Cyrano de Bergerac, Savinien

Cyrano de Bergerac, Savinien (sävēnyăN' sēränō' du berzhuräk') [key], 1619–55, French novelist. Satirizing the customs and beliefs of his time, he wrote two fantastic romances about visits to the moon and sun—L' Autre Monde; ou, Les Estats et empires de la lune (1657) and Les Estats et empires du soleil (1662); these usually appear together, as in the translation by Richard Aldington, Voyages to the Moon and the Sun (new ed. 1962). Cyrano's swaggering personality, evinced by the many duels he fought over insults to his unusually large nose, was romanticized by Edmond Rostand in the verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac (1897).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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