A novel about Provence written by a Provençal

Born in Aix-en-Provence, a former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure and associate professor of philosophy, Mr. Armand Lunel, who is thirty-two years old, had not yet published anything. “L’Imagerie du Cordier”, which appears by Editions de la Nouvelle Revue Française, is his first novel.

A poet's novel yet modeled on life. of a rough realism, of a fantasy where humor and lyricism combine. Mr. Armand Lune! discovered a new form of modern “wonderful”; it is neither the “marvelous” of an Alain-Fournier, nor that of a Mac-Orlan or a Supervielle, it is another, more decorative, sunnier, also rich in harmonics and suggestions . The History of the Cordier resurrects all the poetry of the old road trades, celebrated by imagery and sung by lament.

Here first in Carpentras, the rivalry between Floren, the naive Comtadin rope maker, and Labri, the Piedmontese, bird charmer and popular jester: then the departure of Florent, rope on his shoulder and who believes himself to be guided by a magical bird, for a pilgrimage around the world.

And here is the wandering of the ingenuous rope maker who soon transforms, taking his flight through the Provençal countryside, becomes colored, gilded and ends up in legend. The banquet where each year the shepherd Castile brings together the people of the road sees the first apotheosis of the rope maker; the second is reserved for him upon his return to Carpentras.

The misunderstandings and the interchats of Italian comedy at the beginning, then the wonders of the rope maker as soon as he emerges from his rope, the landscapes of the Provençal Alps and all the memories of an old rustic province make up the poetic atmosphere of the book. The author, through continual borrowing, from fantasy itself, from direct observation, keeps his reader in a fortunately managed hesitation between fairyland and reality, lyricism and familiar life: and the novel thus gives the illusion , so conducive to dreams, of an old, highly colored popular imagery.