A PROVENCE BIBLIOGRAPHY

Travel Information

Literature

The Memoirs of Frederic Mistral, by Frederic Mistral. Translated from Provencal, 1994.

All over the Bouches-du-Rhone region of Provence you will see the name "Frederic Mistral." Born in 1830 between Arles and Avignon, he won the Nobel prize for literature in 1904 and was a fervent champion of Provencal culture, writing all of his books in the Provencal language and using his Nobel prize money to found a folklore museum in Arles (still open and somewhat funky but charming and very interesting). He wrote his memoirs when he was seventy-six, describing his childhood and the traditional country life that he felt was rapidly disappearing. Buy now at Amazon.com.

Horseman on the Roof, by Jean Giono. Translated from French, 1996

Like Mistral, 20th century writer Jean Giono has deep roots in Provence. A native of Manosque, he writes about the wilder regions of Provence, the rugged mountains and isolated valleys north and east of the Luberon. Horseman on the Roof is a historical novel set in the early 1830's during a great cholera epidemic. The young, idealistic hero is an Italian revolutionary fleeing from his Austrian enemies. His flight takes him into the plague-ravaged back country of Provence, which Giono describes superbly. The story is rambling and episodic, but quite compelling. Buy now at Amazon.com.

My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle, by Marcel Pagnol. Translated from French, 1988.

Another beloved Provencal author, Pagnol is perhaps the creator of what we think of as the typical Provencal characters. He was a playwright, film maker, and novelist working mainly in the thirties, forties, and fifties and his works are peopled with the characters he met as a youth both in Marseilles and in the hill country outside of the city. My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle (La Gloire de Mon Pere and Le Chateau de Ma Mere) are the first two parts of a four-part memoir. They are nostalgic evocations of Pagnol's idyllic childhood holidays with his family at their simple country house, now familiar to many Americans because of the recent films by the same names.

Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs, by Marcel Pagnol. Translated from French. 1988.

Also familiar to many because of the recent films, this two-part novel was first published in France in 1966. Set in the rugged but beautiful country just north of Marseilles where Pagnol spent much of his youth, the novels tell the story of an idealistic city family's attempts to rejunenate an old farm and their peasant neighbors' efforts to destroy them. The rich characterizations and strong story-line make for compelling reading, much darker than the memoirs described above.