Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs: Two Novels

In Jean de Florette and Manon of the Springs, Marcel Pagnol (called by Andre Malraux "one of the great writers of our generation" and by Jean Renoir "the leading film artist of his age") achieves the fullest and most satisfying expression of a story that haunted him for years, a Provencal legend of vengeance exacted by a mysterious shepherdess.

Pagnol brings to his treatment of this powerful, moving story his dramatist's sense of place, ambience, and character and his keen understanding of ...