Book: Cyrano
Nov. 28th, 2009 07:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livAuthor: Geraldine McCaughrean
Details: (c) 2006 Geraldine McCaughrean; Pub Oxford University Press 2006; ISBN 0-19-272603-X
Verdict: Cyrano is a sweet, characterful retelling of the play.
Reasons for reading it: I have a not-so-secret and not-so-guilty passion for the Rostand play. And I think very highly of McCaughrean, so her retelling of the story seemed like a wonderful treat.
How it came into my hands: McCaughrean writes some of the best childrens books I've ever read, and some decent, but slightly rambly, adult historicals. Given its packaging and placement in the library, I thought this was going to be one of the latter, but actually it is not a romance targetted to middle-aged women at all, it's a very direct, almost literal retelling of Rostand's version of Cyrano de Bergerac aimed at teenagers. But anyway, I borrowed it from the library and after I read it, pointed out to them that it might find more friends shelved with the YA books.
Cyrano is really too close to the play to provide anything very original. It's a good version for what it is; the characters and emotions are believable, it's abridged to a sensible length with minimal damage, and McCaughrean displays her usual skill at conveying a sense of period and milieu. She also does a good job of bringing out the sense of some of Rostand's jokes and wordplays, without resorting to literal translation too much (yes, I do know the play well enough to know when she's repeating Rostand's lines and when paraphrasing.)
The book manages to be playful and almost melodramatically romantic, while still having a level of seriousness and realism. War really kills and brutalizes, duels are deadly as well as swashbuckling, and Roxanne is in real danger from her unwanted admirer. Also, I ended up weeping at the death scenes again, even though I know them practically by heart in the original; the pathos is very much there but doesn't descend into sentimentality. So all in all it's quite impressive, but I don't need even a high quality retelling of Rostand's work. I can see that it might do very well for a young teenager who liked romantic stuff and was at an educational stage to appreciate novelized retellings rather than original classics.
Details: (c) 2006 Geraldine McCaughrean; Pub Oxford University Press 2006; ISBN 0-19-272603-X
Verdict: Cyrano is a sweet, characterful retelling of the play.
Reasons for reading it: I have a not-so-secret and not-so-guilty passion for the Rostand play. And I think very highly of McCaughrean, so her retelling of the story seemed like a wonderful treat.
How it came into my hands: McCaughrean writes some of the best childrens books I've ever read, and some decent, but slightly rambly, adult historicals. Given its packaging and placement in the library, I thought this was going to be one of the latter, but actually it is not a romance targetted to middle-aged women at all, it's a very direct, almost literal retelling of Rostand's version of Cyrano de Bergerac aimed at teenagers. But anyway, I borrowed it from the library and after I read it, pointed out to them that it might find more friends shelved with the YA books.
Cyrano is really too close to the play to provide anything very original. It's a good version for what it is; the characters and emotions are believable, it's abridged to a sensible length with minimal damage, and McCaughrean displays her usual skill at conveying a sense of period and milieu. She also does a good job of bringing out the sense of some of Rostand's jokes and wordplays, without resorting to literal translation too much (yes, I do know the play well enough to know when she's repeating Rostand's lines and when paraphrasing.)
The book manages to be playful and almost melodramatically romantic, while still having a level of seriousness and realism. War really kills and brutalizes, duels are deadly as well as swashbuckling, and Roxanne is in real danger from her unwanted admirer. Also, I ended up weeping at the death scenes again, even though I know them practically by heart in the original; the pathos is very much there but doesn't descend into sentimentality. So all in all it's quite impressive, but I don't need even a high quality retelling of Rostand's work. I can see that it might do very well for a young teenager who liked romantic stuff and was at an educational stage to appreciate novelized retellings rather than original classics.
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