L'Aiglon

Librairie Charpentier Et Fasquelle, 1925-01-01. Hardcover. Good. In French. 1925 Librairie Charpentier et Fasquelle (Paris), 5 1/4 x 7 3/4 inches tall hardbound, red marbled paper-covered boards over red leather spine, five raised bands and gilt lettering to spine, marbled endpapers, 262 pp. plus poem and colophon. Covers moderately soiled, rubbed and edgeworn, with some fraying to tips and spine caps. Both marbled free-endpapers are curled. Neat June 1933 prior owner name to blank front free-endpaper. Otherwise, apart from a bit of age toning, a very good copy - clean and unmarked. ~SP10~ L'Aiglon is a play in six acts by Edmond Rostand (1868-1918) based on the life of Napoleon's son, Napoleon II of France, Duke of Reichstadt. The title comes from a nickname for Napoleon II, the French word for 'eaglet' (a young eagle). The title role was created by Sarah Bernhardt in the play's premiere in 1900 at the Theatre Sarah Bernhardt. In October of the same year, the play in an English translation by Louis N. Parker, premiered at New York's Knickerbocker Theatre with Maude Adams in the title role. Its first performance in London was at Her Majesty's Theatre in 1901, with Bernhardt again as the Duke of Reichstadt. Rostand had written L'Aiglon specifically for Bernhardt, and it became one of her signature roles. Rostand was a French poet and dramatist. He is associated with neo-romanticism, and is best known for his play Cyrano de Bergerac. Rostand's romantic plays contrasted with the naturalistic theatre popular during the late nineteenth century. Another of Rostand's works, Les Romanesques, was adapted to the musical comedy, The Fantasticks. In L'Aiglon he chose a subject from Napoleonic history, suggested probably by Henri Welschinger's Roi de Rome, 1811-32 (1897), which contained much new information about the unhappy life of the Duke of Reichstadt, son of Napoleon I, and Marie Louise, under the surveillance of Metternich at the Schonbrunn Palace.