"Cyrano de Bergerac"

Author (or in this case, Playwright): Edmond Rostand

This play was originally performed in 1898. It tells the story of Cyrano de Bergerac, a proud and refined man who is a poetic genius with words - a gift that should make him irresistible to the ladies of 17th century Paris, where the story takes place. Unfortunately, Cyrano's romantic life is virtually nonexistent, due to an unfortunate physical attribute: his enormous nose.
Anyone who knows Cyrano knows to avoid mentioning anything about his nose, but a few ignorant strangers learn the lesson the hard way over the course of the play.
And of course, a monstrous nose hasn't kept Cyrano from falling madly in love with the beautiful-but-shallow Roxane, a woman who has declared she could never love anyone ugly.
I won't give away the entire story or the ending, I'll let you read it for yourself. I will say, though, that the ending of the play was a slight letdown. It's open enough that you can imagine everyone living happily ever after after all, but it doesn't really come out and say that they did. It makes you work for it.
But the story itself was a fun, hilarious ride through the the tragically absurd and hilarious side of Paris you've probably never experienced before.
Even though the play format was a little difficult to get into right at first, I got used to it quickly, and I enjoyed this read a lot. It had me laughing out loud almost every page. If you're up for something out of the ordinary to read, this one is definitely worth checking out.