Sources for Cyrano de Bergerac The Man The Myth The Legend

It’s a bit of a mess in here, but you’ll find whatever you’re looking for.

Books, Papers, Articles

Most of the written works I reference can be found on archive.org. I made a list to contain them. I’ll list them here too:

The Play

• The play, in English

• en Français

Cyrano’s works

• Project Gutenberg’s edition of Voyages to the Moon and the Sun (uncensored version)

  • en Français (censored version)

• you can listen to Voyage to the Moon for free on LibriVox! Thanks Peter Tucker!

  • I’m considering contributing a reading of Voyage to the Sun myself. Keep an eye out for that.

• There’s also an excellent version of Voyage to the Moon with slightly more modernized language and a bunch of helpful footnotes and commentary by Donald Webb, I’d recommend starting here if you’re interested in reading Voyage to the Moon

• Other worlds;: The comical history of the states and empires of the moon and the sun : Cyrano de Bergerac : Internet Archive (1965 version, uncensored)

• A voyage to the moon : Cyrano de Bergerac : Internet Archive (censored version)

• L’Autre monde, ou, Histoire comique des États et Empires de la Lune : Cyrano de Bergerac : Internet Archive (1910, censored, en Français)

  • has cute illustrations by Albert Robida that I used in the video

• Le Pedant Joué

  • Preface in English on Cyrano’s life by H. B. Stanton, published 1899 UK

    • Le Pedant Joué itself is still en Français tho

• La mort d’Agrippine, tragédie par Mr de Cyrano Bergerac : Internet Archive, en Français

• Cyrano’s letters, UK 1658

  • en Français

  • If you want to read Cyrano’s letters but you don’t want to squint too hard at the scan of ye olde English book, the University of Michigan has an OCR’d version of the letters for whatever reason. The quality still isn’t great, but it’s slightly better.

    • I might edit these together into something legible and release them on Project Gutenberg. Keep an eye out.

Biographies

• Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac : sa vie et ses œuvres : d’après des documents inédits / par P.-Ant. Brun,… | Gallica

  • Brun, 1894 - first Cyrano biography, 240 years post-mortem (and 3 years before the play), en français

• Cyrano de Bergerac : Lachèvre, Frédéric : Internet Archive (1920), en français

• Method and Madness in Cyrano de Bergerac’s Voyage dans la lune Jean DeJean, 1977

  • (includes excerpts from the below Libertine Strategies)

• Œuvres complètes : Cyrano de Bergerac : Internet Archive

  • Cyrano’s entire works, collected and published by Dr. Madeleine Alcover, 2000, en français (I think this is only volume 1 tho, don’t know where the other volumes are)

• Cyrano : adventures in space and time with the legendary French hero : Addyman, Ishbel, 1976- : Internet Archive 2008

• Cyrano de Bergerac and his voyages to the Moon, the Sun… and the brain Dr. Rita Benkő, 2019

Other Nonfiction Works

• Libertine strategies : freedom and the novel in seventeenth-century France : DeJean, Joan E : Internet Archive

• Inscription and erasure : literature and written culture from the eleventh to the eighteenth century : Chartier, Roger : Internet Archive

• Charles Dassoucy, adventures in the age of Louis XIV : the life and works of Dassoucy with selected narratives from his Aventures : Scruggs, Charles Eugene : Internet Archive

Fiction

• The adventures of Cyrano de Bergerac; : Gallet, Louis : Internet Archive

  • Also titled “Captain Satan”. A completely original novel about Cyrano that predates the play.

• Aventures prodigieuses de Cyrano de Bergerac / texte et illustrations de Henriot | Gallica

  • Adorable picturebook, en français

• La jeunesse de Cyrano de Bergerac / H. de Gorsse et J. Jacquin | Gallica

  • Charming illustrations of young Cyrano, en français

• Glory Road by Robert A Heinlein

• So I Am Glad by A. L. Kennedy

• Pyrotechnicon: Being a True Account of Cyrano de Bergerac’s Further Adventures Among the States and Empires of the Stars by Adam Browne

Other Works

• Combat de Cyrano de Bergerac avec le singe de Brioché, au bout du Pont-Neuf - Wikisource

  • “The Duel of Cyrano de Bergerac with the Monkey of Brioche at the Pont-Neuf Brudge” attributed to D’Assoucy, 1704, en français

• Menagiana, ou Les bons mots, les pensées critiques, historiques, morales et d’erudition, de Monsieur Ménage, recuellies par ses Amis : Internet Archive

  • the first writer (other than the author of Cyrano vs Brioche’s Monkey) to write about Cyrano’s nose, Gilles Menage 1695, en français

• The retrospective review. Volume 1 (Parts I and II), 1820. : The retrospective review. : Internet Archive .

  • The first review of Cyrano’s work outside of France, shares some excerpts from Cyrano’s letters and gushes about their beauty, 1820

• The complete works of Theophile Gautier ; : Gautier, Théophile, 1811-1872 : Internet Archive

  • this is where the modern physical description of Cyrano comes from, and almost certainly what inspired Rostand, 1856

    • be aware that this guy uses some despicable language to describe Black folk.

  • en Français

Articles

The dictionary that mentions the beam of wood (1689), en Français

• The poem gazzette that talks about duke’s carriage being attacked (1654-01-10), en Français

• The article on Cyrano’s newly found manuscript - The Art of Persuasion, en Français

• Dr. Alcover’s article from 1999 discussing Cyrano and his homosexuality, en Français

Film

• Cyrano de Bergerac (1950) — The Movie Database (TMDB)

  • watch it for free on archive.org!

• Cyrano de Bergerac (1990) — The Movie Database (TMDB)

  • content warning: depardieu 💀

• National Theatre Live: Cyrano de Bergerac (2020) — The Movie Database (TMDB)

  • well, not film, stage

• Cyrano (2021) — The Movie Database (TMDB)

• Cyrano, My Love (2018) — The Movie Database (TMDB)

  • A romanticized retelling of Edmond Rostand writing the play

• The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962) — The Movie Database (TMDB)

  • Cyrano bookends this film as the custodian of the moon alongside a couple other historical figures

  • watch it for free on archive.org!

• The Truth About Cats & Dogs (1996) — The Movie Database (TMDB)

  • Janeane Garofalo is Cyrano, Uma Thurman is Christian, Ben Chaplin is Roxane

• Roxanne (1987) — The Movie Database (TMDB)

• Megamind (2010) — The Movie Database (TMDB)

  • you heard me