Second Harvest - Softcover

Giono, Jean

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1860462669 ISBN 13: 9781860462665

Publisher: Harvill Pr, 1999

Synopsis

Panturle lives in the village of Aubignane, in the Provencal uplands. He is a huge man: "When he met a living animal, he looked at it without moving: it was a fox, a hare, or a big snake in the rubble. He did not move; he took his time. He knew that somewhere in a bush there was a wire noose which strangled necks that passed by." Aubignane was a deserted village. That autumn Gaubert the smithy, "a little man all moustache", left; and before the winter was out the well-sinker's widow had left as well.
Then only Panturle remained, a man made morose almost to the point of madness by his solitude. He gave up planting and lived off what he could catch. Then out of the blue a woman arrived, someone to live for, someone to till the soil for and plant new seed. Even a village can be raised from the dead.

About this title

About the Author

Jean Giono (1895-1970) is the author of The Man Who Planted Trees, Angelo (Harvill, 1998), and The Horseman on the Roof (NPP, 1996).

Reviews

First published in France in 1930, Giono's lush tale of love and loss is being reissued in a new translation and illustrated with 12 provocative woodcuts by L.W. Graux. Giono (1895-1970) was French-born, of Italian origin, and wrote such beloved stories as The Man Who Planted Trees and Horseman on the Roof. He sets his succulent novel in the nearly abandoned Proven?al village of Aubignane, home to three people: 80-year-old Gaubert, who soon leaves, seeking solace in his old age with his son in a neighboring village; a widow still grieving the loss of her husband and baby son, and seemingly growing more unstable; and 40-year-old Panturle, a huge, gruff and isolated hunter. When Mameche, the widow, disappears, Panturle grows nearly wild in his solitude. As he's on the edge of deep despair, a woman, Arsule, happens along. Arsule's story being a sad one, she happily leaves the man she's traveling with, who works her like an animal, and moves in with Panturle. Soon she's making clothes and redecorating the home, while Panturle finds himself with renewed faith in love and life, anxious to begin planting wheat and harvesting the earth's bounty. Giono invests his prose with stunning descriptions of the countryside and lyrical evocations of the majestic seasons ("Spring clung to his shoulders like a big cat"). The couple's romance is practical and their partnership utilitarian, but Giono renders their love lavish as they make a life where the air smells of lavender and where "such a passion has seized the earth... such a passion!" (Nov.) FYI: Giono was awarded the Prix Mon?gasque in 1953 for his collective work.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A seductive story of grief and love by the incomparable Giono (18951970), originally published in France in 1930 and now reissued in a splendid new illustrated edition. Giono (The Man Who Planted Trees, Horseman on the Roof, etc.), like many Provenals, was a Frenchman of Italian descent, and his tales take place mainly among the shadows of the forgotten, half-deserted villages of Provence. Here he brings us into the overgrown thickets of Aubignane, nearly a ghost town with only three inhabitants: Gaubert, the blacksmith; the widow Mamche; and the solitary farmer Panturle. Mamche lost her husband in a well-digging accident shortly before her son was born; three years later the boy ate hemlock by mistake and died. Eventually Mamche leaves, to forget her sorrows. Gaubert also moves on: At 80, hes too old to look after himself, so he goes to pass his final years with his son in a neighboring village. For a long time Panturle is the only one left in Aubignane, a giant man living among the cats and goats of his farm, hunting foxes and game amid the fallow pastures and keeping house for himself like a hermit. One day, however, he falls into a stream while hunting and is fished out by Arsule, a young woman traveling through the area with Gdmus, the itinerant knife-grinder. Having saved Panturle from drowning, Arsule takes him home and nurses him to health. Its easy for her to stay on, since she grew up in an acting troupe and has no home of her own, and she and Panturle fall in love. Arsule transforms Panturles hut into a real home, and soon other families settle in the region. Aubignane becomes a town once morea collection of homes and children rather than houses and lands. With magical prose narrating a fairy tale of real depth, this deserves to be considered a literary classic. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

First published in France in 1930, this is a novel of rare charm and magicAa poignant love story, masterfully told. Panturle, the young man at the center of the story, lives a very simple life alone in the Proven?al uplands, a place that appears almost untouched by history. A hunter and trapper, he asks for very little of life, but when spring comes, he finds himself suddenly yearning for companionship and love. Arsule, a vagabond who drifts into town with a theatrical performer and is abandoned, is the young woman he comes to love. The life they build together in the deserted farming village of Aubignane is full of simple pastoral pleasures exquisitely rendered by Giono. Although American readers will no doubt need to be patient as they acclimate to Giono's style and fictional world, their patience will be richly rewarded. An enchanting novel, enthusiastically recommended.APatrick Sullivan, Manchester Community-Technical Coll., CT
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harvill Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1860462669
• ISBN 13: 9781860462665
• Binding: Paperback
• Illustrator: Graux Louis William
• Number of pages: 121