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L'Eau des Collines #1
Jean de Florette
Au village des Bastides Blanches, on hait ceux de Crespin. C'est pourquoi lorsque Jean Cadoret, le Bossu, s'installe à la ferme des Romarins, on ne lui parle pas de la source cachée. Ce qui facilite les manœuvres des Soubevran, le Papet et son neveu Ugolin. qui veulent lui racheter son domaine à bas prix... Jean de Florette (1962), premier volume de L'Eau des collines, marque, trente ans après Pirouettes, le retour de Pagnol au roman. C'est l'épopée de l'eau nourricière sans laquelle rien n'est possible. Marcel Pagnol y développe l'histoire du père de Manon, évoquée sous forme de flash-back dans le filin Manon des sources (1952). Les dialogues sont savoureux, et la prose aussi limpide que dans les Souvenirs d'enfance. Quant au Papet et à Ugolin, à la fois drôles et terrifiants, ils sont parmi les créations les plus complexes de Pagnol. " Tri comprends, s'ils avaient bu l'eau de la citerne, c'est sûr qu'ils seraient morts tous les trois, et moi ça m'aurait embêté. D'avoir bouché la source, c'est pas criminel : c'est pour les œillets. Mais si, à cause de ça, il y avait des morts, eh bien peut-être qu'après nous n'en parlerions pas, mais nous y penserions.
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
108 people are currently reading
1779 people want to read
About the author
Marcel Pagnol
318 books287 followersMarcel Pagnol was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. In 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the Académie Française.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 125 reviews
October 22, 2016
As the dark season is upon me here in the north, I start revisiting sunny locations, like the beautiful setting of rural Provence in Jean de Florette.
I bought this book in Arles, in a perfect bookshop/coffee place/music store/cinema combination (in my next life I will work there!), and started reading it that same night, while still on vacation in Provence.
The language, the characters, the drama, the hardship, all of it is so deeply connected to the hilly, dry and beautiful countryside it describes. But you don't have to be in love with France to like this novel. The story itself is universal, and the characters come alive and make you suffer with them. In the end, I had to buy Manon des Sources as well, as it was evident that this was a novel that needed a sequel, however much I usually despise reading new installments of already told stories. It caused quite a lot of inconvenience for my family to wander through various small towns in the Côte d'Azur until we found a bookstore that had the novel in stock, but afterwards we all agreed that we had discovered more of the local life during those literary missions than at many sightseeing locations. And of course we bought books in all bookstores...
I adored the main character, the hard-working, loving, caring and adventurous soul of Jean, who invested his life in a dream that did not come true, partly because he was tricked by neighbours with their own long-term agenda, and partly because agriculture is a tricky business in itself, relying on nature and her moody approach to seasonal regularity. The novel left his wild and independent daughter Manon in a situation that was less than conclusive and satisfactory, and I experienced a cliffhanger suspense that I have rarely felt since I stopped reading thrillers decades ago.
Whenever I feel the stress and frustration of modern urban life, reflecting on the neurotic condition we all seem to suffer from, it is in a way a consolation to read about human beings in a completely different setting, but with all the emotions we experience. Ambition, deception, competition, passion, lust, vengeance and hubris are omnipresent in any human society, and life has ups and downs, successes and failures, regardless of whether you work in a capital city or on the soil of Provence.
Highly recommended!
Read it in French, with a glass of wine and some baguette and chèvre chaud salad! Joie de vivre, Bonjour tristesse - at the same time!
I bought this book in Arles, in a perfect bookshop/coffee place/music store/cinema combination (in my next life I will work there!), and started reading it that same night, while still on vacation in Provence.
The language, the characters, the drama, the hardship, all of it is so deeply connected to the hilly, dry and beautiful countryside it describes. But you don't have to be in love with France to like this novel. The story itself is universal, and the characters come alive and make you suffer with them. In the end, I had to buy Manon des Sources as well, as it was evident that this was a novel that needed a sequel, however much I usually despise reading new installments of already told stories. It caused quite a lot of inconvenience for my family to wander through various small towns in the Côte d'Azur until we found a bookstore that had the novel in stock, but afterwards we all agreed that we had discovered more of the local life during those literary missions than at many sightseeing locations. And of course we bought books in all bookstores...
I adored the main character, the hard-working, loving, caring and adventurous soul of Jean, who invested his life in a dream that did not come true, partly because he was tricked by neighbours with their own long-term agenda, and partly because agriculture is a tricky business in itself, relying on nature and her moody approach to seasonal regularity. The novel left his wild and independent daughter Manon in a situation that was less than conclusive and satisfactory, and I experienced a cliffhanger suspense that I have rarely felt since I stopped reading thrillers decades ago.
Whenever I feel the stress and frustration of modern urban life, reflecting on the neurotic condition we all seem to suffer from, it is in a way a consolation to read about human beings in a completely different setting, but with all the emotions we experience. Ambition, deception, competition, passion, lust, vengeance and hubris are omnipresent in any human society, and life has ups and downs, successes and failures, regardless of whether you work in a capital city or on the soil of Provence.
Highly recommended!
Read it in French, with a glass of wine and some baguette and chèvre chaud salad! Joie de vivre, Bonjour tristesse - at the same time!
May 2, 2025
Definitely a nice, well told story, a classic by the French author Marcel Pagnol, first published in 1962. Two main characters: the impressive and tragic figure of Jean, a citydweller who thinks he can create paradise on earth out of books, and he almost seems to succeed in this; and the hesitant Ugolin who, driven by greed, drives Jean to his misfortune, but at the same time suffers for what he's doing. In other words: Pagnol offers us the themes of the impotence of modernism, and the battle between greed and conscience. Beautifully told, with an eye for the idyllic-looking but actually inexorable nature of the French Provence. There's a sequel, Manon des sources that is a bit less appealing.
March 17, 2025
Pourquoi il m'a fallu 30 ans avant de découvrir Pagnol? Je revois les vieux ouvrages en faux cuir de La gloire de mon père dans la bibliothèque de mes parents "des vieux livres chiants probablement". Et pourtant j'ai adoré cette ode à la Provence, à la terre, l'attente de l'eau qu'elle vienne du ciel ou des Sources. C'est irrévérencieux, comique, tendre. Ça rendrait presque nostalgique d'une époque et d'un lieu qu'on a jamais connu. ❤️🥲
January 24, 2023
The hunchback raised his glass very high and said with a certain solemnity:
“I drink to Mother Nature, to the fragrant hills, I drink to the cicadas, to the pine woods, to the breeze, to the rocks of thousands of years, I drink to the blue sky!”
Marcel Pagnol was the first film-maker to be elected to L’Academie Francaise . I only started to watch his movies last year, but they made such a strong impression on me that I decided to try to find and read his novels. ‘L’Eau des collines’ started as a movie script by Pagnol, but he decided later on to turn it into a couple of linked novels. I for one am grateful for this decision, because his presentation is as good here as on the silver screen.
Pagnol is not only a natural, gifted storyteller. He is truly passionate about the country where he grew up: the high hills of Southern Provence, near Marseille. He writes with a keen, observant eye about the people and the landscape and about their often rough nature, equally adept at seeing the humorous and the tragic in their struggles.
The place where the novel takes place, a village called ‘Les Bastides Blanches’, modelled on the real ‘La Treille’ in the hills above Marseille, is the real shaper of both the characters and of the plot of the novel. This is because the limestone ‘garigue’, or high plateau, depends on water sources for survivability. It is a blessed place for lovers of nature, but like any other karstic formation it is very dry and porous, with few viable springs for agriculture.
This was the origin of the village. Fifty years earlier, a summer resident from Marseille had left a small bag of gold coins to the community, and this had made it possible to conduct sparkling water from the only spring in this part of the country to the square. It was then that the small farms scattered about the valleys and hillsides had been abandoned one by one, and the families had grouped themselves around the fountain, and the hamlet had become a village.
After watching ‘La fille de puisatier’ and ‘La femme du boulanger’ , the village of the White Bastions is instantly familiar [I read afterwards that Pagnol used ‘La Treille’ in his movies]. I could see it all even before watching the movie source, since Pagnol liked to use the same local actors and the same scenery in every adaptation:
Around the square there were a number of shops: the bar-tabac, the grocer, the baker, the butcher, and then the wide open workshop of the carpenter next door to the blacksmith, and at the end, the church; it was old, but not ancient, and its bell tower was hardly higher than the houses.
After introducing the village and its residents, we get to the ‘meat’ of the story, which is one of mortal rivalries over land and over water rights, with a touch of Montagues and Capulets thrown in, but without a redeeming pair of young lovers, at least not in the beginning.
In one of the books of the great Anatole France, somebody asks a minister, “Why do you fight so often with your neighbors?” The minister, most astonished, replies, “Who do you think we should fight with?”
In general, farmers are suspicious of strangers and fierce in defending their own turf. The Bastidians share in this trait in spades, nurturing their mistrust in their hereditary enemies from the nearby village of Crespin over generations, and considering anybody who crosses the lines a traitor. Such an event happened a generation before the book starts, when Florette, the most beautiful girl in the village, decides to marry a man from Crespin. The marriage fest, intended to mend the long enduring enmity between neighbors, results instead in an epic battle.
“The women were clawing at each other, the men were rolling on the ground. Everybody was shouting, and not a single kick on the but was lost!”
“And the two cures who tried to separate them,” said Anglade, “they would have done better not to get mixed up in it! Ours was laid out by a Crespinois with a great blow on the tonsure with a ham, and theirs received a flying chair, his head passed between the crossbars and he couldn’t get it out.”
Back to present time [1920s] , the son of the girl returns to the village for his inheritance, a piece of land on a hillside that has lain fallow for decades. The Bastinois, in order to avoid confusion about the few family names available, reference the mother’s name instead of the father’s, so Jean Cadoret is known here as Jean de Florette, or should I say unknown?
The reason for Jean’s return to his family plot is also the reason most of the people in Les Bastides will ignore him: namely the machinations of his new neighbours, known as The Papet and Ugolin, the last members of the powerful Soubeyrac clan, who have designs of their own upon the very same piece of land.
The Papet usually is the grandfather. But Cesar Soubeyran had never married and owed the title to the fact that he was the oldest surviving member of the family, in sum a paterfamilias, bearer of the name, and the sovereign authority.
As the most powerful older man in the village, le Papet manipulates the events to his own advantage. His nephew Ugolin dreams of turning his own farm into a profitable field of carnations, to be sold in Marseilles. But the only viable source of water is on the farm above him, owned by the uncle of Jean, brother of the departed Florette. When negotiations with the uncle break down and result in the accidental death of the owner, the Papet and Ugolin decide to hide the spring from the new owner under a wood and cement plug, turning the land worthless.
“With water, and with that land, if you plant a tomato stake, you’ll sleep in the shade a week later! He’s going to grow strawberries like lanterns, and cucumbers like cartwheels, olives as big as apricots, and vast incredible projects. And as for the carnations, they’re finished!”
The Soubeyrans rely on the villagers typical reaction to strangers to keep the history of the spring a secret, so when Jean de Florette arrives on his new farm, filled with dreams about the future, he is unaware of the true potential of his land.
“Well, look: after having worked hard – I mean intellectual work – after meditating a long time and philosophizing, I came to the conclusion that the only possible happiness was to be a man of Nature. I need air, I need space to crystallize my thoughts. I am more interested in what is true, pure, free – in a word, authentic, and I came here to cultivate the authentic. I hope you understand me?”
Ugolin, as his closest neighbour, plays the helpful hand to Jean and helps him settle in with his wife Aimee and with his daughter Manon. Ugolin secretly rejoices at the lack of experience of the young man, whose office job has ill-prepared him to a life of tiling an arid soil, but on the other hand he is deeply troubled by the hunchback’s enthusiasm and willingness to work hard.
This is the drama that unfolds under our eyes, as unmerciful and relentless as one of those ancient Greek tragedies: Jean de Florette puts everything he has: money, time, energy, sanity, into turning a profit from his farm. Some years, the rains deliver on his hopes of a good crop, but then come the dry summer spells when he is forced to carry water on his back from another valley. Soon his inherited money run out, he is exhausted, and even the efforts of his wife and daughter to help along are not enough to save him or his crops.
The Soubeyracs have managed to defeat the young dreamer from town, but at what cost?
>>><<<>>><<<
This we will find out in the second volume, one that starts a few years after the events described here, focusing on the daughter of Jean:
Little Manon was approaching her tenth year. She was all golden, with sea blue eyes too big for her face, and hair so thick that her mother could hardly extract the oak leaves, pine needles, or bramble twigs from it without a pair of scissors.
The wind of the hills, the friendship of the trees, and the silence of the lonely places has fashioned her into a little wild animal, as light and lively as a fox.
>>><<<>>><<<
I recommend reading the sequel immediately after finishing the first book, considering they were split from one movie script and really belong together.
Even based on the first half, and on the other movies from Pagnol that I watched recently, I do not hesitate to add this among my favorite stories. Truly memorable!
“I drink to Mother Nature, to the fragrant hills, I drink to the cicadas, to the pine woods, to the breeze, to the rocks of thousands of years, I drink to the blue sky!”
Marcel Pagnol was the first film-maker to be elected to L’Academie Francaise . I only started to watch his movies last year, but they made such a strong impression on me that I decided to try to find and read his novels. ‘L’Eau des collines’ started as a movie script by Pagnol, but he decided later on to turn it into a couple of linked novels. I for one am grateful for this decision, because his presentation is as good here as on the silver screen.
Pagnol is not only a natural, gifted storyteller. He is truly passionate about the country where he grew up: the high hills of Southern Provence, near Marseille. He writes with a keen, observant eye about the people and the landscape and about their often rough nature, equally adept at seeing the humorous and the tragic in their struggles.
The place where the novel takes place, a village called ‘Les Bastides Blanches’, modelled on the real ‘La Treille’ in the hills above Marseille, is the real shaper of both the characters and of the plot of the novel. This is because the limestone ‘garigue’, or high plateau, depends on water sources for survivability. It is a blessed place for lovers of nature, but like any other karstic formation it is very dry and porous, with few viable springs for agriculture.
This was the origin of the village. Fifty years earlier, a summer resident from Marseille had left a small bag of gold coins to the community, and this had made it possible to conduct sparkling water from the only spring in this part of the country to the square. It was then that the small farms scattered about the valleys and hillsides had been abandoned one by one, and the families had grouped themselves around the fountain, and the hamlet had become a village.
After watching ‘La fille de puisatier’ and ‘La femme du boulanger’ , the village of the White Bastions is instantly familiar [I read afterwards that Pagnol used ‘La Treille’ in his movies]. I could see it all even before watching the movie source, since Pagnol liked to use the same local actors and the same scenery in every adaptation:
Around the square there were a number of shops: the bar-tabac, the grocer, the baker, the butcher, and then the wide open workshop of the carpenter next door to the blacksmith, and at the end, the church; it was old, but not ancient, and its bell tower was hardly higher than the houses.
After introducing the village and its residents, we get to the ‘meat’ of the story, which is one of mortal rivalries over land and over water rights, with a touch of Montagues and Capulets thrown in, but without a redeeming pair of young lovers, at least not in the beginning.
In one of the books of the great Anatole France, somebody asks a minister, “Why do you fight so often with your neighbors?” The minister, most astonished, replies, “Who do you think we should fight with?”
In general, farmers are suspicious of strangers and fierce in defending their own turf. The Bastidians share in this trait in spades, nurturing their mistrust in their hereditary enemies from the nearby village of Crespin over generations, and considering anybody who crosses the lines a traitor. Such an event happened a generation before the book starts, when Florette, the most beautiful girl in the village, decides to marry a man from Crespin. The marriage fest, intended to mend the long enduring enmity between neighbors, results instead in an epic battle.
“The women were clawing at each other, the men were rolling on the ground. Everybody was shouting, and not a single kick on the but was lost!”
“And the two cures who tried to separate them,” said Anglade, “they would have done better not to get mixed up in it! Ours was laid out by a Crespinois with a great blow on the tonsure with a ham, and theirs received a flying chair, his head passed between the crossbars and he couldn’t get it out.”
Back to present time [1920s] , the son of the girl returns to the village for his inheritance, a piece of land on a hillside that has lain fallow for decades. The Bastinois, in order to avoid confusion about the few family names available, reference the mother’s name instead of the father’s, so Jean Cadoret is known here as Jean de Florette, or should I say unknown?
The reason for Jean’s return to his family plot is also the reason most of the people in Les Bastides will ignore him: namely the machinations of his new neighbours, known as The Papet and Ugolin, the last members of the powerful Soubeyrac clan, who have designs of their own upon the very same piece of land.
The Papet usually is the grandfather. But Cesar Soubeyran had never married and owed the title to the fact that he was the oldest surviving member of the family, in sum a paterfamilias, bearer of the name, and the sovereign authority.
As the most powerful older man in the village, le Papet manipulates the events to his own advantage. His nephew Ugolin dreams of turning his own farm into a profitable field of carnations, to be sold in Marseilles. But the only viable source of water is on the farm above him, owned by the uncle of Jean, brother of the departed Florette. When negotiations with the uncle break down and result in the accidental death of the owner, the Papet and Ugolin decide to hide the spring from the new owner under a wood and cement plug, turning the land worthless.
“With water, and with that land, if you plant a tomato stake, you’ll sleep in the shade a week later! He’s going to grow strawberries like lanterns, and cucumbers like cartwheels, olives as big as apricots, and vast incredible projects. And as for the carnations, they’re finished!”
The Soubeyrans rely on the villagers typical reaction to strangers to keep the history of the spring a secret, so when Jean de Florette arrives on his new farm, filled with dreams about the future, he is unaware of the true potential of his land.
“Well, look: after having worked hard – I mean intellectual work – after meditating a long time and philosophizing, I came to the conclusion that the only possible happiness was to be a man of Nature. I need air, I need space to crystallize my thoughts. I am more interested in what is true, pure, free – in a word, authentic, and I came here to cultivate the authentic. I hope you understand me?”
Ugolin, as his closest neighbour, plays the helpful hand to Jean and helps him settle in with his wife Aimee and with his daughter Manon. Ugolin secretly rejoices at the lack of experience of the young man, whose office job has ill-prepared him to a life of tiling an arid soil, but on the other hand he is deeply troubled by the hunchback’s enthusiasm and willingness to work hard.
This is the drama that unfolds under our eyes, as unmerciful and relentless as one of those ancient Greek tragedies: Jean de Florette puts everything he has: money, time, energy, sanity, into turning a profit from his farm. Some years, the rains deliver on his hopes of a good crop, but then come the dry summer spells when he is forced to carry water on his back from another valley. Soon his inherited money run out, he is exhausted, and even the efforts of his wife and daughter to help along are not enough to save him or his crops.
The Soubeyracs have managed to defeat the young dreamer from town, but at what cost?
>>><<<>>><<<
This we will find out in the second volume, one that starts a few years after the events described here, focusing on the daughter of Jean:
Little Manon was approaching her tenth year. She was all golden, with sea blue eyes too big for her face, and hair so thick that her mother could hardly extract the oak leaves, pine needles, or bramble twigs from it without a pair of scissors.
The wind of the hills, the friendship of the trees, and the silence of the lonely places has fashioned her into a little wild animal, as light and lively as a fox.
>>><<<>>><<<
I recommend reading the sequel immediately after finishing the first book, considering they were split from one movie script and really belong together.
Even based on the first half, and on the other movies from Pagnol that I watched recently, I do not hesitate to add this among my favorite stories. Truly memorable!
September 17, 2017
I've been carrying this book around for years (along with its sequel) and finally allowed myself to indulge in its dreaminess. The language is rich and evocative of time and place and Pagnol is a master of character and caricature as well as of dialogue. Ostensibly, this should "fire on all cylinders"; unfortunately for me, it fell a little short of its mark.
I longed for a much more layered and nuanced story behind Jean's ultimate failure; instead I found a man who willingly and blithely ignores his own limitations in favour of stupefying and (pardon the pun) harebrained schemes for success, with nothing more to his credit than his blind optimism, his harmonica and his book-learning. I didn't feel that Pagnol offered much more insight than this -- which ultimately turns Jean into a caricature of optimism for me.
While César and Ugolin's underhanded machinations cannot be ignored, it seems to me that Jean would have failed with or without their "help" as he stubbornly refused to submit to even a modicum of circumspection -- which in this case would have been the ingredient necessary for success. Circumspection in this case is most apt as it derives from the Old French, meaning "a careful observation of one's surroundings." Even a cursory glance about his surroundings would have told Jean his venture might be problematic given that he quite clearly faced the challenges of Nature against him. A more modest and careful approach would not have burned a hole in his pocket quite so quickly, nor would it have led him to the final grief of robbing his family of their lifeblood, quite literally.
I'm befuddled by those who speak of a dark and depressing tale, for on the main Pagnol paints some wonderful caricatures of both town jake and country bumpkin to great comic effect. And the depressing factor seeps in, for me, in the guise of rage at this man's stupidity. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the colourful journey in Provence, rich with Pagnol's imagery.
==
I longed for a much more layered and nuanced story behind Jean's ultimate failure; instead I found a man who willingly and blithely ignores his own limitations in favour of stupefying and (pardon the pun) harebrained schemes for success, with nothing more to his credit than his blind optimism, his harmonica and his book-learning. I didn't feel that Pagnol offered much more insight than this -- which ultimately turns Jean into a caricature of optimism for me.
While César and Ugolin's underhanded machinations cannot be ignored, it seems to me that Jean would have failed with or without their "help" as he stubbornly refused to submit to even a modicum of circumspection -- which in this case would have been the ingredient necessary for success. Circumspection in this case is most apt as it derives from the Old French, meaning "a careful observation of one's surroundings." Even a cursory glance about his surroundings would have told Jean his venture might be problematic given that he quite clearly faced the challenges of Nature against him. A more modest and careful approach would not have burned a hole in his pocket quite so quickly, nor would it have led him to the final grief of robbing his family of their lifeblood, quite literally.
I'm befuddled by those who speak of a dark and depressing tale, for on the main Pagnol paints some wonderful caricatures of both town jake and country bumpkin to great comic effect. And the depressing factor seeps in, for me, in the guise of rage at this man's stupidity. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the colourful journey in Provence, rich with Pagnol's imagery.
==
July 13, 2019
Would you be willing to inflict pain and suffering on others to make your dreams come true? In Jean de Florette, Marcel Pagnol indirectly asks the reader to ponder this question. For César Soubeyran, known as Papet, the answer is clear: he will stop at nothing to help his nephew, Ugolin, get rich and continue the Soubeyran clan. The Soubeyrans know that there is a subterranean source on a nearby farm, Les Romarins. They want to buy Les Romarins to start a large-scale carnation plantation.
Jean, a hunchback from the neighbouring village of Crespin who works in a tax-collector’s office, inherits Les Romarins and moves there with his wife, Aimée, and their daughter, Manon. He plans to raise a multitude of rabbits and grow vast quantities of squash to feed them. Although he knows nothing about farming, he has read many books on the subject, and he feels absolutely certain that he is on the road to riches. Unbeknownst to Jean and his family, the Soubeyrans blocked the underground source before the Cadorets even moved in. Unwavering optimism and grueling hard work are not enough to succeed when others have made success impossible.
This is a story about dreams and dreamers. Both the Soubreyans and the Cadorets dream of turning blue gold—water—into real gold.
Countless stories have been written about human cruelty. What makes Jean de Florette special is how Pagnol brings humour to the subject of greed and suffering. Pagnol had an incredible ear for dialogue; I laughed out loud at lines that show Jean’s pomposity, Ugolin’s stupidity, Papet’s craftiness, and the general xenophobia of the Bastidiens, who hate the inhabitants of neighbouring Crespin for no particular reason except that they are from a village other than theirs.
Throughout much of the novel, the Cadoret family waits for rain. The waiting becomes increasingly desperate and reaches a crisis point when they see rain falling on other parts of the valley, but not on their fields. Jean cries out to the sky that he is a hunchback, that his life not easy, and then questions the existence of god, asking “Is no one up there?”:
Alors, d’une voix puissante et désespérée, il cria : « Je suis BOSSU ! Vous ne le savez pas, que JE SUIS BOSSU ? Vous croyez que c’est facile ? »Les femmes en larmes accoururent à ses pieds. Il mit ses mains en porte-voix, il cria encore, à travers le grondement des tonnerres : « IL N’Y A PERSONNE LÀ-HAUT ? »
pages 213–214
People who grow food for a living are at the mercy of the weather. Their livelihoods, and by extension their very lives, depend on the right quantities of sunshine and rain. In the novel, there are periods of drought where Jean’s crops, the literal fruits of his labour, die. The inherent unfairness of nature is mirrored by that of human beings. Ultimately, Jean de Florette is a moral tale that puts forth a potent message: water is the source of all life, and the milk of human kindness is just as essential.
Note: I read this novel in the original French.
March 19, 2025
J'ai tout aimé.
Read
March 24, 2025Une madeleine de Proust tant j'ai regardé petite l'adaptation cinéma. Je redécouvre plus de 20 ans après cette histoire, l'originale de Pagnol, réaliste, drôle, rythmée, tragique. C'est fin, c'est bien monté, on s'y croirait, dans le sud. Une vraie lecture détente. J'ai adoré !
August 20, 2023
Comme toujours, l’écriture subtile, humoristique et authentique de Pagnol séduit. Ses récits témoignent un profond amour pour la Provence, mais Jean de Florette est bien plus qu’une simple éloge de ces terres du sud. L’œuvre révèle que les manigances, la méfiance et la rancœur marquaient souvent le quotidien des habitants de ces petits villages, et elle rappelle surtout que les rêves d’une personne, lorsqu’ils se concrétisent, se font bien souvent au détriment d’une autre.
January 2, 2015
You won't find any fancy stuff in a Marcel Pagnol story. He'll simply draw you into the place where he wants you taken, makes his characters alive before your very eyes, and then leads you to believe that like you he also does not know what will happen next or how the whole thing will end. When the tale finally did end here, there was an uncontrollable feeling of outrage. A great injustice has been done! And no one would doubt here that there'll be a much-awaited sequel.
Marcel Pagnol was not only a great story-teller but an astute businessman as well.
Marcel Pagnol was not only a great story-teller but an astute businessman as well.
March 7, 2022
זהו הראשון מבין שני הספרים הקלאסיים של פאניול. בעבר קראתי את שני הספרים האוטוביוגרפיים שלו "הכבוד של אבי" ו"הטירה של אימי", לאחר שראיתי את הסרטים. את הסרטים, הישן והמחודש, המבוססים על "ז'אן דה פלורט" לא ראיתי. בימת ההתרחשות היא אותו נוף פסטורלי ומוכר מהספרים האוטוביוגרפים – כפרים מבודדים באזור מארסי, בתקופה שבין מלחמות העולם. גם הדרמה העיקרית היא אותה דרמה – פגישה בין בני העיר לבני הכפר. רק שכאן הדמויות מוקצנות וכך גם הקונפליקטים על הקומיות הרבה הנובעת מהם ועל הסוף האכזרי ומכמיר הלב.
החוק השולט כאן הוא שכל אחד עוסק בשלו. האיכרים בני הכפר רואים את הדברים רק מבעד לפריזמה של העולם המסורתי התועלתני. כשאחד מהם עוזב את הכפר לשרותו הצבאי הוא מגלה גידול חדש שהוא חושב שעשוי להכניס לו כסף רב. הבעיה שהוא זקוק למים רבים בכדי שהגידול יעלה יפה. העניינים מסתבכים כאשר למקום מגיע ז'אן בן העיר התופס את העולם בצורה נאיבית ורומנטית משהו, בתיווך ספרים שקרא, ולו תוכניות משלו. הרצון לשמור על חשאיות בחברה הקטנה מוביל לקומדיה של טעויות המסתיימת בגיהינום של ניכור.
ספר מהנה מאוד לקריאה, כתוב בציוריות רבה. אינני יודע איך השפה במקור. המתרגם ענבר בוחר כדרכו בשפה מדויקת אך מלאכותית משהו ורבת אמצאות שכיום כבר אינה מתקבלת בברכה אצל הקהל הרחב. נהניתי מאוד מהקריאה וכבר אני ממהר לחלק השני.
החוק השולט כאן הוא שכל אחד עוסק בשלו. האיכרים בני הכפר רואים את הדברים רק מבעד לפריזמה של העולם המסורתי התועלתני. כשאחד מהם עוזב את הכפר לשרותו הצבאי הוא מגלה גידול חדש שהוא חושב שעשוי להכניס לו כסף רב. הבעיה שהוא זקוק למים רבים בכדי שהגידול יעלה יפה. העניינים מסתבכים כאשר למקום מגיע ז'אן בן העיר התופס את העולם בצורה נאיבית ורומנטית משהו, בתיווך ספרים שקרא, ולו תוכניות משלו. הרצון לשמור על חשאיות בחברה הקטנה מוביל לקומדיה של טעויות המסתיימת בגיהינום של ניכור.
ספר מהנה מאוד לקריאה, כתוב בציוריות רבה. אינני יודע איך השפה במקור. המתרגם ענבר בוחר כדרכו בשפה מדויקת אך מלאכותית משהו ורבת אמצאות שכיום כבר אינה מתקבלת בברכה אצל הקהל הרחב. נהניתי מאוד מהקריאה וכבר אני ממהר לחלק השני.
June 8, 2023
Un chef d’œuvre intemporel, que l’on croit trop bien connaître, et qu’il n’est jamais trop tard pour (re)lire. Des heures de bonheur de lecture en perspective !
March 6, 2014
Theme tune (think Stella Artois) http://youtu.be/KFNt8XYR4Yo
April 15, 2024
4.5 stars. A sad, well written, memorable novel about Jean de Florette and the scheming of two individuals, Papet, the village patriarch, and Ugolin, a farmer.
Jean inherits a large rundown property outside of Marseilles. He was a tax clerk and town dweller. He is a hunchback, hard worker and an idealist, married to Aimee and with a daughter, Manon.
Jean has plans to farm rabbits and grow vegetables for the rabbits to consume. He needs lots of water and is only aware of a spring on his property that is one hours walk away. Ugolin and Papet are aware of a spring much closer to where Jean plans to cultivate vegetables and before Jean arrives on the property to take it over, they cement over the spring. They are hoping to buy the property off Jean and plant carnation flowers.
Ugolin and Papet believe Jean will be unsuccessful with his farming plans and eventually give up, being glad to sell his property.
A novel that captures the spirit of the countryside, its people and its legends.
A great read. Highly recommended.
This book was first published in France in 1962.
Jean inherits a large rundown property outside of Marseilles. He was a tax clerk and town dweller. He is a hunchback, hard worker and an idealist, married to Aimee and with a daughter, Manon.
Jean has plans to farm rabbits and grow vegetables for the rabbits to consume. He needs lots of water and is only aware of a spring on his property that is one hours walk away. Ugolin and Papet are aware of a spring much closer to where Jean plans to cultivate vegetables and before Jean arrives on the property to take it over, they cement over the spring. They are hoping to buy the property off Jean and plant carnation flowers.
Ugolin and Papet believe Jean will be unsuccessful with his farming plans and eventually give up, being glad to sell his property.
A novel that captures the spirit of the countryside, its people and its legends.
A great read. Highly recommended.
This book was first published in France in 1962.
March 5, 2019
A wonderful book, evoking so beautifully the sights sounds and scents of the southern French countryside. The people are all brought to life with gentle humour which then provides a terrible contrast to the evil doings of the Soubeyran. I have read a few of the community reviews and do want to say that Manon is NOT a sequel in the usual sense. The first of MP’s creations on this subject was a film called Manon, which provided the back story of her childhood through flashbacks THEN MP wrote the two novels which are called L’eau des Collines and are clearly two volumes of one book.
Then these were made into the two films most of us know and love, thirty or so years after the original film.
Then these were made into the two films most of us know and love, thirty or so years after the original film.
July 25, 2012
my summer is not complete without having read Jean de Florette and Manon des sources, so I've read both countless times both in French and in German and still love them to pieces. vivid descriptions and colorful characters evoke pictures in my mind and I can smell Provence and feel its sun burning. this is perfect literature.
September 11, 2012
Oh dear, I give everything five stars! (because I only finish books I love).
I read this in French, with a dictionary, and slowing down like that so deepened my enjoyment. Watched the film at the end as a treat.
I read this in French, with a dictionary, and slowing down like that so deepened my enjoyment. Watched the film at the end as a treat.
June 17, 2025
Fidèle à lui même, Marcel Pagnol reprend des éléments d'une enfance passée en province à la campagne pour nous décrire une vie paysanne et douce. C'est toujours un plaisir de se plonger dans ses ouvrages
May 15, 2025
J’adore, c’est vraiment beau
June 23, 2025
Quel homme ce Jean quand même 🥲.
October 7, 2016
This book was a lot better than I expected!! It was definitely not my first pick in class, it looked really boring and the only reason I took it is because I didn't want to take too long picking. When I first started reading it, I was very annoyed and unmotivated because they introduced so many characters at once and the setting was kind of hard to adjust to, but once the story got going it was very intriguing and enjoyable. I ended up loving the randoms antics that Jean and his family would go through during their stay at the farm, and many times it hurt my heart to see them struggle to get by. In particular, I was very torn when they would describe how desperately Jean fetch water at the well every day, when Aimée broke down crying and admitted she already sold her necklace, and when Jean got sick for 6 days and all their crops died. And don't even get me started on the ending. The last 30 pages or so had me crying all over the pages. Manon and Aimée ripped my heart to shreds during those parts. And although it was also partly his fault, the fact that Ugolin started to cry without realizing it and then said "I'm not crying. My eyes are crying." made me lose it. It was a really light and fun read at first (in terms of the tone) but then the ending hit me and I was like "no wait take me back to the happy fun times!". That scene where Manon watched them unblock the main water source and screams/breaks down also pained me so much. I really could feel the desperation she felt in that moment. In general actually, every time the family struggled with their farm, I would always keep rooting for them and hope that they'd succeed in the end with their plans. Unfortunately that was not the case. I have some hatred towards the Soubeyrans because of this, in particular Ugolin for being an unloyal friend. Jean & his family were so adorable and sweet, I can't believe they ruined that for the sole purpose of watering their flowers. Ya'll could have probably just asked and they would have shared the water source with you!!! -__- Anyways, point is, I really liked this book and I would love to read it's sequel, which is called "Manon des Sources". Hopefully the Soubeyrans get their karma.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 26, 2017
L'écriture de Marcel Pagnol est authentique dans le sens où il relate le quotidien de ses personnages sans fioritures. Il réussit à les rendre vivants, à connecter le lecteur à chacun d'eux. Dans cette histoire, le fait de commencer en présentant Ugolin, Papet et leur projet nous lie à ces deux personnages, ce qui crée une dualité entre l'envie qu'ils y parviennent et le rejet de leurs méthodes.
On retrouve finalement 3 grands types de personnes, Jean qui est victime de son optimiste sur plusieurs points de sa vie et qui finalement est peut être le plus "amical" des 3 pour le lecteur (quand il ne se lance pas dans de grandes leçons théoriques ou chiffrées sur la nature et les récoltes), Ugolin qui est attiré par le succès et la fortune potentiellement issus de son futur projet mais qui a tout de même des scrupules à suivre Papet qui lui n'a absolument aucun scrupule à souhaiter l'échec de Jean, voire à le provoquer.
Ces deux derniers personnages sont repugnants en un sens, surtout le Papet parce que l'issue de ce drame est terrible mais cela ne crée aucun regret chez lui. Cela le rend encore plus opportuniste et méprisable.
J'ai hâte de voir comment l'histoire va évoluer dans Manon des sources, j'ai presque envie que le "karma" se retourne contre eux et en lisant les remarques et reactions de certains villageois dans les derniers moments de ce livre, il risque de se passer pas mal de choses.
A suivre donc.
On retrouve finalement 3 grands types de personnes, Jean qui est victime de son optimiste sur plusieurs points de sa vie et qui finalement est peut être le plus "amical" des 3 pour le lecteur (quand il ne se lance pas dans de grandes leçons théoriques ou chiffrées sur la nature et les récoltes), Ugolin qui est attiré par le succès et la fortune potentiellement issus de son futur projet mais qui a tout de même des scrupules à suivre Papet qui lui n'a absolument aucun scrupule à souhaiter l'échec de Jean, voire à le provoquer.
Ces deux derniers personnages sont repugnants en un sens, surtout le Papet parce que l'issue de ce drame est terrible mais cela ne crée aucun regret chez lui. Cela le rend encore plus opportuniste et méprisable.
J'ai hâte de voir comment l'histoire va évoluer dans Manon des sources, j'ai presque envie que le "karma" se retourne contre eux et en lisant les remarques et reactions de certains villageois dans les derniers moments de ce livre, il risque de se passer pas mal de choses.
A suivre donc.
September 14, 2014
Jean de Florette is a novelized version of the first half of Manon des Sources a film that the author had made ten years earlier in 1952. Just like the movie, the novel is a stylistic masterpiece. Nothing is redundant. Every paragraph plays a vital part in the work. The plot is very tightly stitched together and the actions of all the characters are perfectly coherent.
Of course, one should read for the pleasure not to admire the writer's impeccable style. Jean de Florette is indeed a pleasure of the highest order. It transports the reader to the fragrance of wild rosemary and the dry,sunny weather of Provence. The characters reveal their true natures and secrets as the novel pushes them on a steady course to their fates. The reader is amply satisfied a the end as the novel finishes with a glorious Aristotelian catharsis.
You will of course read the sequel Manon des Sources to see nemesis visited on the evil doers.
If you are an Anglophone your interested in this novel is probably the result of your having seen the movie with Daniel Auteuil, Yves Montand and Gerard Depardieu. If somehow you have not seen the movie, do so at the first occasion.
Lu en francais.
Of course, one should read for the pleasure not to admire the writer's impeccable style. Jean de Florette is indeed a pleasure of the highest order. It transports the reader to the fragrance of wild rosemary and the dry,sunny weather of Provence. The characters reveal their true natures and secrets as the novel pushes them on a steady course to their fates. The reader is amply satisfied a the end as the novel finishes with a glorious Aristotelian catharsis.
You will of course read the sequel Manon des Sources to see nemesis visited on the evil doers.
If you are an Anglophone your interested in this novel is probably the result of your having seen the movie with Daniel Auteuil, Yves Montand and Gerard Depardieu. If somehow you have not seen the movie, do so at the first occasion.
Lu en francais.
May 1, 2025
Je suis tombée sur cette œuvre il y a quelques années dans un marché de livres d’occasion, et depuis, elle n’a que ramassé de la poussière sur l’étagère.
« Jean de Florette » est le premier tome d’une duologie. On est au coeur d’une belle petite vie rurale en Provence. Le cadre de l’histoire est doté d’une douceur et d’une intégrité acharnée, mais les intentions qui sont suivies de près se retrouvent sur l’extrémité opposée, étant atteintes d’une laideur insondable. Dès la lecture des premières pages, le plan est centralisé sur un ton marqué d’ennuis: le complot machiavélique d’un jeune paysan et son oncle, la fondation d’une avarice sans scrupules.
Ambitions, rêves, potentiel. M. Jean connaîtra bientôt les séquelles de ses nouvelles amitiés… plutôt trompeuses comme l’infertilité déguisée de sa terre.
« Jean de Florette » est le premier tome d’une duologie. On est au coeur d’une belle petite vie rurale en Provence. Le cadre de l’histoire est doté d’une douceur et d’une intégrité acharnée, mais les intentions qui sont suivies de près se retrouvent sur l’extrémité opposée, étant atteintes d’une laideur insondable. Dès la lecture des premières pages, le plan est centralisé sur un ton marqué d’ennuis: le complot machiavélique d’un jeune paysan et son oncle, la fondation d’une avarice sans scrupules.
Ambitions, rêves, potentiel. M. Jean connaîtra bientôt les séquelles de ses nouvelles amitiés… plutôt trompeuses comme l’infertilité déguisée de sa terre.
December 15, 2010
I love Marcel Pagnol and his books! Their simplicity and sometimes their innocence are absolutely arresting. Although I enjoyed his Souvenirs d'enfance more, this was also pretty good. The only reason I'm not giving it four stars is that I thought there were parts where it dragged a bit, but I doubt any other author could ever keep me interested in a story about trying to find water! I will read Manon des sources for sure!
March 12, 2024
C'est un beau roman, qui parle d'amour et d'amitié, d'avarice et de rancoeur. Un roman sur la nature humaine, très simple dans son intrigue mais très riche dans ses descriptions et l'étude des personnages. Quel plaisir également l'attention qui est portée au décor et à l'environnement, le roman est très imagé et je pouvais me projeter dans la chaleur étouffante de la garrigue avec une facilité déconcertante
July 1, 2018
Ce livre vous fait prendre une pause bienvenue, surtout si vous avez passé une bonne partie de votre enfance dans les monts et des villages du Var où se déroule le drame. On peut comprendre pourquoi le vallon fertile attire tant ces paysans, mais on ne peut pas leur pardonner le double jeu qu'ils mènent...
June 29, 2015
Wow, over a year to finish this one. I lost my first copy when I moved apartments and just recently acquired a replacement. So heartachingly good. Makes me want to move to Boulder, Utah to raise goats in the hills.
August 29, 2009
One of my favorite French authors. Pagnol's writing is so clear you really get a sense of 'provence' through his eyes. An unforgetable story.
October 5, 2015
Was an entertaining read during a long flight between Poland and Canada.
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