"Cyrano De Bergerac. A Play In Five Acts", by Edmond Rostand, Newly Translated by Humbert Wolfe, with decorations by Paul McPharlin, published by Peter Pauper Press, Mount Vernon, New York, 1941. First Edition.

Paper covered hard boards [edge wear]; brown cloth spine with a paper label; 5.3/4" x 9.1/4"; 133 pages + colophon, printed on high quality cream-color laid paper, very good condition.

A genius with language, but convinced of his own ugliness, Cyrano secretly loves the radiant Roxane. While Roxane is in love with the beautiful but inarticulate Christian. Cyrano's generous offer to act as go-between sets in motion a poignant and often hilarious love-triangle, in which each character is torn between the lure of physical attraction and the seductive power of words.

Cyrano is the play's eloquent and ardent defender of integrity, bravery, glory, and the pursuit of love and women. The play's main conflict- Cyrano's inability to tell Roxane how much he loves her out of deference to her request that he protect Christian- results from Cyrano's unwavering promise to keep his word.

Edmond Eugene Alexis Rostand (1868-1918), a French poet and dramatist associated with neo-romanticism, became best-known for his 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with the naturalistic theatre popular during the late-nineteenth century. Another of Rostand's works, "Les Romanesques" (1894), was adapted into the 1960 musical comedy "The Fantasticks".

Humbert Wolfe (1885-1940) was an Italian-born British poet, man of letters and civil servant. He was one of the most popular British authors of the 1920s. He was also a translator of Heinrich Heine, Edmond Fleg (1874-1963), Edmond Rostand, and Eugene Heltai. Wolfe's verses have been set to music by a number of composers, including Gustav Holst in his 12 Humbert Wolfe Songs, Op. 48 (1929).

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