Classical Poetry PDF EPUB

Mirèio

Downloads: Under 100
First published: 1859
Pages: 188

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About this book

Written in Provencal by a poet determined to save his native tongue from oblivion, this twelve-canto epic tells a love story rooted in the sunburnt farmland of southern France. Mireille, the daughter of a prosperous landowner, loves Vincent, a poor basketmaker, and when her family forbids the match she flees across the scorching plain of the Crau toward the shrine of the Saintes-Maries. Around the lovers Mistral crowds the customs, labor, and legend of nineteenth-century Provence, from silkworm harvests to the songs of the fields. The poem revived Occitan as a literary language and helped earn its author the Nobel Prize. Harriet Waters Preston's English verse translation is offered here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.

About the author

Frédéric Mistral

Frederic Mistral (1830-1914) was a Provencal poet and a leader of the Felibrige movement to revive the Occitan language and the culture of southern France. He compiled a major Provencal dictionary and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1904, with Mireio standing as his masterwork.

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