SOURCE: “Les Lettres: Imagination as Kaleidoscope,” in Cyrano de Bergerac and the Universe of the Imagination, Librairie Droz, 1967, pp. 80-97.

In the following excerpt, Lanius examines the fantastic images found in Cyrano's letters.

The most familiar arrangement of Cyrano's letters is Paul Lacroix' three-part division in his edition of 1858, entitled Œuvres Comiques. The three parts are: Lettres diverses, Lettres satiriques and Lettres amoureuses. Lacroix' edition is based on two mss, one of 1648 and the other of 1654. Frédéric Lachèvre followed Lacroix' division in his edition of the letters of 1933, entitled Œuvres Diverses.¹ Lacroix' arrangement is generally satisfactory, and although I shall compare individual letters from the three groups for their fantastic nature, there is no advantage in establishing a new arrangement. The Lettres diverses and Lettres satiriques cover a variety of subjects—Nature, death, dreams, contemporary figures, literature, whereas the Lettres amoureuses have but one subject...