Ouvrages à prix réduit dEdmond Rostand : Les Romanesques, LAiglon, Chantecler, La Samaritaine

Author: Edmond Rostand (1868-1918).

Publisher: Librairie Charpentier et Fasquelle.

Origin: Paris.

Publication date: 1910.

Binder: Bound especially for Raphael Weill Co. Inc., San Francisco.

Printer: L. Maretheux, Imprimeur (Les Romanesque), Phillippe Renourd (L'Aiglon).

Language: French.

815 Pp. 8vo. Four volumes. 3/4 blue morocco hardcovers, marble boards/endpapers, gilt upper leaf edges, table and or notes at rear of each volume.

Dimensions: .75-1 each (3.5 overall) W x 5.5 D x 8 H inches.

Approx. weight: 4 pounds, 13 ounces.

Section: Titles (pages).

Drame: Chantecler. Piece en Quatre Actes, en Vers. 136 Mille. 244 p. (limitation: 1 of 1000 copies), Les Romanesques. Comedie en Trois Actes. 41 ieme Mille. 153 p., La Samaritaine Evangile en Trois Tableaux. 38 Mille. 158 p., L'Aiglon. Drame en Six Acts, en Vers. 265 eme Mille. 260 p.

Provenance: In each book, stamped on front free endpaper (lower left), “Bound especially for Raphael Weill Co. Inc., San Francisco” and ‘The White House' (TWH) stamp adhered to some rear endpapers. Frenchman Raphael Weill, one of SFs merchant princes, built a grand store, The White House (TWH) for a booming city with an eager clientele.

TWH was the first department store in San Francisco; it opened in 1854 and closed in 1965, located at Post and Grant. In the 19th century, most bookshop sales in the US took place in departments of major department stores like TWH. Wholly plausible the book collection was acquired in the mid 19th century by a previous owner on a pleasure trip downtown SF which meant dressing up--hats, gloves and stockings required. TWH was a place to be seen, like its competitor The City of Paris, and was known for its French atmosphere. The purveyor defined good taste and satisfied desires for anything French. Certainly paints a colorful picture of the TWH shopping experience when this fine book set was acquired at TWHs book department located on the main selling floor of the grand store.

About the author and works: was a French dramatist of the period just before World War I whose plays provide a final, very belated example of Romantic drama in France.

Rostand's name is indissolubly linked with that of his most popular and enduring play, Cyrano de Bergerac (not included). First performed in Paris in 1897, with the famous actor Constant Coquelin playing the lead, Cyrano made a great impression in France and all over Europe and the United States.

Rostand wrote a good deal for the theatre:

Les Romanesques (included), produced (21 May 1894), was a great success and the start of his career as a dramatist. This play was adapted to the 1960 musical comedy The Fantasticks, a long running American musical.

L'Aiglon (included) is the other play of his that stands as his second most famous play, from Napoleonic history about the unhappy life of the Duke of Reichstadt, son of Napoleon I, and Marie Louise, surveilled by agents of Metternich at the Schonbrunn Palace. Produced (15 March 1900) by Sarah Bernhardt at her own theatre, she performed the trouser role of the Duke of Reichstadt.

La Samaritaine (included), produced (14 April 1897), was a play created for Sarah Bernhardt at her request due the not particularly successful La Princesse Lointaine (not included), a former play and lead role performed by Bernhardt. La Samaritaine is a Biblical drama adapted from the gospel story of the woman of Samaria. This play was more succesful and became part of Sarah Bernhardt's repertoire.

“Chantecler” (included), produced (February 1910), was awaited with an interest, enhanced by considerable delay in the production, which affected the enthusiasm of its reception. Nor did the Parisian audience enjoy the caricature of salon life in the third act. The anticipated performance of Constant Coquelin disappointed theatre goers due the actors untimely death during rehearsals. Chantecler is a cockerel and the characters are birds and animals. This was the great play of Rostands maturity, expressing Rostands own deepest feelings as a poet and idealist. (Wiki)

As Rostand's name became synonymous with his most famous work, Cyrano de Bergerac, and the comedy genre, he felt a need to satisfy his own desire to prove to the public that he was something more than a writer of comedies. The collection is an exemplary manifestation of his aspiration.