Le Rosaire

Le Rosaire ("The Rosary") is a French play in three acts and four tableaux by André Bisson (1884-1967)[].

Widely known and often performed in English as The Rosary.

Not to be confused with the English melodrama The Story of the Rosary by Walter Howard (1913)

The original text

The English novel The Rosary by Florence L. Barclay (1862-1921)[1], was first published in 1909 by G.P. Putnam's Sons and became a bestselling novel for many years, even reaching the number one spot in 1910.[2] The first French version of the novel was published on by Librairie Payot et Cie, Paris.

The plot of the novel concerns an aristocratic young woman who, having refused to marry a young painter admired by all, forgets her scruples and agrees to become his wife when he becomes blind following a terrible accident.

Bisson wrote his original condensation and stage adaptation of the novel for the Parisian stage in 1925 and it was produced by Firmin Gémier at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe on 13 November 1925. The text was published by La Petite Illustration in 1926.

Translations and adaptations

The novel and the play have been translated into a number of languages, including English and Italian.

Translated into Afrikaans as Die Rosekrans by Mrs Carinus-Holzhauzen in 1929.

It may possibly also have been an earlier, English, performance of this play that inspired the poet and playwright C. Louis Leipoldt in 1911 to write the original English version of his groundbreaking and influential Afrikaans one-act play, Die Heks ("The witch") (See Kannemeyer)

The novel was also adapted into five films.