Celebrating Edmond Rostand

Today’s Doodle celebrates Edmond Rostand, a Neo-Romantic French poet and playwright. His most famous work was Cyrano de Bergerac, a play about a chivalrous swordsman with an oversized nose. The play’s sentimental hero—plagued by a love triangle—went on to symbolize the spirit of the French. On this day in 1901, Rostand was elected to the French Academy (l’Académie Française).

Born in 1868 in a southern port city called Marseille, Rostand grew up in a wealthy and cultured family. His father, a poet and an economist, was a member of scholarly societies such as Académie de Marseille and Institute de France. As a young adult, Rostand attended Collège Stanislas in Paris, where he studied literature, history and philosophy. By the time he was 20-years-old, he had completed his first play, a one-act comedy called Le Gant Rouge. The play was performed at Cluny Theatre in 1888. Although Rostand’s first play received little fanfare, it didn’t discourage him from continuing to write. 

A few years later, Rostand created his first successful play, Les Romanesques, which was a parody of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. The satirical play follows two families who fake a feud to encourage their children to fall in love. When it premiered in 1894, it put Rostand on the map. Les Romanesques became so popular—even outside of France—that it was later adapted into The Fantasticks, the world's longest-running musical. 

Three years after Les Romanesques, Rostand produced his most beloved work, Cyrano de Bergerac, in 1897. To this day, Cyrano de Bergerac remains one of the most popular plays in France, and people all over the world still seek modern versions of this tale. 

Today’s artwork celebrates Rostand’s literary brilliance. More than a century later, his endearing tales continue to be performed and resonate with hopeless romantics all over the world.