My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle - Marcel Pagnol

Introduction 18 years ago I did French at A Level. One of the highlights of the course was having to read a number of novels in French. 18 years later, my French is somewhat rusty, but luckily two of my favourite books have been translated into English (wish they'd had this out when I did my A Level!). What was even better was that I only paid £2 for this in a sale. Re-reading these two books was a real pleasure, all the more so because I read them during a recent holiday to France. The author Marcel Pagnol is actually better known as a playwright and director than an author, although certainly in the UK he is better known as the author of books such ...

Marcel Pagnol was born in Aubagne (south West of France) in 1895 and died in Paris in 1974. French composer, dramatic author, narrator and member of the French Academy, his most famous books are “Topaze”, “Marius and Fanny”. He also wrote his biography and “La Gloire de mon père”, “My Father’s Glory” was the first of the three tomes. “Le Château de ma mere”, “My Mother’s Castle” “Le Temps des amours”, unfinished volume Main characters: Jospeh and Augustine (Marcel’s parents) Lili (Marcel’s friend) Jules (Marcel’s uncle) ...

Please don?t turn off now thinking that I am going to hurtle headlong into an essay about Marcel Proust, because I?m not. It?s just that I think that the English title of Proust?s mammoth tome is fitting for an opinion about this book. In my view there aren?t many aware of the writer of the books I am talking about, and I think that that is a crying shame. Marcel Pagnol was born on 28 February 1895 in the small Provençal village of Aubagne. To many this may be a singularly uninteresting piece of trivial knowledge, but to those who are aware of Pagnol and his later career there is a major coincidence going on. This date and this place also ...