Frédéric Mistral

Frédéric Mistral (September 8, 1830 - March 25, 1914) was a French poet who led the 19th century revival of Occitan (Provençal) language and literature. He was a key figure in the literary félibrige movement. He shared the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1904 (with Jose Echegaray y Eizaguirre) for his contributions in literature and philology.

Works

His literary output consists of four long narrative poems: Mirèio (1859; Mireio: A Provencal Poem), Calendau (1867), Nerto (1884), and Lou Pouemo dou Rose (1897; Eng. trans. The Song of the Rhone); a historical tragedy, La Reino Jano (1890; "Queen Jane"); two volumes of lyrics, Lis Isclo d'or (1876; definitive edition 1889) and Lis Oulivado (1912); and many short stories, collected in Prose d'Armana, 3 vol. (1926-1929).

Related Topics:
Narrative poem - Mirèio - 1859 - 1867 - 1884 - 1897 - Queen Jane - 1876 - 1889 - 1912 - 1926 - 1929

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Mistral's volume of memoirs, Moun espelido (French: Mes origines, 1906; Eng. trans. Memoirs of Mistral), is his best-known work, but his claim to greatness rests on his first and last long poems, Mirèio and Lou Pouemo dou Rose, both full-scale epics in 12 cantos.

Related Topics:
1906 - Epic - Canto

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Mirèio, which is set in the poet's own time and district, is the story of a rich farmer's daughter whose love for a poor basketmaker's son is thwarted by her parents and ends with her death in the church of Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. Into this poem Mistral poured his love for the countryside where he was born. Mirèio skillfully combines narration, dialogue, description, and lyricism and is notable for the springy, musical quality of its highly individual stanzaic form. Under its French title, Mireille, it inspired an opera by Charles Gounod (1863).

Related Topics:
Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer - Charles Gounod - 1863

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Lou Pouemo dou Rose tells of a voyage on the Rhône River from Lyon to Beaucaire by the barge Lou Caburle, which is boarded first by a romantic young prince of Holland and later by the daughter of a poor ferryman. The romance between them is cut short by disaster when the first steamboat to sail on the Rhone accidentally sinks Lou Caburle. Though the crew swims ashore, the lovers are drowned. Although less musical and more dense in style than Mirèio, this epic is as full of life and colour. It suggests that Mistral, late in life, realized that his aim had not been reached and that much of what he loved was, like his heroes, doomed to perish.

Related Topics:
Rhône River - Lyon - Beaucaire - Steamboat

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