Cyrano de Bergerac: l’écrivain de la crise by Jacques Prévot (review)

Jacques Prévot has a distinguished record of publications concerning Cyrano. In many respects, however, this latest study is a synthesis of numerous years of devotion to the writer, albeit presented in a somewhat more trenchantly polemical form. For much of the book the critic attempts to locate the authentic figure of Cyrano, disentangled from the Rostand legend. In doing so, he treads an already well-worn path. The writer’s literary output is contextualized within contemporary cultural and scientific trends, and Prévot provides some interesting insights about Cyrano’s associations with fellow men of letters. All too often these observations soon become elliptic. The pioneering contributions of Kepler and Galileo are briefly set out, yet the influence of their astronomical work on the writer’s science-fiction themes is never satisfactorily explained. Similarly, the analysis of Cyrano’s same-sex desire (pp. 83–92) is perfunctory, and here, as in many other places, recent critical developments are largely ignored other than the assertion that ‘[c]e sont ces interrogations nourries des incertitudes de la science et de la philoso-phie que Cyrano va évoquer dans un roman extraordinaire, d’un genre tout nouveau, L’Autre Monde’ (pp. 108–09). Prévot is on firmer ground in a chapter dealing with the Mazarinades penned by Cyrano, and his glossing of these texts is succinctly insightful in summarizing the writer’s style: ‘un antimazarisme primaire et joyeux, Cyrano associe finalement sa réflexion à celle de ses contemporains les plus circonspects devant les dangers où l’ambition égoı¨ste d’une élite sociale précipite le royaume tout entier’ (p. 167). In the same way, once Prévot concentrates on the work rather than on the creator, during the latter chapters of the study, he provides many positive observations that encapsulate Cyrano’s ideology as well as his importance. In Prévot’s view, Cyrano feels alienated from the society in which he lives, leading to a ‘littérature de la dénonciation’ that is profoundly libertine. All in all, this study is a curate’s egg. While it constitutes an overview and therefore an introduction to the writer, the mercurial and often cursory treatment of topics goes hand in hand with some perspicacious commentary. The bibliography reveals some gaps, such as Alexandra Torero-Ibad’s persuasive analysis of Cyrano’s philosophical ideas in Libertinage, science et philosophie dans le matérialisme de Cyrano de Bergerac (Paris: Champion, 2009), and is notably light on anglophone sources. Notwithstanding the above caveats, this study will serve as an amenable starting point for any exploration of its fascinating subject. It also belongs to a robust body of criticism on Cyrano produced during the past decade and reflecting his enduring legacy.