as the refrain ends, Cyrano is also depicted as a self-doubting, tragic character, fearful that his big nose makes him incapable of being loved by any woman, despite his amazing ability to express his love.

Cyrano is in love with his distant cousin, Roxane, but because of his self-doubt and lack of confidence, he can't express his love to her. She loves a cadet in his company named Christian, who is handsome, yet unintelligent. Cyrano decides to act as a proxy and transfer his soul and wit into Christian's body, becoming an unstoppable juggernaut of beauty and intelligence so that Roxane will love Christian.

It is in this characteristic that Cyrano is so endearing. A man who can kick ass and take names at the drop of a hat isn't actually a cold-hearted killer out for blood. He's loving, more than us plebians anyway. Would any of us try to transplant our personalities and flesh-searing wit onto another person just for the sake of making another person happy? Who would be selfless enough to do that? Cyrano is just an amazing human being. And can you believe that he's real? This play was based on his life!

Great stories always have protagonists, or characters at least you can relate to. Such is the case with Cyrano de Bergerac. He's not a teenager with silly problems, but his sadness and self-doubt are easily relatable. Not to mention he writes poetry for ze ladies, does that sound familiar? ;). But my favorite thing about Cyrano de Bergerac is that he can write you a loving poem with one hand while slicing open your belly with another. That's just badass.

PS. Cyrano is also a lot like House. Hamlet is a lot like House too, but if you want to read about House in play format, Cyrano is a lot easier to understand. Of course, the character House is based on is most like House, to be honest.