French Boys' Clothes: Literary References in Novels--Marcel Pagnol


Figure 1.--This is the cover to an edition of "Le Chateau de ma Mere" showing Marcel and his brother Paul on the Castle grounds. Marcel like many French boys wore smocks to school. The hats are mentioned in the text. The smocks are mentioned in the school scenes back in Marseilles, but not when they're on holiday.

A great French author is Marcel Pagnol. He was born in Aubagne. His father, Joseph Pagnol, was a teacher. His mother, Augustine Lansot, a seamstress. Joseph took his family to Saint-Loup near Marseilles when Pagnol was 3 years old. His father obtained an appointment as a regular teacher at the school in the Chemin des Chartreux. This was the largest primary Marseilles. Marcel was a precocious child. He managed to learn how to read when he was very young, but his mother did not allow him to open a book until he was 6 years old "for fear of cerebral explosion"! His mother was convinced that believed could happen. Pagnol wrote his first work, a play, for a local group when he was only 15 years old. He attended the University of Aix-en-Provence. Marcel Pagnol is today one the best known French writers. All his writing are set in Provence. Often they are set in the countryside where the little village-mentality prevails. He also describes life in the cities such as Marseilles. All his stories are full of sensibility and morality. As he is so popular, there are mant TV and movie adaptations. He is probably best known for his books Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources which were made into successful films. His main career was as a film maker.

Biography

Marcel Pagnol was born in Aubagne. His father, Joseph Pagnol, was a teacher. His mother, Augustine Lansot, a seamstress. Joseph took his family to Saint-Loup near Marseilles when Pagnol was 3 years old. His father obtained an appointment as a regular teacher at the school in the Chemin des Chartreux. This was the largest primary Marseilles. Marcel was a precocious child. He managed to learn how to read when he was very young, but his mother did not allow him to open a book until he was 6 years old "for fear of cerebral explosion"! His mother was convinced that believed could happen. Pagnol wrote his first work, a play, for a local group when he was only 15 years old. He attended the University of Aix-en-Provence.

Novels

Marcel Pagnol is today one the best known French writers. All his writing are set in Provence. Often they are set in the countryside where the little village-mentality prevails. He also describes life in the cities such as Marseilles. All his stories are full of sensibility and morality. As he is so popular, there are mant TV and movie adaptations. He is probably best known for his books Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. which were made into successful films.

Film Maker

His main career was as a film maker. Both Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources. which were made into successful films.

Childhood Books and Films

Pagnol wrote two books about his childhood. One HBC reader sees them as primarily children's books, but would recommend them to adults interested in French social history and the geography of Provence. These childhood recollections - Le Chateau de ma Mere" ( My Mother's Castle) and La Gloire de mon Pere ( My Father's Glory) are suberb books which were also filmed and HBC has them listed in its film archive. A HBC reader writes, "I didn't read these books at school but did as an adult when I took up learning French again. They are an excellent description of a Provencal boyhood in turn-of-the-century France. He claimed to have written the books for his grandchildren but got thousands of letters from French children who were enchanted by them.

Le Chateau de ma Mere

Le Chateau de ma Mere is about his life with his mother. The covers of a French edition of the book explains why he wrote these books about his childhood. He writes, "Cette histoire est vraie, mais elle s'est passée il y a bien longtemps, quand vos grands-parents étaient encore des enfants... A cette époque, des charrettes et des fiacres roulaient dans les rues, et quand une auto arrivait, on l'entendait venir de bien loin ... Alors les chevaux prenaient le mors aux dents, et les gens couraient s'abriter sous les portes cochères ... C'est pour vous dire que le monde change vite ... Mais il y a une chose qui ne changera jamais: c'est l'amour des enfants pour leur mère, et j'ai écrit ce livre pour apprendre aux petites filles comment leurs fils les aimeront un jour ..." This translates as, "This is a true story – but it happened a long time ago when your grandparents were still children.At that time carriages and horse-drawn cabs rolled through the streets and if a motor car was approaching you'd hear it coming from miles away.Then it was the horses that had the bit between their teeth and people would rush to get on board the carriages. Im trying to tell you that things change rapidly in the world.But there's one thing that will never change and that's the love of children for their mothers and so I've written this book to explain to little girls how the day will arrive when their sons will love them."

These passages come from the book.

This pasage describes the clothing worn by Lili – a local boy Marcel meets when he's exploring the countryside. He is examining a bird in a trap when the boy calls to him. "'Hé! l'ami!' Je vis un garçon de mon âge, qui me regardait sévèrement. 'Il ne faut pas toucher les pièges des autres, dit-il. Un piège, c'est sacré! - Je n'allais pas le prendre, dis-je. Je voulais voir l'oiseau." Il s'approcha: c'était un petit paysan. Il était brun, avec un fin visage provençal, des yeux noirs, et de longs cils de fille. Il portait, sous un vieux gilet de laine grise, une chemise brune à manches longues qu'il avait roulées jusqu'au-dessus des coudes, une culotte courte, et des espadrilles de corde commes les miennes, mais il n'avait pas de chaussettes. 'Quand on trouve un gibier dans un piège, dit-il, on a le remettre à sa place.' Il dégagea l'oiseau, et dit: 'C'est une bédouîde.'" This translate as, "'Hey, friend.' I saw a boy of my own age who was looking at me in a severe manner. 'You're not allowed to touch other peoples' traps,' he said. 'A trap is a sacred thing.' 'I wasn't going to take it,' I said, 'I wanted to see the bird.' He approached – he was a young peasant boy. He was brown with a finely chiselled Provencal face, black eyes and long eyelashes like a girl. He was wearing, under an old grey woolen waistcoat a brown shirt with long sleeves that he'd rolled up to his elbows, short trousers and rope sandals like mine – but he wasn't wearing socks."

Another passage is when the boys (Marcel and Lili) return home drenched after being caught out in a storm on the hills. It describes the boys being stripped by Marcel's mother and Aunt and dried in front of the fire. The middle section then reads, ""Lili fut rhabillé avec mon vieux cstume à col de marin, ce qui lui donna tout de suite grand air, pendant que j'étais enveloppé - plutöt que vêtu - dans un tricot de mon père, qui me descendait aux genoux, tandis que des bas de laine de ma mère me montaient jusqu'aux hanches." That translates as, "Lili was then re-clothed in my old sailor suit, that immediately gave him a grand appearance, while I was wrapped up in, rather than dressed in, a jumper of my father's which reached down to my knees, while the woolen stockings of my mother reached up to my hips." The boys then tell their adventure in front of the fire. Lili's father then decides it's time to go. "Il sortit,emmenant Lili, qui garda mon vieux costume pour l'admiration de sa mere." Which translates as, "He went out leading Lili – who kept my old suit on for his mother to admire."

La Gloire de mon père

La Gloire de mon père is about Marcel's experiences with his father and an arrogant uncle. His father was a successful teacher Every year Marcel’s family take their vacation in the beautiful French countryside of Provence. There they stay at the family cottage and while there, Marcel meets a boy who shows him the wonders of the countryside. It is here that Marcel falls in love with the hills around the area where he is staying.

Pagnol on the back cover explains why he wrote these books about his childhood. Peau d'Ane,la Belle et la Bete and Riquet a la Houppe are French fairy tales (we know the middle one as “Beauty and the Beast”). Citroen is, of course the famous French car. Dauphine is the French prince, heir apparent. Aronde – the last maybe a type of aircraft but you get his point. He writes, "Parce que j'ai maintenant des petits-enfants, j'ai souvent envie de raconter des histoires: c'est la fonction naturelle fes grands-pères, et peut-être leur plus grand mérite. Le mien me racontait Peau d'Ane, la Belle et la Bête, Riquet à la Houppe; mais aujourd'hui, les fées ne s'amusent plus á changer une citrouille en carrosse, et c'est grand dommage, car elles nous feraient, avec un potiron, une Citroën, avec un concombre, une Dauphine, et avec une hirondelle, une Aronde ... Pour moi, j'ai préféré vous raconter l'enfance d'un petit garçon, qui fut aussi celle de vous grands-përes, et qui n'est peut-être pas trës différente de la vôtre, car les petits garçons de tous les temps ont toujours eu les mêmes problèmes, la mème malice, les mêmes amours." This translates as, "Because I now have grandchildren I often feel like telling stories. It's a natural function of grandfathers and perhaps their greatest merit. Mine used to tell me the fairy tales “Peau d'Ane”,”La Belle et la Bete” and “Riquet a la Houppe” - but these days fairies no loger go around changing a pumpkins into a carriages – and that's a great shame as they could make a Citroenfrom a pumpkin for us, or a Dauphine from a cucumber and from a swallow they could make an Aronde..... For me – I have preferred to tell you the story of the childhood of a little boy, which was also the childhood of your own grandparents and is, perhaps not that different to your own because little boys in every country in the world and at all periods of history have always had the same problems,the same mischeivousness and the same longings."

In one passage, Marcel is planning on running away from home, "Secondly, I must get my clothes ready. I had flung them all over the place, as was my habit... On all fours, in the dark, I recovered my socks and put them inside my rope-soled shoes. After prolonged searching, I found my shirt under Paul's bed. I turned it right side out, and did the same with my shorts. I then laid them on the foot of the bed. After that I lay down again, rather proud of the decision I had taken - and, with all my might, I strained to keep my eyes open. [Pagnol, p. 135.]

This passage describes the boys' (Marcel and his little brother Paul) costume as they are about to set of from Marseilles for the cottage the family has rented up in the Provencal hills. "Le lendemain matin, dès huit heures, nous étions prêts, et déjà revêtus du costume des vacances: culottes de toile écrue, et chemises à manches courtes, blanches, mais ornées de cravates bleuses. Ces vêtements étaient l'ouvrage de ma mère: on avait acheté dans un grand magasin nos casquettes à longue visière, et nos espadrilles à semelles de corde. This translates as, "The following morning at 8 o'clock we were ready and already dressed in our holiday clothes – shorts in unbleached linen and short-sleeved shirts – which were white but decorated by blue cravats. These clothes were my mother's handiwork – we had bought our caps with long peaks and our rope-soled sandals in a big store."








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Created: February 10, 2004
Last updated: February 10, 2004