Julian Meynell's Books

This is a strange combination of things.  It is a play from the late 19th century written in verse.  It is sort of a romantic-comedy and sort of a tragedy at the same time.  It has some quite clever scenes.  However, it is sort of quite a bit fluffy and is written as a crowd-pleaser.  Despite the fact that it is told in verse and has a tragic ending, its really not very deep.  It would appear to be a deep meditation on love, but instead what it says on love is at some points trite at some points confused.  Cyrano is a lovable characture, which might be fine but is really fluffy.

There are certain French writers, most notably Dumas, who wrote pure fluffy escapism but because they are French and have some sort of literary trappings, there is a tendency for people to think of them as literature, when they are really escapism.  This play despite the tragedy, despite the verse is really in that tradition.  Entertaining it is.  Great art it isn't.