EDMOND ROSTAND

Edmond Rostand was born on May I, 1868, in Marseille to wealthy, literary-minded parents. His father, an avid essayist, versifier, and translator of Catullus, instilled in young Edmond what would be a lifetime devotion to such literary masters as Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare, and Victor Hugo. Indeed, although Rostand lived well into the beginning of the modern age, many scholars contend that he carried on the romantic tradition of Hugo and other writers.

Edmond completed his secondary education at the College Stanislas in Paris, where he showed his considerable literary talent, then studied law, which he never practiced. While hiking in the Pyrenees in 1888 he met his future wife, Rosemonde Gerard, an aspiring poet of moderate success. Rosemonde’s family helped Rostand’s early career immensely: He wrote his first play, a four-act vaudeville-style piece called Le Gant rouge (The Red Glove), with her half-brother, William Lee, and published his well-received first collection of verse, Les Musardises, with the help of Gerard’s godfather, the poet Leconte de Lisle.

Cyrano de Bergerac premiered to a rapturous reception in 1897 and remains one of the great classics of nineteenth-century France. The flamboyant character Cyrano, rural hero and national champion, was a charismatic representative of the grandeur of France and helped a wounded nation recover from defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, the loss of Alsace-Lorraine, and a series of political and military scandals that included the Dreyfus Affair. Rostand achieved success with other notable productions—including La Princesse lointaine (The Faraway Princess) and La Samaritaine (The Woman of Samaria), both with the great actress Sarah Bernhardt in the leading role—but Cyrano remains the work for which Rostand is known. He spent most of his last twenty years in near-retirement at his home in the Pyrenees and died of Spanish flu in 1918 .