ROSTAND, Edmond.

£35,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Cyrano de Bergerac. First edition, tirage de tête, number 48 of 50 deluxe copies printed on japon; a very rare survival in the original decorated wrappers, which are unique to the japon issue. It is the only such example we can trace in commerce.Rostand's verse play has, since its debut performance on 27 December 1897 (at which the audience were still applauding a full hour after the curtain fell), captivated audiences and readers around the globe and immortalized the 17th-century libertine writer on which its lead character was based. His heroic depiction single-handedly changed the meaning of the French word "panache" (flamboyance and reckless courage, from the cavalryman's plume) into a virtue and also introduced the word into the English language.

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