Le Cid

Le Cid must be read in its first version, that of 1637, which explodes like a thunderclap, with the ardor of youth, the blaze of blood, the trumpets of victory. In just a few of the most intense hours in our theater, we fall in love, tear each other apart and liberate our homeland. A drama of the conflict between passionate feelings and the harsh constraints of moral and political duty, the play offers a freedom of tone and a formal audacity that Corneille, in order to conform to the codes of a classical dramaturgy in the making, would later endeavor to attenuate, but whose brilliance is preserved in the original text, which this edition restores.