The Provençal Tales

by Michael de Larrabeiti

This appealing amalgam of travel and folktale had its genesis when the author spent a summer with a group of shepherds as their sheep grazed the high pastures of Provence. The 13 tales he recounts here were told around the nightly campfires; dating from the time of the Crusades, they define a land and its people.

Genres: Short Stories, France, Fairy Tales, Fiction

222 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 1988

About the author

Michael de Larrabeiti was an English novelist and travel writer. He is best known for writing The Borrible Trilogy, which has been cited as an influence by writers in the New Weird movement.

Reviews

[Mckinley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of French folk/fairy tales told by travel shepherds. Interesting blend of cultures and history in these tales.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A 1950s English kid takes a gap year in France, walks the transhumance from Grimaud to the Basses-Alpes with an umbrella and three thousand sheep, and purports to record the oral tradition tales of Provencal shephards as a kind of Canterbury Tales light. A gem.

[Robert Costic · Rating 1 out of 5]

This reads more like travel writing than a collection of fairy tales, with far more emphasis placed on describing locales and the quaint customs of their residents. The tales themselves are there but are unfocused, lost in a lot of details that are otherwise irrelevant.