Eine Kindheit in der Provence. Marcel / Marcel und Isabelle.

by Marcel Pagnol

Die Kindheitserinnerungen Marcel Pagnols in einem Band zum Sonderpreis. In den Wiesen und Hügeln der Provence mit ihren Zikaden und ihrem Lavendelduft verlebt der elfjährige Marcel einen Sommer voller Schönheit und Abenteuer. Da bricht jäh ein schwarzgelocktes Geschöpf in das Ferienidyll: Es ist das Mädchen Isabelle, das ihn die Qual früher Leidenschaft erfahren lässt.

Genres: France, Biography, Memoir, Classics, Nonfiction, French Literature, Biography Memoir

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Marcel Pagnol was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. In 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie Française.

Reviews

[Nigel · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Add another half-star please)

A wise and poignant childhood memoir from one of France's most popular film auteurs (Pagnol created the wonderful duology Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources), this is an elegy to his beloved Provence and the parents who reared him. Speckled with acuity both witty and sentimental, it takes you to a pre-WW1 world in which peasants still existed, and the traversing of huge distances on foot was undertaken unquestioningly by the petit-bourgeoisie. This reader, never having understood the boyish practice of torturing insects, and having been blessed with never needing to kill for food, felt occasionally excluded by the book's many references to both, but the author's adoration for the life he's remembering transcends any such alienation in the end. Look, it's not a profound read (as the TLS review on the back cover says, 'the Prousts and the Sartres may be admired, but Pagnol is loved'), but it's a romantic one, and you get to shed a tear or two at the end. A simple, beautifully expressed devotion.

[Adrianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another lovely French novel adapted to the screen. This is one case where the movie is almost as well-done as the novel. I was interested to see that while the movie version includes a very French account of young Marcel entrapped in calf love with a petulant young girl who uses him abominably, it was not so in the novel. I was happy that this was solely a "Hollywood" construct, because it had always been my least favorite part.

Pagnol's memoirs evoked in me a heart-rending yearning for the halcyon days of Provence at the turn of the 20th century. The many accounts of the solicitous care he took of his mother- even at such a young age, the undeniable sense of honor shown by his father, the friendliness of strangers, the seeming simplicity of the time, all left me wishing I could travel back and experience this first-hand.

I would consider this an excellent vacation novel. It is easily picked up and set down at will; it meanders pleasantly along without compelling you forward. It is simultaneously lighthearted and complex. A sweeping landscape of words for the senses. The accounts are riddled with subtle humor and familial affection that draw you in and settle comfortably around you.

This work has shot straight to my favorites shelf. I highly recommend the book and the movie. The film version in French with subtitle options is the best, if you can find it. A quick look on Amazon shows either a dubbed English (which would lose the beautiful cadence of French lyricism) or the original French without subtitles. Neither is preferably for obvious reasons, but the former recommendation may be available through the library.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautifully vivid account of Pagnol's childhood. The passionate rawness of childhood is so well expressed in these two books - even if you don't like the fact that most of "My Father's Glory" is based around hunting and netting birds - you will have to admit that Pagnol recounts the pitfalls and wonders of growing up with great detail and skill. I liked "My Mother's Castle" better than the first. Pagnol really has a way with words - an example:

"In a purple velvet sky, innumerable stars were glistening. They were not the gentle stars of summer. Hard, bright, and cold they gleamed, congealed by the night frost...over Tete-Rouge, invisible in the darkness, a big planet was hanging like a lantern, so close you could imagine you could see the empty space behind it. Not a sound, not a murmur, and in the icy silence our steps rang out on the hard winter stones."

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marcel Pagnol's memoir of a childhood in the South of France is perhaps one of the two or three best books ever written about childhood. My Father's Glory & My Mother's Castle: Marcel Pagnol's Memories of Childhood are bound as if they were two separate works, but I see them as a single continuum.

I had actually read My Father's Glory a couple of years ago, so I will confine my comments here to My Mother's Castle, which carries on the adventures of Marcel's loving family. There are two episodes which dominate this second volume.

The first is the character of Lili, a young boy Marcel's age who is at home in the wilds of Provence and teaches Marcel what he knows:

Lili knew everything: what the weather would be like, where the hidden springs were, and the ravines where you can find mushrooms, wild lettuce, almond-pinetrees, aloe, arbutus; he knew where, deep in some thicket, a few vine-stocks remained which had been spared by the phylloxera and on which were ripening, in solitude, clusters of tart, but delicious, grapes. He could make a three-hole flute from a reed. He would take a very dry branch of clematis, cut off a length between two knots and, thanks to the thousand invisible channels which ran with the grain of the wood, you could smoke it like a cigar.

A useful friend to have if you are a growing boy! The second is a long episode about the families weekend movements from town to their rural retreat at Les Ballons. The trouble is, that entails a six mile walk both ways laden down with food and household goods. By chance, the father meets an old acquaintance, a canal inspector named Bouzique, who allows him to follow the canals and cut a couple hours off their walk -- though it involves the father passing himself off as a canal employee. At one point, the family is stopped by a brutish caretaker who threatens to turn him in. How Bouzique solves the problems is a classic.

This is a book that one quickly grows to love.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's laugh-out-loud funny, sweet, and best of all reminds me how much fun it was to be a little boy. But it also features some quietly sophisticated thoughts on ethical dilemmas -- religion vs. atheism, embodied in Uncle Jules and Joseph, truth and lying exemplified in the tales he tells his brother and his rage at being lef out of the hunting expeditions, and the difference in the wisdom of the cities and the countryside. I thought it really interesting to see how many of the themes from Jean de Florette figure in these memoirs -- revenge by children, the secretiveness and poverty of the country people, and the unexpeced kindness. The brevi:ty and fragility of our lives is treated in a joyful and uplifting way.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely memoir of Marcel Pagnol's childhood in France. He was able to put such realism into his Fanny trilogy of movies because he really understood the people of Marseilles. I wish my French were good enough to read this in the original language, but...

[Bart Vanvaerenbergh · Rating 4 out of 5]

"De gloriedagen van mijn vader" en "Het kasteel voor mijn moeder" zijn boeken die een verloren tijd terug oproepen. Toen Pagnol ze schreef was het al verleden tijd.
Toch is het fijn om de sfeer van begin 1900 op te snuiven en bij de eenvoud die het leven honderd jaar geleden was.

[Wayne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just did a REread of these two wonderful books under the
Title "The Days Were Too Short" which captures
the Nostalgia of their subject without any mawkish sentimentality
...and therein lies their strength,
while retaining charm and humour and sorrow.
A brilliant recounting of Provencal Lives and a Childhood.

THERE ARE NO SPOILERS IN THIS RAVE !!!!

I read these two books under the One Title of
"The Days Were Too Short" in the early 1960's.
Marcel Pagnol wrote and had them published in 1957 when he was 62 years old.
He died in 1975 having written two more books about his Provencal Childhood.
I was surprised to discover recently that the books were originally written for children
and were quite brief...having read the first 20 pages I have my doubts about this!!!
The English Title really picks up on the heavy Nostalgic Feel that these books convey,
very probably not to children who are too young to be 'nostalgic',
but with adults this aspect of a Lost Past has absolutely WOWED them.
AND me !!! And Unashamedly so.
One has only to read the reviews here and Everyone is totally besotted
even though Most of Us never had a Provencal Childhood;
but we all had....a Childhood !!...and somehow they were all touched by a Magic of some kind.
Innocence, first experiences, gullibility, naivety, first happinesses and first griefs...
all are Common yet Unique - the environments, the families, the times, the child etc.
A Lost World...and Life will never have that magic again.
I haven't read them since the 60's, but I have NEVER forgotten them.
Mine were condensed by Reader's Digest...as if they weren't short enough !!!
BUT I have NEVER let that book go. It was something very precious to me and still is.
It has followed me around and always found its niche on my Bookshelves.
The memory of it is painful as well as delightful...that is because of the 'nostalgia' of course.
I could feel it in the reviews...and I read ALL of them.
Two films, named for the first two books - My Father's Glory" and "My Mother's Castle"-
were released around 1990 accompanied by very evocative music.
Of course I saw them, as I'm sure any Fan of the books would have as soon as they became aware of them...you see, we were actually ADDICTED....and still are I bet!! Happily addicted, which is what addicton is all about surely.
In a way I dread having to read them again...will I survive another exposure ??

WATCH THIS SPACE then !!!!

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a charming evocation of rural Provence at the beginning of the 20th century. Having visited the region a few times, I can almost smell the thyme, sage and fennel flowing from its pages.

We follow the story through young Marcel’s eyes. It is a tale told from the point of view of a child and must be understood as such. We uncover an idealised picture of Provencial France before film, TV, radio and motorised transport. We find free-range children respecting their parents and strangers being kind. Some have commented that the book is a little too sweet, but Pagnol appears to be well aware that children don’t have the sophisticated comprehension that adults do and we see young Marcel's world as he sees it, not necessarily how his parents or Uncle Jules would have seen it. And as we get older, we are perhaps a little selective with our childhood memories. As the writer was in his 50s when he wrote the book, he was able to allow plenty of of humour to creep in, in between the lines, especially when dealing with things like the church, atheism and lying to children.

I have to admit it was a little hard for a vegetarian to appreciate the enthusiasm for hunting and killing birds, but I did appreciate the carefree, summer holiday, summer holidays like they used to be. Adventure, curiosity, outdoors fun and growing up.

Marcel’s idolisation of his father is challenged when it turns out that Uncle Jules knows far more about hunting than Joseph. You’ll have to read it to find out whether Marcel’s pride in his father returns.

Marcel Pagnol is describing the rural world we have lost in a similar way that Thomas Hardy did in English, perhaps with a little more general happiness.

The book is autobiographical, even using his own name and the names of members of his family. Once Marcel got lost in the mountains, I couldn’t put the book down.

[Chrystal · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We left the village, and then enchantment began: I felt welling up in me a love that was to last all my life."

Marcel Pagnol's two-volume memoir is a love letter to his parents, but primarily it is a love letter to the hills and valleys of his childhood home in Provence. Most of the memories in this book are from the summer and early autumn of when he was 9 or 10 years old. Here he would find the landscape, people and animals that he described so well in his two-volume masterpiece "Jean de Florette" and "Manon of the Spring."

In these bucolic memories of his Provençal summers, we see the happiness of a childhood spent out in the open with a best friend. He also remembers the feelings of being safe and loved in the bosom of his family. At the end of the book, in a few short paragraphs, he mentions some very sad things that happened to these beloved people. But he doesn't dwell on the sadness. He wants to remember the sunshine, the beauty of those summers spent in the hills of Les Bellons...

"Such is the life of man. A few joys, quickly obliterated by unforgettable sorrows. There is no need to tell the children so."

[A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up hearing about Marcel Pagnol, as if he was an extended member of my French family who I hadn't met yet. My grandmother read all his books. My mother did. And my brother. But of course the books were in French and I hadn't thought, until recently, to see if there were any English translations. I'm so grateful there are! Getting to read Marcel Pagnol was, indeed, like meeting a relative, whose sense of humor and warmth and love reminded me so much of my family. I just finished the books and am genuinely choked up. This is a beautiful, moving tribute—of Pagnol's family, and in a wonderful, bittersweet way, my family too.

[Michael Manzano · Rating 5 out of 5]

This charming memoir was a wonderful glimpse through a child's eyes at life in Provence in the middle years of the Third Republic. Marcel Pagnol was as brilliant a writer as he was a film maker and this funny and heart warming remembrance was a complete delight for me.

[Bart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actual rating: 4.00

[Marieke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Echt Frankrijk in een notendop.

[John Dawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pagnol is well known in France, but perhaps less so outside France. These two short books stand as a definitive study of a rural childhood in Provence, a few decades ago. He evokes a time and place like few others. The enthusiastic slaughter of the small wildlife is probably a bit distasteful to most modern readers, but is otherwise a beautiful pair of books.

[Oceana2602 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like this book. I very much did not like this book. Or, wait, I can't really say that, I think, because I didn't finish it, although the book itself, from what I read, was fine. Nothing wrong with the writing.

What I did not like was the author, and since Marcel/Marcel and Isabelle are stories about the author's childhood (in Provence, as the title says), I simply couldn't stand to read the book. And I can also tell you (almost) exactly when I decided that I disliked the author so much that I wouldn't continue reading it, except I managed to forget most of the details (fortunately). But in short, there was a scene with the author and some kind of animal (I think it may have been a pig) that made me decide that the author was the kind of kid I HATE in real life, and yes, it probably wasn't his fault, and we can't help the way we are brought up and all that, and the author might be a perfectly nice person nowadays, but really, do I need to subject myself to reading a book about a kid I'd slap in the face if I were to met it in real life (except that I don't hit children, but I sure feel like doing it when I meet kids like that)?

No, I don't.

So, I didn't finish this. But, the writing was good for as far as I made it. That's something at least.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Looking at the reviews before reading this book I was very certain that I would like it and determined not to use the word charming which permeates almost every review. Well I loved this book and it is ridiculously charming. It is not twee or canned but in the stories of Maurice Pagnols youth in the Provence at the start of the 20th century you have a story so shot through with love, affection and humor that it positively oozes with charm. In fact the book practically leans over and tickles you with its charm.

The book is an unfettered and unlikely combination of a celebration of the joys of childhood, the love of parents and freedom. Absolutely brilliant with a punch at the end.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

My Father's Glory - A charming depiction of a simpler time as experienced through the eyes of a child. Pagnol really knows how to take everyday situations and imbue them with profound beauty and adventure. I'm sure the second volume, 'My Mother's Castle,' will be just as good!

My Mother's Castle - Another wonderful book from Pagnol. Whilst I believe that 'My Father's Glory' was marginally better, this is still a fantastic book and a beautiful ode to Pagnol's mother. Also had to fight back one or two tears with the last couple of chapters!

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marcel Pagnol is my husband's favorite writer and many years ago, he showed me the films based on these two books. I enjoyed them and was glad to recently find the two stories in English. They are beautifully and lovingly written with charm and humor as he reminisced of his childhood in Provence. I recommend it to lovers of nature, family and good books.

[Lindadonovan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the story of several years of the author's childhood in France, in the country near Marseilles before World War 1. I liked it very much; it shows the author's love for his family, friends and the countryside in which he lived. I'm sure it's long gone, but it was wonderful to read about.

[Carla]

What a wonderful, lyrical memoir of childhood this is. So many beautiful scenes, no sentimentality or faux humor— Pagnol does not turn his schoolteacher father and his young mother into cartoons, or mock his happy childhood — in the wild forests of Provence. Oh, and the ending is a knockout.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poignant story of Marcel Pagnol's mostly idyllic childhood.

[Timons Esaias · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is yet another volume that was brought to my attention by Noel Perrin's A Reader's Delight. As usual, it is with gratitude that I remember how this came to be on my unread shelf. A toast to Mr. Perrin.

Marcel Pagnol was a French director of stage and film, a playwright, and -- as these two books in one volume attest -- novel/memoirist. These are set in Provence, before the First World War, and are charming, charming, charming stories of his schoolteacher father, his brother and sister and mother, and other family and friends. They take a cottage in the hills for hunting and holiday, and many of the chapters are devoted to the adventures they had from there.

The chief concern of My Father's Glory is Marcel's concern that his father -- a novice -- not be shamed in hunting by Marcel's uncle, who is more experienced. The chief concern of the second volume is that the family is taking shortcuts along the canal, using a key unofficially given them by a canal official, and the landowners might make a fuss, including turning dogs loose, or even the police. Fear, friendship, honor and justice are the running topics.

Amusing, touching, and pleasant.

I understand that the third and unfinished fourth volumes may not be in print in English. If so, I'll be ordering them in the French.

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

At first, I was only mediumly enthused and slowly proceeding through this book, but then I was captivated by Marcel's subtle humor and impish, affectionate view of life. If you liked Christmas in Wales, you'll love this book. A young boy's love of the French countryside, family, and the freedom of holiday vacations which never last long enough. Aside from the love of trapping and hunting, which are a bit much for this bird lover, I was swept away in his delight in knowing the land intimately and his wry way of telling the adventures and horrors of a 10-year-old boy. I will miss his boyish wisdom and delight.

[Toni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this many years ago and remember how charmed I was by the author's memories of his childhood in the south of France.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

By Marcel Pagnol.
Set early in the 20th century in rural Provence.
The books are nostalgic, loving, funny...a paean to times gone by...a boy's idyllic days in a rustic cottage in the mountains above Marseilles.
You can smell the dry wild thyme and lavender and sage as he runs with his brother through the countryside...you can taste his mother's rabbit stew and feel her kiss goodnight...you can hear his schoolteacher father's attempts to turn hunting into a math lesson.
Told in the child's voice but with the adult's wisdom and awareness and fond backward-looking appreciation, these 2 companion books are a lesson on how a childhood memoir should be written, IMO.
I borrowed the book from the library, but I'll prob buy it to read again and again.
Marvelously, they have been made into movies, which are just as charming as the books.

[Lune · Rating 5 out of 5]

J'ai adoré l'ambiance que dégage le livre ancienne et estivale... ça fait chaud au cœur comme histoire ^^

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Me ha encantado. Es bonito, tierno, una maravilla de lectura. Sin duda recomendable.

[Pauline Wharton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful evocative account of the author's childhood in the south of France. I found the end very moving.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightful memoir of a unique childhood, tribute to the precious memories of his parents and family.