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Le Cycle du Hussard #5
Der Husar auf dem Dach
Le hussard sur le toit : avec son allure de comptine, ce titre intrigue. Pourquoi sur le toit ? Qu'a-t-il fallu pour l'amener là ? Rien moins qu'une épidémie de choléra, qui ravage la Provence vers 1830, et les menées révolutionnaires des carbonari piémontais.Le Hussard est d'abord un roman d'aventures : Angelo Pardi, jeune colonel de hussards exilé en France, est chargé d'une mission mystérieuse. Il veut retrouver Giuseppe, carbonaro comme lui, qui vit à Manosque. Mais le choléra sévit : les routes sont barrées, les villes barricadées, on met les voyageurs en quarantaine, on soupçonne Angelo d'avoir empoisonné les fontaines ! Seul refuge découvert par hasard, les toits de Manosque ! Entre ciel et terre, il observe les agitations funèbres des humains, contemple la splendeur des paysages et devient ami avec un chat. Une nuit, au cours d'une expédition, il rencontre une étonnante et merveilleuse jeune femme. Tous deux feront route ensemble, connaîtront l'amour et le renoncement.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
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About the author
Jean Giono
334 books346 followersJean Giono, the only son of a cobbler and a laundress, was one of France's greatest writers. His prodigious literary output included stories, essays, poetry, plays, film scripts, translations and over thirty novels, many of which have been translated into English.
Giono was a pacifist, and was twice imprisoned in France at the outset and conclusion of World War II.
He remained tied to Provence and Manosque, the little city where he was born in 1895 and, in 1970, died.
Giono was awarded the Prix Bretano, the Prix de Monaco (for the most outstanding collected work by a French writer), the Légion d'Honneur, and he was a member of the Académie Goncourt.
Giono was a pacifist, and was twice imprisoned in France at the outset and conclusion of World War II.
He remained tied to Provence and Manosque, the little city where he was born in 1895 and, in 1970, died.
Giono was awarded the Prix Bretano, the Prix de Monaco (for the most outstanding collected work by a French writer), the Légion d'Honneur, and he was a member of the Académie Goncourt.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 152 reviews
April 5, 2020
I just remember this wonderful book all of a sudden while imagining walking on the roofs of my beautiful city to escape the crowds of "still not locked down" sunshine hunters...
So here's to imagining an unfamiliar plot, my dear friends:
Imagine being abruptly interrupted in your important political/social/professional/private mission because the cholera runs amok in the beautiful landscape of Manosque in Provence?
Imagine having to escape at all costs, while there are road blocks and quarantines and funerals and police wherever you look?
Imagine nature remaining what it always is: a truly wonderful reason to stay alive and enjoy the wonders of our planet?
Imagine meeting other odd travellers on similar or dissimilar missions, equally thrown out of their comfort zones by the invisible mystery that strikes seemingly randomly?
Imagine love!
Well, and imagine love threatened by an enemy you can't see, you can't hear, you can't smell...
Imagine all this in beautiful French!
There you go - if you are anything like me, you will have developed screen allergy by now, and if there are no roofs to climb for better views, maybe an almost forgotten French classic is a good substitute? If you can get through the barricades and conquer a library, that is!
Good luck!
PS: The message in the story is that you are much likelier to survive if you drink tea or wine! Choice is free. Combinations possible.
So here's to imagining an unfamiliar plot, my dear friends:
Imagine being abruptly interrupted in your important political/social/professional/private mission because the cholera runs amok in the beautiful landscape of Manosque in Provence?
Imagine having to escape at all costs, while there are road blocks and quarantines and funerals and police wherever you look?
Imagine nature remaining what it always is: a truly wonderful reason to stay alive and enjoy the wonders of our planet?
Imagine meeting other odd travellers on similar or dissimilar missions, equally thrown out of their comfort zones by the invisible mystery that strikes seemingly randomly?
Imagine love!
Well, and imagine love threatened by an enemy you can't see, you can't hear, you can't smell...
Imagine all this in beautiful French!
There you go - if you are anything like me, you will have developed screen allergy by now, and if there are no roofs to climb for better views, maybe an almost forgotten French classic is a good substitute? If you can get through the barricades and conquer a library, that is!
Good luck!
PS: The message in the story is that you are much likelier to survive if you drink tea or wine! Choice is free. Combinations possible.
July 13, 2025
Ten years of practice and three hundred years of inherited arrogance
OR
Angelo's Provencal Odyssey.
Angelo, the natural son of a very wealthy duchess, is at the crossroads of two worlds. An illegitimate aristocrat, a revolutionary lavish on the money he hasn't earned, a humanist at heart who likes to wield a sword, he crosses borders and seeks his home. Yet, Angelo is looking for himself, too. He aims to define himself by defending a cause, that of the people, of their freedom, but he doubts it. Does Angelo challenge himself to fight for the cause or justify his pride? Above all, he questions the people because the circumstances do not give them a positive image.
Angelo engaged in a Piedmontese revolutionary action and fled his country. He went to seek money in Provence from a friend, Giuseppe, his foster brother, and was surprised there by a cholera epidemic. The social order implodes under the ravages of the disease. The people indulge in the worst abuses: lynchings, thefts, and settling scores of all kinds in a growing collective hysteria.
It is not the only man who rises against man; soon, nature seeks to eliminate him. Birds, crows, pigeons, and even nightingales or sparrows attack corpses and even the living when they pretend to doze off! The sun is a natural furnace that makes a sky of plaster, knocking down everything that lives. Towards the end of the book, the rains are a deluge worthy of Noah. Everything stands against everyone, and everyone fears or fights each other. Man and nature seem to return to the original chaos.
In this turmoil, everyone is trying to survive as best they can. Angelo remains faithful to his chivalrous ways, even if they sometimes find bizarre expressions in the route, so he spends an indefinite number of days or weeks. - to wash soiled corpses abandoned in the middle of the street while waiting for the part of the "Crows" to take them to the stake. Idealistic, fiery, loving to fight - an intelligent 112 because inhabited by doubt - he goes through these trials. This idealism protects him because, throughout the book, it becomes increasingly clear that cholera is mental and psychological. If it is not imaginary, it is a kind of decay to which man lets himself go. That was a disease of civilization, an evil world, or a path to failure always open to man. But, unless you continue to believe in it and thus be protected from these miasmas, as Angelo does, he doubts but does not despair. Whatever the reality behind that word, cholera has no hold on him.
One will remember, of course, Giono's experiments. Son of an anarchist shoemaker - we talk a lot about boots in Le Hussard - and a seamstress, he spent the whole of the First World War in the trenches and was in all the great battles. He saw, up close, bestiality with a human face, even nature - rats, dysentery, mud - rising against man. He lived among people trying to survive in this horror. Is cholera an image of this? After the war, Giono flirted with communism but quickly turned away, preferring a small rural community to the proletarian revolution. The man, who had no clear political affiliation, made a few missteps during the occupation, suffered from it, and then turned away entirely from any political or social considerations. It was this man, the post-war Giono, who wrote Le Hussard. He shows a man who doubts, yes, but who remains true to himself and his convictions in a world that knows beauty but also episodes of profound horror.
OR
Angelo's Provencal Odyssey.
Angelo, the natural son of a very wealthy duchess, is at the crossroads of two worlds. An illegitimate aristocrat, a revolutionary lavish on the money he hasn't earned, a humanist at heart who likes to wield a sword, he crosses borders and seeks his home. Yet, Angelo is looking for himself, too. He aims to define himself by defending a cause, that of the people, of their freedom, but he doubts it. Does Angelo challenge himself to fight for the cause or justify his pride? Above all, he questions the people because the circumstances do not give them a positive image.
Angelo engaged in a Piedmontese revolutionary action and fled his country. He went to seek money in Provence from a friend, Giuseppe, his foster brother, and was surprised there by a cholera epidemic. The social order implodes under the ravages of the disease. The people indulge in the worst abuses: lynchings, thefts, and settling scores of all kinds in a growing collective hysteria.
It is not the only man who rises against man; soon, nature seeks to eliminate him. Birds, crows, pigeons, and even nightingales or sparrows attack corpses and even the living when they pretend to doze off! The sun is a natural furnace that makes a sky of plaster, knocking down everything that lives. Towards the end of the book, the rains are a deluge worthy of Noah. Everything stands against everyone, and everyone fears or fights each other. Man and nature seem to return to the original chaos.
In this turmoil, everyone is trying to survive as best they can. Angelo remains faithful to his chivalrous ways, even if they sometimes find bizarre expressions in the route, so he spends an indefinite number of days or weeks. - to wash soiled corpses abandoned in the middle of the street while waiting for the part of the "Crows" to take them to the stake. Idealistic, fiery, loving to fight - an intelligent 112 because inhabited by doubt - he goes through these trials. This idealism protects him because, throughout the book, it becomes increasingly clear that cholera is mental and psychological. If it is not imaginary, it is a kind of decay to which man lets himself go. That was a disease of civilization, an evil world, or a path to failure always open to man. But, unless you continue to believe in it and thus be protected from these miasmas, as Angelo does, he doubts but does not despair. Whatever the reality behind that word, cholera has no hold on him.
One will remember, of course, Giono's experiments. Son of an anarchist shoemaker - we talk a lot about boots in Le Hussard - and a seamstress, he spent the whole of the First World War in the trenches and was in all the great battles. He saw, up close, bestiality with a human face, even nature - rats, dysentery, mud - rising against man. He lived among people trying to survive in this horror. Is cholera an image of this? After the war, Giono flirted with communism but quickly turned away, preferring a small rural community to the proletarian revolution. The man, who had no clear political affiliation, made a few missteps during the occupation, suffered from it, and then turned away entirely from any political or social considerations. It was this man, the post-war Giono, who wrote Le Hussard. He shows a man who doubts, yes, but who remains true to himself and his convictions in a world that knows beauty but also episodes of profound horror.
June 29, 2019
Wonderfully written novel with a strong element of the picaresque. There is a touch of allegory/parable, adventure, romance (understated and hinted at), geography and history. The descriptions are vivid and you can feel the heat of southern France.
The main protagonist is Angelo Pardi, a piedmontese colonel (but still very young), who has temporarily left Italy and is wandering around southern France looking for a friend. He is doing this in the middle of a cholera epidemic and death is ever present in the book. It is also high summer and very hot. He comes across a wide variety of people, all affected by the epidemic (for good or ill) and has a variety of companions and some clashes with authority and with frightened natives. One particular companion, a young woman stays with him for the last half of the book.
The vivid descriptions are what make the book. There are some truly horrific descriptions of death by cholera. The counrtyside is described in detail and vividly. Food is an important element and odours are almost smellable and the wine tasteable. Wildlife (most especially birds) come to life in an exraordinary way; look out for the swallows and nightingales! The heat can almost be felt; even in a cold August/September.
The characters Angelo comes across are all to human and appear and disappear or die very quickly. There is a strong streak of compassion running through the book. Angelo is a hero in the Jean Valjean mould who has little care for his own safety. The villians (in authority and ordinary people) are understandable and all too human.
I was worried towards the end as I thought that the author might well give way to the temptation to tie up loose ends or go for the obvious. But he didn't and the ending was perfect.
The main protagonist is Angelo Pardi, a piedmontese colonel (but still very young), who has temporarily left Italy and is wandering around southern France looking for a friend. He is doing this in the middle of a cholera epidemic and death is ever present in the book. It is also high summer and very hot. He comes across a wide variety of people, all affected by the epidemic (for good or ill) and has a variety of companions and some clashes with authority and with frightened natives. One particular companion, a young woman stays with him for the last half of the book.
The vivid descriptions are what make the book. There are some truly horrific descriptions of death by cholera. The counrtyside is described in detail and vividly. Food is an important element and odours are almost smellable and the wine tasteable. Wildlife (most especially birds) come to life in an exraordinary way; look out for the swallows and nightingales! The heat can almost be felt; even in a cold August/September.
The characters Angelo comes across are all to human and appear and disappear or die very quickly. There is a strong streak of compassion running through the book. Angelo is a hero in the Jean Valjean mould who has little care for his own safety. The villians (in authority and ordinary people) are understandable and all too human.
I was worried towards the end as I thought that the author might well give way to the temptation to tie up loose ends or go for the obvious. But he didn't and the ending was perfect.
April 28, 2023
Vă interesează încă o descriere a unei epidemii? Mă îndoiesc. Dar să trecem în lista noastră (vezi mai jos!) și acest titlu.
Romanul lui Giono foarte pe scurt: Angelo Pardi (24 de ani) îl ucide într-un duel pe baronul austriac Schwartz. Ca să nu fie arestat și închis, fuge din Italia. Mai e și carbonar. În Franța e o epidemie de holeră (sîntem în 1838). Străbate Provența și dă ajutor. Autoritățile și medicii au dispărut. Scapă cine poate. Angelo are un suflet mare și curajos. Trăiește o vreme pe acoperișurile caselor din orașul Monosque. Spală morții împreună cu o călugăriță. O îngrijește pe tînăra Pauline de Théus pînă cînd fata se face bine. Se îndrăgostește de ea. Etc.
Mai mult nu am voie să spun. Dacă veți avea răbdare, veți citi... Dacă vreți să știți cum e scris romanul, gîndiți-vă la stilul lui Stendhal și la „Mănăstirea din Parma”.
Cărți despre epidemii:
1. Boccaccio, Decameronul (1348-1353) - ciumă bubonică,
2. Daniel Defoe, Jurnal din anul ciumei (1722)
3. Thomas Mann, Moartea la Veneția (1912) - holeră,
4. Albert Camus, Ciuma (1948)
5. Marguerite Yourcenar, Piatra filosofală / L'Œuvre au noir (1968) - ciumă,
6. José Saramago, Orbirea (1995) - morb nedefinit, produce orbire,
7. Philip Roth, Nemesis (2010) - poliomielită.
Romanul lui Giono foarte pe scurt: Angelo Pardi (24 de ani) îl ucide într-un duel pe baronul austriac Schwartz. Ca să nu fie arestat și închis, fuge din Italia. Mai e și carbonar. În Franța e o epidemie de holeră (sîntem în 1838). Străbate Provența și dă ajutor. Autoritățile și medicii au dispărut. Scapă cine poate. Angelo are un suflet mare și curajos. Trăiește o vreme pe acoperișurile caselor din orașul Monosque. Spală morții împreună cu o călugăriță. O îngrijește pe tînăra Pauline de Théus pînă cînd fata se face bine. Se îndrăgostește de ea. Etc.
Mai mult nu am voie să spun. Dacă veți avea răbdare, veți citi... Dacă vreți să știți cum e scris romanul, gîndiți-vă la stilul lui Stendhal și la „Mănăstirea din Parma”.
Cărți despre epidemii:
1. Boccaccio, Decameronul (1348-1353) - ciumă bubonică,
2. Daniel Defoe, Jurnal din anul ciumei (1722)
3. Thomas Mann, Moartea la Veneția (1912) - holeră,
4. Albert Camus, Ciuma (1948)
5. Marguerite Yourcenar, Piatra filosofală / L'Œuvre au noir (1968) - ciumă,
6. José Saramago, Orbirea (1995) - morb nedefinit, produce orbire,
7. Philip Roth, Nemesis (2010) - poliomielită.
December 26, 2023
Tiempos de cólera en la Provenza francesa. Un húsar solitario se convierte, a su manera, en un héroe. Entre cadáveres, agonías y podredumbre renacerán la compasión y el amor.
Ante todo, un libro preciosamente escrito. Cada frase parece largamente meditada. Un ambiente sombrío, oscuro con descripciones agobiantes e insistentes sobre los últimos estertores de las víctimas del cólera. No es una novela de amor y ni siquiera es una historia agradable. Es una lección de buena literatura.
Ante todo, un libro preciosamente escrito. Cada frase parece largamente meditada. Un ambiente sombrío, oscuro con descripciones agobiantes e insistentes sobre los últimos estertores de las víctimas del cólera. No es una novela de amor y ni siquiera es una historia agradable. Es una lección de buena literatura.
July 13, 2011
Reading this was a dream. An absolutely gorgeous fantastical dream. The horseman, Angelo, who has had to leave Italy because of a duel in which he has killed a man, travels though the French countryside which is festering with a cholera epidemic, and he moves like a dream of light - which sounds so over the top I'd be embarrassed but for the sheer truth of it. I don't know that I've ever read a more appealing character (I won't even try to describe him as it wouldn't do him a bit of justice). The people he meets, the French countryside itself - all written of with a breathtakingly light touch. The images it put in my mind! Torches on a distant hillside, the heatwave popping the sap in the trees along the road, Angelo running along the rooftops with the cat following him - there was so much charm and thoughtfulness in this book (yes, I realize that I'm gushing, and I don't care)! And the ugliness of the epidemic? Believe me, every excruciating detail is included - the horrific smells, the paroxysms, the black grinning faces - along with all the ugliness it brings out in people who live in fear of it.
Here's a little taste:
"My eyes always look at things through a magnifying glass, Angelo told himself. Everything I see is magnified at least ten times, and naturally I do ten times too much. Just because the night is painted in all the colors of the inferno, there's no reason to imagine I'm going to see the swift mountain leopard arrive, and the she-wolf and Virgil and 'Abandon hope all ye who enter here.' It's nothing but the reflections from the fires these people have lit because they're afraid of the night. It's quite simple to a simple man. But I'm not simple: I'm double, triple, even centuple."
This book is my idea of everything great in the picaresque tradition. Loved it. A couple chapters dragged in the latter part, but the end was exquisite - exactly what I hoped for. Highly recommended.
Here's a little taste:
"My eyes always look at things through a magnifying glass, Angelo told himself. Everything I see is magnified at least ten times, and naturally I do ten times too much. Just because the night is painted in all the colors of the inferno, there's no reason to imagine I'm going to see the swift mountain leopard arrive, and the she-wolf and Virgil and 'Abandon hope all ye who enter here.' It's nothing but the reflections from the fires these people have lit because they're afraid of the night. It's quite simple to a simple man. But I'm not simple: I'm double, triple, even centuple."
This book is my idea of everything great in the picaresque tradition. Loved it. A couple chapters dragged in the latter part, but the end was exquisite - exactly what I hoped for. Highly recommended.
September 2, 2021
★★★½
«Se non osa guardare in faccia questo spettacolo, signora, credo che le convenga strapparsi gli occhi. Questo le eviterà la fatica di tenersi le mani sulla fronte. Finito il colera, ci resteranno da affrontare gli specchi.»
1831.
Angelo Pardi, colonnello degli ussari affiliato alla carboneria, è in fuga dall'Italia e attraversa la Provenza per raggiungere Giuseppe, suo fratello di latte.
E’ un’estate torrida quasi all'inverosimile ed il caldo nauseante non dà tregua in un paesaggio descritto fin nei minimi particolari e in tutta la gamma di colori possibili oppure solo immaginabili con un volo di fantasia.
Ma è un aroma dolciastro -di primo acchito non riconosciuto- a sorprendere il viaggiatore avventuroso:
è l’odore della morte portata dal colera che si propaga a macchia d’olio.
“L’ussaro sul tetto” (1951) fa parte di una serie di cinque romanzi di Jean Giono con protagonista Angelo Pardi (“Ciclo dell’Ussaro”), personaggio costruito sul modello del nonno paterno: un piemontese carbonaro scappato in Francia dopi il fallimento dei moti del 1821 e poi arruolatosi nella Legione Straniera.
Avventuroso e fantasioso quanto un romanzo di spada e di cappa; profondo quanto un romanzo incentrato sul viaggio come metafora di un cammino sia interiore che sociale; palloso quanto un elenco telefonico perché, veramente, la lungaggine descrittiva è estenuante ed incita al salto del paragrafo.
Ciò non toglie che sia un buon libro (basta dimenticare le allusioni che in quarta di copertina recitano: “Una storia epica e avvincente, che ci restituisce il clima, le cadenze, i contenuti del grande romanzo d’avventura, da Stendhal a Dumas a Melville.”. Ecco: no e poi no! Scordatevelo!).
Angelo Pardi è un personaggio affascinante soprattutto perché si presenta come prototipo dell’Uomo Ideale:
racchiude la nobiltà e al tempo stesso l’umiltà di chi affida la propria esistenza ai grandi ideali libertari.
La sua forza è tanto nella sciabola quanto nella coerenza certosina tra il pensiero e l’azione.
Proprio per mettere in risalto questa caratteristica il colera è la scenografia ideale poiché, nella ricostruzione (anche fantasiosa e quasi un 3D) che Giono ne fa, si svela il vero animo delle persone.
Se non di fronte al pericolo della morte incombente quando si può capire di che pasta è fatta una persona?
In realtà, l’unico deterrente al contagio pare proprio essere quello di annullare la paura, ossia quella condizione secondo la quale homo homini lupus
”So benissimo che il colera non è un semplice prodotto di pura immaginazione. Ma se si estende cosí facilmente, se ha, come diciamo, questa "violenza epidemica”, è perché, con la presenza continua della morte, esaspera in tutti il famoso egoismo congenito. Si muore letteralmente di egoismo.”
«Se non osa guardare in faccia questo spettacolo, signora, credo che le convenga strapparsi gli occhi. Questo le eviterà la fatica di tenersi le mani sulla fronte. Finito il colera, ci resteranno da affrontare gli specchi.»
1831.
Angelo Pardi, colonnello degli ussari affiliato alla carboneria, è in fuga dall'Italia e attraversa la Provenza per raggiungere Giuseppe, suo fratello di latte.
E’ un’estate torrida quasi all'inverosimile ed il caldo nauseante non dà tregua in un paesaggio descritto fin nei minimi particolari e in tutta la gamma di colori possibili oppure solo immaginabili con un volo di fantasia.
Ma è un aroma dolciastro -di primo acchito non riconosciuto- a sorprendere il viaggiatore avventuroso:
è l’odore della morte portata dal colera che si propaga a macchia d’olio.
“L’ussaro sul tetto” (1951) fa parte di una serie di cinque romanzi di Jean Giono con protagonista Angelo Pardi (“Ciclo dell’Ussaro”), personaggio costruito sul modello del nonno paterno: un piemontese carbonaro scappato in Francia dopi il fallimento dei moti del 1821 e poi arruolatosi nella Legione Straniera.
Avventuroso e fantasioso quanto un romanzo di spada e di cappa; profondo quanto un romanzo incentrato sul viaggio come metafora di un cammino sia interiore che sociale; palloso quanto un elenco telefonico perché, veramente, la lungaggine descrittiva è estenuante ed incita al salto del paragrafo.
Ciò non toglie che sia un buon libro (basta dimenticare le allusioni che in quarta di copertina recitano: “Una storia epica e avvincente, che ci restituisce il clima, le cadenze, i contenuti del grande romanzo d’avventura, da Stendhal a Dumas a Melville.”. Ecco: no e poi no! Scordatevelo!).
Angelo Pardi è un personaggio affascinante soprattutto perché si presenta come prototipo dell’Uomo Ideale:
racchiude la nobiltà e al tempo stesso l’umiltà di chi affida la propria esistenza ai grandi ideali libertari.
La sua forza è tanto nella sciabola quanto nella coerenza certosina tra il pensiero e l’azione.
Proprio per mettere in risalto questa caratteristica il colera è la scenografia ideale poiché, nella ricostruzione (anche fantasiosa e quasi un 3D) che Giono ne fa, si svela il vero animo delle persone.
Se non di fronte al pericolo della morte incombente quando si può capire di che pasta è fatta una persona?
In realtà, l’unico deterrente al contagio pare proprio essere quello di annullare la paura, ossia quella condizione secondo la quale homo homini lupus
”So benissimo che il colera non è un semplice prodotto di pura immaginazione. Ma se si estende cosí facilmente, se ha, come diciamo, questa "violenza epidemica”, è perché, con la presenza continua della morte, esaspera in tutti il famoso egoismo congenito. Si muore letteralmente di egoismo.”
February 25, 2011
Jean Giono's The Horseman on the Roof represents a strange kind of throwback to the picaresque literature of earlier centuries. A patriotic young colonel is on the run from his native Italy because he had killed an Austrian baron in a duel -- at a time when the Austrians were in control of Northern Italy. Crossing the border into France, he walks into a giant cholera epidemic that seems to have a large part of Provence in its grip.
The remainder of the novel consists of Angelo Pardi's (for that is the colonel's name) attempts to either catch the disease or, just as bad, be captured by the authorities and placed in an unhealthy quarantine which amounted to the same thing.
Reading Giono was like reading Don Quixote or Orlando Furioso. Events seemed piled on events. Characters come and go. And in the end (this is not really a spoiler), Angelo seems pretty much as he was at the beginning. There is no development of character of the sort we have come to expect in a modern novel: There is only a passing through a series of pseudo-random switches in a world that seems to have been overtaken by death.
The scenes in the city of Manosque (where Giono lived much of his life) are nightmarish and in a strange way dreamlike: "When the boundaries between the real and the unreal disappear and one can pass freely from the one to the other, one's first feeling, unexpectedly, is that the prison has contracted." For a while, he teams up with a fat, ugly old nun and helps her wash the bodies of the dead:
But what a ride it is on the crest of that wave! What a rush! I will waste no time looking for other Giono works in translation. There is something there that, although a throwback of sorts, is exciting and even mesmerizing.
The remainder of the novel consists of Angelo Pardi's (for that is the colonel's name) attempts to either catch the disease or, just as bad, be captured by the authorities and placed in an unhealthy quarantine which amounted to the same thing.
Reading Giono was like reading Don Quixote or Orlando Furioso. Events seemed piled on events. Characters come and go. And in the end (this is not really a spoiler), Angelo seems pretty much as he was at the beginning. There is no development of character of the sort we have come to expect in a modern novel: There is only a passing through a series of pseudo-random switches in a world that seems to have been overtaken by death.
The scenes in the city of Manosque (where Giono lived much of his life) are nightmarish and in a strange way dreamlike: "When the boundaries between the real and the unreal disappear and one can pass freely from the one to the other, one's first feeling, unexpectedly, is that the prison has contracted." For a while, he teams up with a fat, ugly old nun and helps her wash the bodies of the dead:
The bell, which Angelo swung every now and then, rang in a pure void. Nobody wanted help. Night permitted everyone to look out for himself. They all did so in the same way. Nobody found a better one.Typically the nun, who was the convent's housekeeper, disappears quite suddenly when she runs into another nun who was her superior. Over the course of the novel's 426 pages, there are scores of sudden appearances and disappearances -- none of them appearing organically from the situation. We the readers are carried along as on a rogue wave that can wash us up a thousand miles further on.
"Did they love one another?" said Angelo.
"Lord, no," said the nun.
"In a town like this, though, there are surely people who loved one another?"
"No, no," said the nun.
But what a ride it is on the crest of that wave! What a rush! I will waste no time looking for other Giono works in translation. There is something there that, although a throwback of sorts, is exciting and even mesmerizing.
January 8, 2013
I'm not usually into adventure novels but this is a strange kind of adventure - as much metaphysical as physical, even though its hero is an expert swordsman (though for proof of this you'd have to see either of the other two Angelo books in English: Angelo - brilliant - or The Straw Man - confused and disappointing but for its one sword-fight, which is jaw-dropping, tear-jerking, astonishing). What makes this work is the character of Angelo - charming, heroic, self-questioning, youthfully self-important yet so aware of this defect that we end up loving him for it. Add to this the southern French countryside, always luminous in Giono but here especially so, as if set off by the sombre frame of the cholera epidemic, and the thrilling, touching relationship between Angelo and the equally appealing Pauline de Theus, and you have one of the most all-consuming reading experiences I have ever encountered. Strange that Giono is so little known in English; this is not difficult writing, and he is a household name in France. Other favourites:
Two Riders of the Storm
, Song of the World, Angelo.
June 7, 2020
Unas muy merecidas 5 estrellas.
El Húsar en el tejado (Le hussard sur le toit) Francia 1951.
No puedo dejar de admirar la exquisita maestría de los autores del siglo XIX (autentico homenaje a Stendhal) en la cual Giorno nos narra las vicisitudes de Ángelo Pardi, un intrépido y valiente piamontés, coronel de húsares perteneciente al movimiento carbonario, y exiliado en Francia por una deuda de honor, el cual se enfrenta al cólera- morbo en plena campiña provenzal en la Francia de 1832.
Quien la lea se encontrará con una novela apasionante y digna de los grandes autores del decimonónico.
Recomiendo la adaptación francesa realizada en 1995 y dirigida por Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Cuenta en los protagónicos con Juliette Binoche como Pauline y un perfecto Olivier Martínez como Ángelo.
El Húsar en el tejado (Le hussard sur le toit) Francia 1951.
No puedo dejar de admirar la exquisita maestría de los autores del siglo XIX (autentico homenaje a Stendhal) en la cual Giorno nos narra las vicisitudes de Ángelo Pardi, un intrépido y valiente piamontés, coronel de húsares perteneciente al movimiento carbonario, y exiliado en Francia por una deuda de honor, el cual se enfrenta al cólera- morbo en plena campiña provenzal en la Francia de 1832.
Quien la lea se encontrará con una novela apasionante y digna de los grandes autores del decimonónico.
Recomiendo la adaptación francesa realizada en 1995 y dirigida por Jean-Paul Rappeneau. Cuenta en los protagónicos con Juliette Binoche como Pauline y un perfecto Olivier Martínez como Ángelo.
April 13, 2020
Dar nepraėjo nė metai nuo mano su šeima kelių savaičių kelionės pėščiomis šv. Jokūbo keliu Pietų Prancūzijos takeliais. Ir štai, puikaus romano herojus keliauja netoliese esančiomis panašiomis vietomis 1838 metų choleros epidemijos metu. Tai ne COVID-19, cholera daug baisesnė infekcija; žmonės miršta kaip musės, užpurškus jas nuodais... Tačiau romano pagrindinė "varomoji jėga" ne tiek mirtis, kiek giedra romantika ir kelionė, kaip paties gyvenimo alegorija.
February 3, 2022
This felt unnecessarily long, extremely repetitive, and kinda boring overall but maybe that's just because I really don't have the mental capacity to care right now (and also I read it in French so there was less chance of me enjoying/understanding it *sigh*). The beginning felt the strongest because there's an air of mystery around why people are dropping dead like flies if you go in reading blind. But then its just death after death after death and characters (that are barely memorable) coming and going and coming and going. At least one of them came back and stuck with Angelo through a good part of the story, but even that didn't help much. Angelo himself seems like a good guy, but to the point where he feels fake and kinda meh as a character. I did like the chonk tho; even though it wasn't hugely significant, it was one of the few things that made me happy while reading this. Gosh I hope the last book of this course will be 1) something I can actually finish, and 2) at least a bit more fun to read.
1.5 stars, but I'll round up cause I reserve the 1-star section strictly for Ross Sinclair and Giono doesn't even come near to inducing the same amount of pain.
1.5 stars, but I'll round up cause I reserve the 1-star section strictly for Ross Sinclair and Giono doesn't even come near to inducing the same amount of pain.
March 6, 2014
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 21, 2025
J'avais mal commence avec lui, Giono. Le "Roi sans divertissement" m'avait laisse froid, dans un brouillard de phrases trop enigmatiques.
Et puis, je l'ai repris, comme on reprend un sentier de montagne abandonne depuis des annees. Et la, je l'ai senti.
"Le Hussard sur le Toit", j'y etais. Les pierres blanches chauffees au soleil, les collines de la Drome, les pins maigres et les cigales. Et surtout le mistral.
Ce paysage est malade, ravage par le cholera. Il y a Angelo, Piemontais et carbonaro. Il marche droit. Il grimpe sur les toits, il traverse des cadavres, il refuse de devenir un lache.
Et puis, il y a aussi Pauline. Elle est aussi droite mais sans durete. Deux etres qui ne tombent pas amoureux, mais qui se reconnaissent. Pas de passion, pas de tremolos. Pas de bavardages. De la pudeur. Des choses vraies.
Le Hussard dans le top 10.
Et puis, je l'ai repris, comme on reprend un sentier de montagne abandonne depuis des annees. Et la, je l'ai senti.
"Le Hussard sur le Toit", j'y etais. Les pierres blanches chauffees au soleil, les collines de la Drome, les pins maigres et les cigales. Et surtout le mistral.
Ce paysage est malade, ravage par le cholera. Il y a Angelo, Piemontais et carbonaro. Il marche droit. Il grimpe sur les toits, il traverse des cadavres, il refuse de devenir un lache.
Et puis, il y a aussi Pauline. Elle est aussi droite mais sans durete. Deux etres qui ne tombent pas amoureux, mais qui se reconnaissent. Pas de passion, pas de tremolos. Pas de bavardages. De la pudeur. Des choses vraies.
Le Hussard dans le top 10.
August 24, 2013
Hace un tiempo tuve entre mis manos una edición de "El hombre que plantaba árboles" prologada por José Saramago. Si bien en ese momento esa conexión me extrañó, ahora, después de haber leído "El húsar en el tejado", la novela más prestigiosa de Giono, veo claro cuál debió ser la conexión que realizó el editor que solicitó ese prólogo.
Tanto "Ensayo sobre la Ceguera" como ésta, describen un escenario de ruina absoluta en el que la civilización decae en medio de la demencia al ser arrollada por una plaga incontrolable, creando así un clima asifxiante útil para despojar a la civilización de sus refinamientos y señalar cuáles son sus instintos más auténticos.
La principal diferencia entre ambas sin duda está en que mientras Saramago emplea una plaga metafórica en un espacio alegórico, Giono se basa en hechos reales en su escenario nativo, la Provenza. Se nota que hay mucho de invención en lo que escribe, el propio Giono decía que él era un creador, no un testimonio; y no obstante uno se da cuenta que en sus vívidos trazos vive una autencidad que supera la simple verosímilitud. Una de las cosas que más me han gustado, más que sus personajes principales, que son bastante insípidos, han sido esos secundarios que aparecen fugazmente, que se sienten genuinos, tomados de la realidad. Su sequedad, su pragmatismo y su peculiar lógica dan un carácter muy particular a esta novela, que aunque tienen momentos de bajón (normal teniendo en cuenta el sobresaliente episodio con el mediquillo), no deja nunca de sonar convincente y no se abandona a clichés de literatura comercial. Sin ir más lejos, la naturaleza no es idealizada y se nos muestra como un ente bello pero amenazador, en el que unas simples mariposas pueden quedar para dar una vueltecita y comerse unas tapas de ojo humano.
Otra cualidad que salta a la vista es el poderoso lenguaje sensual que emplea, el detalle con el que describe los colores, los olores, los sudores y cada palmo del territorio. Una fastuosa exhibición de imaginación en el que el autor demuestra haber sido capaz ponerse en la piel de los personajes y conocer a fondo el terreno que pisan. Eso, a mi criterio, la asemeja con otra estupenda novela ubicada en la Provenza: El Perfume, que, a su manera, también examina con pesimismo al ser humano.
En contrapartida, encuentro irritante la tendencia que tiene Giono de hacer perorar ad infinitum a sus personajes. Cuando empiezan, no paran ni con lanzallamas. Esto, más que un exceso en sí, me parece que refleja un tic provenzal, ya que cuando se ven las películas de Marcel Pagnol también se oyen esas peroratas torrenciales. Dónde si me parece que existen excesos es en el empleo de ciertas expresiones como "no le llega la camisa al cuerpo" o el adjetivo "yesoso", que aparecen de forma demasiado recurrente. Intuyo que es problema de la traducción, si no que, en verdad, transparenta un fallo del texto original.
A pesar de eso, resulta una lectura más que recomendable. El tipo de novela de género sólida e interesante.
Tanto "Ensayo sobre la Ceguera" como ésta, describen un escenario de ruina absoluta en el que la civilización decae en medio de la demencia al ser arrollada por una plaga incontrolable, creando así un clima asifxiante útil para despojar a la civilización de sus refinamientos y señalar cuáles son sus instintos más auténticos.
La principal diferencia entre ambas sin duda está en que mientras Saramago emplea una plaga metafórica en un espacio alegórico, Giono se basa en hechos reales en su escenario nativo, la Provenza. Se nota que hay mucho de invención en lo que escribe, el propio Giono decía que él era un creador, no un testimonio; y no obstante uno se da cuenta que en sus vívidos trazos vive una autencidad que supera la simple verosímilitud. Una de las cosas que más me han gustado, más que sus personajes principales, que son bastante insípidos, han sido esos secundarios que aparecen fugazmente, que se sienten genuinos, tomados de la realidad. Su sequedad, su pragmatismo y su peculiar lógica dan un carácter muy particular a esta novela, que aunque tienen momentos de bajón (normal teniendo en cuenta el sobresaliente episodio con el mediquillo), no deja nunca de sonar convincente y no se abandona a clichés de literatura comercial. Sin ir más lejos, la naturaleza no es idealizada y se nos muestra como un ente bello pero amenazador, en el que unas simples mariposas pueden quedar para dar una vueltecita y comerse unas tapas de ojo humano.
Otra cualidad que salta a la vista es el poderoso lenguaje sensual que emplea, el detalle con el que describe los colores, los olores, los sudores y cada palmo del territorio. Una fastuosa exhibición de imaginación en el que el autor demuestra haber sido capaz ponerse en la piel de los personajes y conocer a fondo el terreno que pisan. Eso, a mi criterio, la asemeja con otra estupenda novela ubicada en la Provenza: El Perfume, que, a su manera, también examina con pesimismo al ser humano.
En contrapartida, encuentro irritante la tendencia que tiene Giono de hacer perorar ad infinitum a sus personajes. Cuando empiezan, no paran ni con lanzallamas. Esto, más que un exceso en sí, me parece que refleja un tic provenzal, ya que cuando se ven las películas de Marcel Pagnol también se oyen esas peroratas torrenciales. Dónde si me parece que existen excesos es en el empleo de ciertas expresiones como "no le llega la camisa al cuerpo" o el adjetivo "yesoso", que aparecen de forma demasiado recurrente. Intuyo que es problema de la traducción, si no que, en verdad, transparenta un fallo del texto original.
A pesar de eso, resulta una lectura más que recomendable. El tipo de novela de género sólida e interesante.
June 30, 2020
This is the story of Angelo Pardi, on the run from his native Piedmont in northwestern Italy, because he had killed a baron in a duel. He is in southern France, in Provence, and there is a raging cholera epidemic going on. He goes through villages only to find almost everybody there dead or dying. Arriving in Manosque, the locals think he is there to poison their wells and so he flees them, ending up on the rooftops (hence the book's title). Going into one of the houses he encounters a woman whose name we later find out is Pauline de Theus. He eventually escapes and moves on through the countryside and sometime later links up again with Pauline who has fled Manosque herself and together they move on. Throughout the book, the effects of cholera are fairly graphically described - the physical part of people dying, how bodies were gathered up in carts and buried in mass graves or burned on huge funeral pyres. There have been a number of cholera outbreaks throughout history. One went through Paris itself in 1832. A fascinating even if sometimes morbid read.
June 5, 2018
Prancūzų imsiuos. O ką?! Knyga lietuviškai išleista lygiai prieš 20 metų, o iš antros pagal fondų dydį Lietuvos bibliotekos skaityti paėmiau pirmas. Hm...Viršelį paišė mielas Sigitas Šniras (kartu mokėmės Šiaulių 7-je vidurinėje mokykloje, dabar S.Šalkauskio, Šiaulių dailės mokykloje...). Pasiekus 100 psl. galiu pasakyti, kad ne tik kad nenusivyliau, bet ir padariau sau atradimą. Maždaug tuo metu, kai knyga išleista lietuviškai, prancuzakalbe auditorija romaną įtraukė į geriausių XX a viso pasaulio knygų šimtuką. Verta. Radau apibūdinimą, kad tai pikareskos žanras. Jo apibūdinimas esperanto pseudokalba skamba taip: "La Pikareska romano...estas literatura rakonta ĝenro en prozo de tipo pseŭdomembiografia". Kitas ginčytųs.
April 7, 2017
3,5/5. C'est une belle histoire, riche en réflexions sur l'Homme, avec beaucoup d'aventures, mais je n'ai pas tout à fait adhéré au style, je l'ai trouvé peut-être un poil trop descriptif et plat si bien que je n'ai pas vraiment ressenti les divers rebondissements, tout me paraissait se succéder sans vraie surprise.
Mais il y a aussi beaucoup de belles choses, il y a certes un peu trop de descriptions de la nature mais elles sont parfois splendides ! Et surtout, il y a tout cet aspect très humain, dans ce qu'il a de laid mais aussi, dans la relation entre certains personnages, dans ce qu'il a de plus beau. Je pense que je tenterai de nouveau une œuvre de Giono prochainement.
Mais il y a aussi beaucoup de belles choses, il y a certes un peu trop de descriptions de la nature mais elles sont parfois splendides ! Et surtout, il y a tout cet aspect très humain, dans ce qu'il a de laid mais aussi, dans la relation entre certains personnages, dans ce qu'il a de plus beau. Je pense que je tenterai de nouveau une œuvre de Giono prochainement.
May 27, 2022
Sincèrement, je ne pensais pas que ce bouquin me plairait à ce point. Ce fut une lecture très « sensorielle » avec des descriptions de paysage sublimes et de choléra insoutenables. Ce n’était pas toujours facile mais c’était excellent !
November 27, 2024
Everything around us and everything within us sings the mystery of life.
Angelo, take care of yourself
Angelo, take care of yourself
January 24, 2022
Ik las in een boekenbijlage dat “pandemie-literatuur” erg in trek is, sinds het begin van de coronacrisis. “De pest” van Camus wordt weer gretig gelezen.
En dus werd “De huzaar op het dak” eindelijk in het Nederlands uitgegeven.
Wel, het moest blijkbaar snel gaan, want op zowat elke bladzijde staan taalfouten, tikfouten en vreemde zinsconstructies.
Het verhaal zelf leest u op de achterflap. Of, toch niet. Het lijkt heel anders in elkaar te zitten dan wat op de achterflap te lezen staat.
Een raar verhaal. Angelo zwerft maar wat rond in de Provence. Overal heerst er cholera.
De stervende mensen worden zeer plastisch beschreven. Voordat je aan blz. 100 bent, heb je al tien keer vernomen hoe choleralijders aan hun eind komen, paars-blauw, met een verwrongen maskerachtig gezicht, kotsend, enz., enz.
Dus, na 100 blzn. dacht ik dit boek echt voor bekeken te houden. Maar het krijgt zoveel sterren!
Lovende recensies in het Frans en in het Engels. (In het Nederlands blijkt er nog niet één te bestaan, buiten die in De Standaard, door Marijke Arijs, die dit boek 4 sterren gaf.)
Toch maar doorlezen, dan? Misschien komt dat ‘episch verhaal’ wat later op gang.
Op blz. 215 vindt Angelo eindelijk zijn kameraad Giuseppe.
“Op een van zijn nachtelijke expedities ontmoet hij een in alle opzichten buitengewone jonge vrouw die een waardige reisgenote blijkt te zijn”, staat op de achterflap te lezen.
Die jonge vrouw ontmoet hij pas op blz. 256.
En die blijft heel lang ‘de jonge vrouw’ genoemd worden. Ook nadat ze eindelijk haar naam heeft vermeld blijft ze meestal ‘de jonge vrouw’, wat volgens mij alleen maar afstand creëert.
Na die ontmoeting met die dame begint het verhaal een beetje boeiend te worden, maar het zakt rond blz. 300 alweer in elkaar.
Ze zien weer veel doden. Ze vliegen weer in quarantaine…
Enkele citaten:
“Eindelijk bereikte hij zijn bestemming en achter de was die aan een lijn hing te drogen zag hij van tralies voorziene kooien met gele bollen erin. Het waren kippen.” (p.125)
“Niets is dommer dan edelmoedigheid als die zo ver gaat dat ze doordringt in de hoffelijkheid en het rechtvaardigheidsgevoel.” (?) (p.147)
“De hitte was heel zoet en vette neus en lippen in alsof het olie was.” (p.161)
“De meisjes waren vooral gecharmeerd van zijn zwarte krullen. ‘Net peterselie’, zeiden ze.” (p.198)
Huh? Peterselie???
“Ze was overigens best knap, tot de betere klasse behorend, met een ietsje handelaarsbloed in haar geprononceerd neusbrug.” Dat staat er echt: “handelaarsbloed in haar geprononceerd neusbrug”! (p.331)
Het is overigens maar in een klein deeltje van het verhaal dat de huzaar werkelijk op de daken van een stadje verblijft.
Maar kom, de titel is niet slecht gevonden. Het wekt de nieuwsgierigheid en het doet kopen.
En daar gaat het om, nietwaar?
Mij pakte het verhaal helemaal niet. Ik leefde eigenlijk op geen enkel moment mee met Angelo, wiens karakter voor mij een raadsel bleef tot op het einde.
Er bestaat een film van, en het is best mogelijk dat het als film veel beter overkomt dan als boek.
En dus werd “De huzaar op het dak” eindelijk in het Nederlands uitgegeven.
Wel, het moest blijkbaar snel gaan, want op zowat elke bladzijde staan taalfouten, tikfouten en vreemde zinsconstructies.
Het verhaal zelf leest u op de achterflap. Of, toch niet. Het lijkt heel anders in elkaar te zitten dan wat op de achterflap te lezen staat.
Een raar verhaal. Angelo zwerft maar wat rond in de Provence. Overal heerst er cholera.
De stervende mensen worden zeer plastisch beschreven. Voordat je aan blz. 100 bent, heb je al tien keer vernomen hoe choleralijders aan hun eind komen, paars-blauw, met een verwrongen maskerachtig gezicht, kotsend, enz., enz.
Dus, na 100 blzn. dacht ik dit boek echt voor bekeken te houden. Maar het krijgt zoveel sterren!
Lovende recensies in het Frans en in het Engels. (In het Nederlands blijkt er nog niet één te bestaan, buiten die in De Standaard, door Marijke Arijs, die dit boek 4 sterren gaf.)
Toch maar doorlezen, dan? Misschien komt dat ‘episch verhaal’ wat later op gang.
Op blz. 215 vindt Angelo eindelijk zijn kameraad Giuseppe.
“Op een van zijn nachtelijke expedities ontmoet hij een in alle opzichten buitengewone jonge vrouw die een waardige reisgenote blijkt te zijn”, staat op de achterflap te lezen.
Die jonge vrouw ontmoet hij pas op blz. 256.
En die blijft heel lang ‘de jonge vrouw’ genoemd worden. Ook nadat ze eindelijk haar naam heeft vermeld blijft ze meestal ‘de jonge vrouw’, wat volgens mij alleen maar afstand creëert.
Na die ontmoeting met die dame begint het verhaal een beetje boeiend te worden, maar het zakt rond blz. 300 alweer in elkaar.
Ze zien weer veel doden. Ze vliegen weer in quarantaine…
Enkele citaten:
“Eindelijk bereikte hij zijn bestemming en achter de was die aan een lijn hing te drogen zag hij van tralies voorziene kooien met gele bollen erin. Het waren kippen.” (p.125)
“Niets is dommer dan edelmoedigheid als die zo ver gaat dat ze doordringt in de hoffelijkheid en het rechtvaardigheidsgevoel.” (?) (p.147)
“De hitte was heel zoet en vette neus en lippen in alsof het olie was.” (p.161)
“De meisjes waren vooral gecharmeerd van zijn zwarte krullen. ‘Net peterselie’, zeiden ze.” (p.198)
Huh? Peterselie???
“Ze was overigens best knap, tot de betere klasse behorend, met een ietsje handelaarsbloed in haar geprononceerd neusbrug.” Dat staat er echt: “handelaarsbloed in haar geprononceerd neusbrug”! (p.331)
Het is overigens maar in een klein deeltje van het verhaal dat de huzaar werkelijk op de daken van een stadje verblijft.
Maar kom, de titel is niet slecht gevonden. Het wekt de nieuwsgierigheid en het doet kopen.
En daar gaat het om, nietwaar?
Mij pakte het verhaal helemaal niet. Ik leefde eigenlijk op geen enkel moment mee met Angelo, wiens karakter voor mij een raadsel bleef tot op het einde.
Er bestaat een film van, en het is best mogelijk dat het als film veel beter overkomt dan als boek.
August 7, 2019
Un libro interessante, ambientato in un'estate torrida e colerosa in Provenza (forse era meglio leggerlo in inverno e non nella calura di questi giorni).
L'ambientazione non fa molti riferimenti al quadro storico del periodo, ma in compenso è un po' avventuroso; un po' prolisso alla fine. Diciamo 3 stelle e mezzo.
L'ambientazione non fa molti riferimenti al quadro storico del periodo, ma in compenso è un po' avventuroso; un po' prolisso alla fine. Diciamo 3 stelle e mezzo.
October 7, 2025
Meilleur roman de tous les temps.
July 9, 2022
Angelo Pardi is een uit Italië gevluchte revolutionair die in de jaren 1830 door een Zuid-Frankrijk trekt dat door een cholera-epidemie traagjes in chaos aan het veranderen is, tot het bij momenten zelfs een soort carnaval wordt:
'Het is daar een puinhoop, meneer, één grote maskerade, een carnavalsoptocht. Men vermomt zich als clown, als Jan Klaassen, als Katrijn of nog grotesker, om aan de dood te ontkomen. Men verbergt zich achter een masker, achter kartonnen neuzen of valse snorren, men trekt rare smoelen, men speelt "Na mij de zondvloed" met gefingeerde personen. We bevinden ons in de Middeleeuwen, meneer. Op alle kruisingen verbrandt men vogelverschrikkers van stro die men "vadertje cholera" noemt; men beledigt hem, lacht hem uit. Men danst om hem heen, gaat naar huis en sterft van angst of van de diarree.'
De Provence waar alles zich afspeelt bezwijkt onder de droogte en stinkt, ligt bezaaid met lege dorpen, rottende lijken (die vaak in detail worden beschreven), quarantaines, vluchtelingenkampen en geïmproviseerde (massa)graven.
'Vanaf het begin van de epidemie had men daar in enorme kuilen een groot deel van de doden uit de stad begraven. Men had de doden bedekt en de kuilen met ongebluste kalk dichtgegooid. Normaliter borrelden die lijksappen in de kuilen natuurlijk een beetje, maar nu ze door de regen begoten en ondergedompeld waren, kookten ze met grote luchtbellen, als smerige soep. Men hoorde het geborrel, zag de dampen en rook de stank.'
De beste stukken - en dat zijn er veel - van deze roman focussen op de dagelijkse omgang met cholera en het proberen overleven: hygiëne, eten en drinken, wassen, het masseren van stervenden, een veilig onderkomen zoeken en wegblokkades vermijden. Toch heeft "De Huzaar..." ook wel serieuze minpunten. Giono schrijft hier en daar in elliptische mono- en dialogen waaruit soms weinig is op te maken, zelfs niet met de originele Franse tekst erbij. Daarnaast mist deze Nederlandse editie echt wel verklarende voetnoten en een degelijke eindredactie, wat ongetwijfeld te wijten is aan commerciële haast (een "epidemieroman" in coronatijden kunnen publiceren).
'Het is daar een puinhoop, meneer, één grote maskerade, een carnavalsoptocht. Men vermomt zich als clown, als Jan Klaassen, als Katrijn of nog grotesker, om aan de dood te ontkomen. Men verbergt zich achter een masker, achter kartonnen neuzen of valse snorren, men trekt rare smoelen, men speelt "Na mij de zondvloed" met gefingeerde personen. We bevinden ons in de Middeleeuwen, meneer. Op alle kruisingen verbrandt men vogelverschrikkers van stro die men "vadertje cholera" noemt; men beledigt hem, lacht hem uit. Men danst om hem heen, gaat naar huis en sterft van angst of van de diarree.'
De Provence waar alles zich afspeelt bezwijkt onder de droogte en stinkt, ligt bezaaid met lege dorpen, rottende lijken (die vaak in detail worden beschreven), quarantaines, vluchtelingenkampen en geïmproviseerde (massa)graven.
'Vanaf het begin van de epidemie had men daar in enorme kuilen een groot deel van de doden uit de stad begraven. Men had de doden bedekt en de kuilen met ongebluste kalk dichtgegooid. Normaliter borrelden die lijksappen in de kuilen natuurlijk een beetje, maar nu ze door de regen begoten en ondergedompeld waren, kookten ze met grote luchtbellen, als smerige soep. Men hoorde het geborrel, zag de dampen en rook de stank.'
De beste stukken - en dat zijn er veel - van deze roman focussen op de dagelijkse omgang met cholera en het proberen overleven: hygiëne, eten en drinken, wassen, het masseren van stervenden, een veilig onderkomen zoeken en wegblokkades vermijden. Toch heeft "De Huzaar..." ook wel serieuze minpunten. Giono schrijft hier en daar in elliptische mono- en dialogen waaruit soms weinig is op te maken, zelfs niet met de originele Franse tekst erbij. Daarnaast mist deze Nederlandse editie echt wel verklarende voetnoten en een degelijke eindredactie, wat ongetwijfeld te wijten is aan commerciële haast (een "epidemieroman" in coronatijden kunnen publiceren).
August 22, 2013
Moins que son côté roman d'aventures, je l'ai surtout apprécié pour les observations sur les comportements individuels et collectifs générés par la peur d'une menace invisible. Sauve qui peut et chacun pour soi! Rien de tel qu'une bonne épidémie pour révéler nos vrais natures... Et en plus, l'histoire d'amour est assez originale.
August 21, 2012
Un nouveau petit bijou de Giono, qui sait manier avec une très grande délicatesse la langue française, pour décrire, faire vivre tout un paysage, une atmosphère suffocante sous la douleur et l'horreur du choléra, et en même temps mener une épopée de l'humanité sous l'égide d'Angelo.
July 1, 2020
The story of a nineteenth-century Italian’s journey through a France in the grip of a cholera epidemic. Angelo is a very serious young man, who has killed a man in a duel for revolutionary reasons and only really likes life when he is acquitting himself well in life and death situations. He is always trying to meet the standards of a hypothetical observer. Although Angelo is idiosyncratic and likeable in his way, and his backstory is revealed more as we go on, there is a very real sense in which this is a book about the physical world more than anything. It is also about death, of course, though it is noticeable that this is present in an abstract aspect, despite the many descriptions of corpses and people in the throes of death. It’s not really about the horror of watching loved ones die or being forced to relinquish one’s hold on life. It’s very much about death as a spectacle seen from the outside, but not about experiencing physical disintegration from the inside. It’s death as a sombre memento mori that defamiliarises life — and through this defamiliarisation makes of cholera an access to the joy of exploration and perception. It oddly reminded me of G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown stories, which made me feel that the point of them was the places described in them, each of them creating a different atmosphere — a stage setting deserving a better story, I often felt, but a story in themselves too at least. Settings like the rooftops, the hills where people had set up camp to attempt the escape the epidemic, the tower where Angelo and Pauline are forcibly quarantined, have that same feeling for me. And there was the sense of adventure, tenacity and enterprise that you might expect from a picaresque novel.
This was one of my favourite books of the year and I was just thinking that I didn’t want this to end when the penultimate chapter did its best to lessen my reluctance, being given over to a crank going on about cholera in relation to pride and birds and organs. Maybe it was some kind of throat-clearing over the awkwardness of ending a picaresque narrative, when for the first time we stop instead of going on.
This was one of my favourite books of the year and I was just thinking that I didn’t want this to end when the penultimate chapter did its best to lessen my reluctance, being given over to a crank going on about cholera in relation to pride and birds and organs. Maybe it was some kind of throat-clearing over the awkwardness of ending a picaresque narrative, when for the first time we stop instead of going on.
December 15, 2022
Le Hussard sur le toit est un roman d'aventure picaresque, racontant l'épopée d'Angelo Pardi, un colonel des hussards italiens, carbonaro (c'est à dire œuvrant, dans la première moitié du XIXème siècle, pour l'indépendance italienne), en fuite en France et chargé d'y retrouver son frère de lait Guiseppe pour continuer la lutte, le tout dans une Provence des années 1830, dévastée par une terrifiante épidémie de choléra.
C'est un roman que j'ai trouvé, pour ma part, plaisant par instant mais pas plus. Le personnage d'Angelo, d'où il vient, où il va met pas mal de temps à se mettre en place - en fait on ne l'apprend qu'à la fin - et cela m'a un peu frustré de ne pas en savoir plus plus tôt à son sujet. Le côté invincible du personnage m'a aussi un peu irrité : il est assez insouciant, pour ne pas dire inconscient, il ne craint rien ni personne, est omniscient, triomphe systématiquement de tous les obstacles et semble immunisé contre le choléra malgré les risques de contagion insensés qu'il prend.
Certaines scènes m'ont aussi semblé un peu longuettes, bavardes plutôt, comme la scène de retrouvailles avec Guiseppe ou le long monologue sur le choléra de l'homme à la redingote à la fin.
Cela dit, d'autres scènes sont absolument palpitantes : toutes les scènes du fuite, de course en fait et il y en a de nombreuses : tout le début et le premier contact avec le choléra lorsqu'il croise le "petit français", la totalité du séjour à Manosque dont son passage "sur le toit" et la fuite ensuite vers Gap avec séjour en quarantaine et dans le village où ils ont failli se faire dépouiller. Giono excelle dans l'épopée et cela d'autant plus que les conditions de cette épopée sont dramatiques et le danger partout : les scènes où il nous raconte la maladie, les premiers symptômes qui se manifestent, la mort dans des convulsions et les conséquences de ces morts en cascade (maisons et villages abandonnés avec cadavres laissés sur place et dévorés par les rats et les oiseaux), tout cela est absolument glaçant ... donc captivant.
C'est un roman que j'ai trouvé, pour ma part, plaisant par instant mais pas plus. Le personnage d'Angelo, d'où il vient, où il va met pas mal de temps à se mettre en place - en fait on ne l'apprend qu'à la fin - et cela m'a un peu frustré de ne pas en savoir plus plus tôt à son sujet. Le côté invincible du personnage m'a aussi un peu irrité : il est assez insouciant, pour ne pas dire inconscient, il ne craint rien ni personne, est omniscient, triomphe systématiquement de tous les obstacles et semble immunisé contre le choléra malgré les risques de contagion insensés qu'il prend.
Certaines scènes m'ont aussi semblé un peu longuettes, bavardes plutôt, comme la scène de retrouvailles avec Guiseppe ou le long monologue sur le choléra de l'homme à la redingote à la fin.
Cela dit, d'autres scènes sont absolument palpitantes : toutes les scènes du fuite, de course en fait et il y en a de nombreuses : tout le début et le premier contact avec le choléra lorsqu'il croise le "petit français", la totalité du séjour à Manosque dont son passage "sur le toit" et la fuite ensuite vers Gap avec séjour en quarantaine et dans le village où ils ont failli se faire dépouiller. Giono excelle dans l'épopée et cela d'autant plus que les conditions de cette épopée sont dramatiques et le danger partout : les scènes où il nous raconte la maladie, les premiers symptômes qui se manifestent, la mort dans des convulsions et les conséquences de ces morts en cascade (maisons et villages abandonnés avec cadavres laissés sur place et dévorés par les rats et les oiseaux), tout cela est absolument glaçant ... donc captivant.
September 27, 2022
j’ai finalement pu achever cette lecture avant la fin du mois, il faut dire que ce n'était pas une lecture facile mais je suis quand même contente de ne pas avoir lu ce roman pendant la pandémie vu que c'est le sujet principal de cette œuvre ( le choléra)
Avant toute chose il me paraît opportun de commencer par les points positifs de ce roman, notamment la très belle écriture de Jean Giono et les fresques qu'il dépeint du sud de la France avec tant de subtilité et de finesse. On arrive presque à sentir la chaleur de la région.
Les descriptions des paysages et de la nature sont Saisissantes. C’est un roman dépaysant par excellence.
De surplus, j’ai beaucoup apprécié cet élément de picaresque qui se trouve dans l'histoire. Angelo le protagoniste, va voir de toutes les couleurs durant le long voyage qu'il entreprend et il va faire la connaissance de plusieurs personnes qui finissent soit par mourir (des morts horribles) soit par le laisser au bout de chemin. Il m’avait rappelé à la fois Don Quichott ( en beaucoup moins comique) et Jean Valjean ( en beaucoup moins tragique.
L'histoire est parfois très entraînante mais parfois on peut nous empêcher de sentir une certaine confusion ce qui me mène aux points négatifs de ce roman.
J’avais l’impression de passer à côté de certaines choses importantes en le lisant. L’auteur voulant dire beaucoup de chose à la fois, rend la lecture de son roman un peu déroutante voire même fatigante. Surtout que le sujet en lui-même est difficile et avec les scènes des morts terribles et inoubliables, la lecture devient presque insupportable.
Mais en somme, c’est un roman merveilleux et qui marquera vos esprits.
Avant toute chose il me paraît opportun de commencer par les points positifs de ce roman, notamment la très belle écriture de Jean Giono et les fresques qu'il dépeint du sud de la France avec tant de subtilité et de finesse. On arrive presque à sentir la chaleur de la région.
Les descriptions des paysages et de la nature sont Saisissantes. C’est un roman dépaysant par excellence.
De surplus, j’ai beaucoup apprécié cet élément de picaresque qui se trouve dans l'histoire. Angelo le protagoniste, va voir de toutes les couleurs durant le long voyage qu'il entreprend et il va faire la connaissance de plusieurs personnes qui finissent soit par mourir (des morts horribles) soit par le laisser au bout de chemin. Il m’avait rappelé à la fois Don Quichott ( en beaucoup moins comique) et Jean Valjean ( en beaucoup moins tragique.
L'histoire est parfois très entraînante mais parfois on peut nous empêcher de sentir une certaine confusion ce qui me mène aux points négatifs de ce roman.
J’avais l’impression de passer à côté de certaines choses importantes en le lisant. L’auteur voulant dire beaucoup de chose à la fois, rend la lecture de son roman un peu déroutante voire même fatigante. Surtout que le sujet en lui-même est difficile et avec les scènes des morts terribles et inoubliables, la lecture devient presque insupportable.
Mais en somme, c’est un roman merveilleux et qui marquera vos esprits.
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