The romantic myth of a lovesick poet whispering verse from the shadows overwrites a far stranger reality. Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, baptized in Paris in 1619, was likely not a Gascon noble at all, with research suggesting descent from a Sardinian fishmonger and a self-styled aristocratic name. A dangerous duelist, he fought at the siege of Arras in 1640 alongside the real d’Artagnan and took a sword thrust to the neck that ended his military career.

He became a radical libertine freethinker, studied atomism under Pierre Gassendi, and wrote The States and Empires of the Moon and the Sun, foundational works of early science fiction. In them he envisioned multi-stage rocket propulsion and talking earrings centuries ahead of his time. He died in 1655 at thirty-six under suspicious circumstances that may point to an ambush and forced confinement rather than a falling beam.

• How the theatrical legend erased the historical man
• The neck wound at Arras and his turn from swordsman to writer
• His libertine circle and documented relationships, including with d’Assoucy
• Conceiving staged rocket flight and satirical lunar societies
• Moliere’s plagiarism and the disputed conspiracy behind his death