Cyrano de Bergerac

The young cadet is brave and good-looking but has no gift for words, and Roxane longs for a lover who can speak beautifully. So Cyrano writes the young man's letters and, in a famous scene beneath a balcony at night, speaks for him from the shadows. Roxane falls in love with the words, believing they belong to the cadet, while Cyrano hides his own feelings behind his humour and pride.

The play moves from the theatre and the pastry shop of a poet-loving baker to the siege of Arras, where Cyrano and his rival serve together with the Gascon cadets, and finally to a quiet garden years later. It mixes comedy, swordfights and grand speeches with real sadness, and the ending is bittersweet. Brian Hooker's verse translation, first used on Broadway, is lively, readable and often very funny. The play has inspired many films and adaptations.

Romantic, funny and moving, a classic that rewards reading aloud. Its hero's mixture of pride, courage, humour and hidden tenderness has made him one of the most loved characters on the stage for more than a century. About 240 pages in the Bantam Classics paperback.