The Song of the World

Novel by the French writer Jean Giono

The Song of the World

First edition cover

Author| Jean Giono
Original title| Le Chant du monde
Translator| Henri Fluchère
Geoffrey Myers
Language| French
Publisher| Éditions Gallimard

Publication date

| 16 May 1934
Publication place| France

Published in English

| 1937
Pages| 318

The Song of the World (French: Le Chant du monde) is a 1934 novel by the French writer Jean Giono. The narrative portrays a river and human vendettas as a part of nature. The story contains references to the Iliad. Its themes and view on nature were heavily inspired by Walt Whitman's poetry collection Leaves of Grass.[1] It was adapted into the 1965 film Le Chant du monde, directed by Marcel Camus.[2]

## Publication

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The novel was serialised in Revue de Paris from 1 March to 15 April 1934. Éditions Gallimard published the book on 16 May the same year.[1] An English translation by Henri Fluchère and Geoffrey Myers was published in 1937.[3]

## Reception

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John Chamberlain wrote in Scribner's Magazine: "Even in spite of the strained images Giono is always en rapport with his scene; he loves the river, the trees, and the hills of his country with a love that is fortunately nine-tenths curiosity. ... Even if you can't stand Homeric madmen you should be able to find much to your taste in The Song of the World." Chamberlain continued: "The real idiocy is not the story, but Giono's attitude towards his own product and his own world. The present time, he says, disgusts him; hence his desire to escape from contemporaneity to the far more 'natural' world of the primitive Basses-Alpes, where the peasants still live as they lived two or three hundred years ago. ... He seems to be telling us that primitive man lived a much less conventional and inhibited life than we moderns; he also implies, somewhat paradoxically, that values and order both exist for primitive people, whereas confusion and disorder make the world a hell for the people of 1937. Just why he should think thus is beyond me."[4]

## References

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1. ^ a b "Histoire d'un livre : Le Chant du monde de Jean Giono". gallimard.fr (in French). Éditions Gallimard. Retrieved 2015-04-19.
2. ^ "Le Chant du monde". AlloCiné (in French). Retrieved 2015-04-19.
3. ^ The song of the world. OCLC 994276. Retrieved 2015-04-19 - via WorldCat.
4. ^ Chamberlain, John (November 1937). "The Song of the World, by Jean Giono". Scribner's Magazine: 71–73.

## External links

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* The Song of the World at the French publisher's website

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Jean Giono

Bibliography

Novels|

* Colline (1929)
* Lovers Are Never Losers (1929)
* Second Harvest (1930)
* Blue Boy (1932)
* The Song of the World (1934)
* Joy of Man's Desiring (1936)
* A King Alone (1947)
* Les Âmes fortes (1949)
* The Horseman on the Roof (1951)
* The Open Road (1951)
* The Malediction (1952)
* The Straw Man (1957)
* Two Riders of the Storm (1965)

Short fiction|

* The Solitude of Compassion (1932)
* "The Man Who Planted Trees" (1953)

Other works|

* Les Vraies Richesses (1937 book)
* Croesus (1960 film)

Miscellaneous|

* Grand prix Jean Giono
* Night Across the Street
* Pan trilogy

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