JEAN DE FLORETTE and MANON OF THE SPRINGS

by Marcel Pagnol ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 2, 1988

Issued 25 years after publication in French, two novels on which the popular French movies are based. Jean de Florette chronicles the life of Jean Cadoret, a hunchback of immense wit and idealism, who has returned to his mother's home, Les Romarins, in the hills of Provence. With him are his wife (an opera singer) and their spritely daughter, Manon. The Cadorets' antagonists are the Soubeyrans: the elder Papet, a brilliantly conniving village patriarch; and his idiotic nephew, Ugolin, whose dream is to possess Les Romarins in order to do exactly what Jean Cadoret also wants to do: grow carnations and get rich. But without water, Jean's carnation enterprise is doomed--and to make sure that he'll get no water, the Soubeyrans corked the spring before the Cadorets arrived. Each day, Jean's optimism and intelligence are undermined by the harsh realities of peasant life, and the search for water eventually kills him. Then Papet forecloses the farm, unplugs the spring, and his nephew gets rich on flowers. Manon of the Springs picks up the story several years later, with Marion, her haunted mother, and a woodcutter's widow living in the cave of a sheepfold. The teen-age Manon has grown up in the wild and is now an innocent and fierce child of nature. Unwittingly, she has stirred up the grotesque Ugolin's passions, while she herself feels love pangs for the new schoolteacher, Bernard. Then the girl discovers what the Soubeyrans did to her father and vows revenge. She will eventually triumph--but not before that fabulous old rogue, the Papet, makes one last peasant revelation. Jean de Florette reads like an enchanted folk tale, while Manon of the Springs, more sentimental and with less edge, is a bit too well-made. Still, like the tastes and aromas of Provencal cooking, these novels are rich, simple, and delightful.

Pub Date: March 2, 1988

ISBN: 0865473129

Page Count: -

Publisher: North Point

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1988

Categories: FICTION