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The Time of Secrets and The time of Love
Following the huge success of the first two volumes of his classic memoirs My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle comes this reissue of Marcel Pagnol's delightful evocation of his school-days in Provence. The Time of Secrets and The Time of Love, with their affectionate humour and open-hearted veracity, have been hailed as Pagnol's masterpiece.
With this publication of The Time of Secrets and The Time of Love, Andre Deutsch has the privilege of bringing together in one volume the final two parts of Marcel Pagnol's memoirs, Les Souvenirs d'Enfance. The Time of Secrets was originally published during Pagnol's lifetime, but the Time of Love was published posthumously. Details on how these later chapters came to be discovered, edited and published are to be found in the appending essay by Bernard de Fallois, Pagnol's editor and friend.
The Time of Secrets was originally published as Les Temps des Secrets by Hamish Hamilton Ltd. The Time of Love was originally published as Les Temps des Amours by Hamish Hamilton Ltd.
With this publication of The Time of Secrets and The Time of Love, Andre Deutsch has the privilege of bringing together in one volume the final two parts of Marcel Pagnol's memoirs, Les Souvenirs d'Enfance. The Time of Secrets was originally published during Pagnol's lifetime, but the Time of Love was published posthumously. Details on how these later chapters came to be discovered, edited and published are to be found in the appending essay by Bernard de Fallois, Pagnol's editor and friend.
The Time of Secrets was originally published as Les Temps des Secrets by Hamish Hamilton Ltd. The Time of Love was originally published as Les Temps des Amours by Hamish Hamilton Ltd.
432 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1991
85 people want to read
About the author
Marcel Pagnol
318 books288 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 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 16, 2018
Long but generally enjoyable.He recreates the world of his childhood as seen through the eyes of a young boy very accurately with the casual cruelty to animals and the self absorption of youth.I enjoyed his first love,his days in school,the pranks in class and the general gentle sadness of reminiscences.The world moves on and changes,people die but he has brought back to life his lovely family and friends.This should be read with pleasure far into the future as a recreation of a bygone era before WW I.
April 1, 2017
The Time of Secrets is just as good as My Mother's Castle. Plenty of funny moments and some fine writing. Just check out the paragraph on page 144 beginning "A huge red sun...".
The Time of Love is a different kettle of fish. Being unfinished, it's not pulled together into a novel form so it's more a collection of anecdotes. Still worth reading on that basis, just don't expect a masterpiece.
The Time of Love is a different kettle of fish. Being unfinished, it's not pulled together into a novel form so it's more a collection of anecdotes. Still worth reading on that basis, just don't expect a masterpiece.
November 27, 2014
I just loved this book.Didn't want it to finish.
Marcel takes you right to the heart of his childhood and Provence.
His betrayal of his school is delightful.
Not sure about the plague chapter though.
Marcel takes you right to the heart of his childhood and Provence.
His betrayal of his school is delightful.
Not sure about the plague chapter though.
January 6, 2019
Loved reading much of the first book--it was delightful to drop back in on the Pagnol's family life, which overflows with warmth and wit. The second book, which mostly focuses on Pagnol's school days, wasn't as rich of a read, but still charming and enjoyable.
July 5, 2020
This volume completes the childhood memoirs of Marcel Pagnol, and is a companion piece to My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle. Only the first volume was published in his lifetime, and it appears to be unknown why he never published The Time of Love.
These volumes include some stories from summer holidays in the Provincial countryside (the setting of the first two books), but focus more on his school days in a prestigious lycee, where he was a scholarship student. Told with wit, humour and a natural storyteller's flair for detail, it is also interesting to read about what school life was like at the turn of the last century. Most of the drama revolves around an endless stream of student pranks and whether Pagnol and his friends can escape punishment.
An interesting diversion from these schoolboy stories is a fairly long chapter which tells a story set in the time of plague in Marseilles in the 1720s. According to the notes contained in the book it is unknown where Pagnol heard this story but it was a favourite of his to recount, sometimes with varied endings. The story is captivating, but takes on greater interest in our own time of pandemic, with clear similarities drawn between the experience of the people in the story - who isolate themselves through trickery from the rest of the infested town - and the experiences many are having as a result of COVID-19. This includes denial, claims that God will protect people from the pestilence who attend mass, and differing stories of people who encounter the plague directly - one sickens and dies almost immediately, one escapes without infection, and one becomes infected but recovers (and is therefore pressed into service of those who are ill and dying). There is also a bit of a classist 'us-and-them' subtext, not unlike our own times, in which this fairly wealthy enclave organise themselves to be completely self-sufficient while the rest of the city is almost completely wiped out. In their safe haven, however, the residents struggle with anxiety and boredom. Their ultimate escape from the town is told as the crux of the story.
A great read, both beautifully written and an interesting insight into a time now long past.
These volumes include some stories from summer holidays in the Provincial countryside (the setting of the first two books), but focus more on his school days in a prestigious lycee, where he was a scholarship student. Told with wit, humour and a natural storyteller's flair for detail, it is also interesting to read about what school life was like at the turn of the last century. Most of the drama revolves around an endless stream of student pranks and whether Pagnol and his friends can escape punishment.
An interesting diversion from these schoolboy stories is a fairly long chapter which tells a story set in the time of plague in Marseilles in the 1720s. According to the notes contained in the book it is unknown where Pagnol heard this story but it was a favourite of his to recount, sometimes with varied endings. The story is captivating, but takes on greater interest in our own time of pandemic, with clear similarities drawn between the experience of the people in the story - who isolate themselves through trickery from the rest of the infested town - and the experiences many are having as a result of COVID-19. This includes denial, claims that God will protect people from the pestilence who attend mass, and differing stories of people who encounter the plague directly - one sickens and dies almost immediately, one escapes without infection, and one becomes infected but recovers (and is therefore pressed into service of those who are ill and dying). There is also a bit of a classist 'us-and-them' subtext, not unlike our own times, in which this fairly wealthy enclave organise themselves to be completely self-sufficient while the rest of the city is almost completely wiped out. In their safe haven, however, the residents struggle with anxiety and boredom. Their ultimate escape from the town is told as the crux of the story.
A great read, both beautifully written and an interesting insight into a time now long past.
June 5, 2023
If you enjoyed the film versions of Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring, then you will probably enjoy these stories by the author of the books on which those films are based, as well as being himself one of the most highly renowned and lionized directors in the storied annals of French cinema. Pagnol's sense of the droll banal and the charming quotidian is a marvel to behold, and there are many stories to charm the reader in these pages. The second half of this volume was part of what was eventually going to be a tetralogy of the author's youth, but alas, it was unfinished during his lifetime and so his friends and executors published the relevant drafts they found among his papers. It shows in that the last couple of stories in The Time of Love, about the plague assailing Marseilles in the early 18th century and about the adolescent love disaster of his friend Lagneau ("the lamb"), do not flow out of the preceding narrative and read like unrelated appendices. My suggestion for the interested reader is to read the book in order, and if like me you find yourself beguiled by The Time of Secrets, you may also enjoy the more fragmented The Time of Love.
June 4, 2024
4.5 stars
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews