''Letters from My Windmill'' () is a collection of short stories by
Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet (; 13 May 184016 December 1897) was a French novelist. He was the husband of Julia Daudet and father of Edmée, Léon and Lucien Daudet.
Early life
Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the ' ...
first published in its entirety in 1869. Some of the stories had been published earlier in newspapers or journals such as ''
Le Figaro
() is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...
'' and ''
L'Evénement'' as early as 1865.
The stories are all told by the author in the first person, typically addressing a
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
ian reader. The author, having moved from his home in Paris, recounts short bucolic tales about his new life in
Provence
Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the France–Italy border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...
as well as his trips to
Corsica
Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...
and
French Algeria
French Algeria ( until 1839, then afterwards; unofficially ; ), also known as Colonial Algeria, was the period of History of Algeria, Algerian history when the country was a colony and later an integral part of France. French rule lasted until ...
. The stories vary from day-to-day events in southern France to Provençal folktales, and often feature professions and faunal references characteristic of Provence. The tales are characterised by pity, tenderness and sadness, alongside gaiety and mockery.
[Louis Forrestier, commentary in the Livre de Poche edition, 1985, quoting with approval Jules Lemaître]
''Letters From My Windmill'' is sometimes considered to be Daudet's most important work. It is cherished by many French, particularly in the South, for the picture it paints of the local culture.
A French-language
film with the same title was made in 1954 by
Marcel Pagnol
Marcel Paul Pagnol (, also ; ; 28 February 1895 – 18 April 1974) was a French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker. Regarded as an auteur, in 1946, he became the first filmmaker elected to the . Pagnol is generally regarded as one of France's ...
composed of four stories: "The Three Low Masses", "The Elixir of Father Gaucher", "The Priest of
Cucugnan" and "
The Secret Of Master Cornille".
Trivia
The Belgian comic author
Mitteï made a comic adaptation of the book in three volumes between 1979-1985, which were released in Dutch, French and the French dialect of Liège.
References
Further reading
* Hare, Geoffrey E. (1982). "The Unity of ''Lettres de Mon Moulin''," ''Nineteenth-Century French Studies,'' Vol. 10, No. 3/4, pp. 317–325.
External links
''Letters from My Mill''at
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
(scanned books original editions illustrated color)
Les Lettres de Mon Moulin (1954) movie review, ''New York Times'', December 19, 1955.
*
Translated by Harmelin and Adams
''Lettres de mon moulin''
comic adaptation b
*
{{Authority control
1869 short story collections
French short story collections
Short stories by Alphonse Daudet