The Solitude of Compassion

First published in France in 1932, The Solitude of Compassion is a collection of stories about small-town life in Provence. Jean Giono invents a village of characters, often warm and admirable, at times immoral or coarse, who populate a world of striking reality. Giono is a passionate pacifist and a philosopher of nature, and these deceptively simple narratives speak eloquently of nature and humanity and of the connection between the two. Henry Miller's essay on Giono from The Books of My Life is also included in this collection of stories from one of Europe's most important 20th-century authors, available in English for the first time.