Giono, Jean

Related Category: French Literature: Biographies

(zhäN jônō´), 1895–1970, French novelist, b. Provence. His semiautobiographical novel, Jean le bleu (1932, tr. Blue Boy, 1946) concerns his childhood. His pastoral trilogy—Colline (1920, tr. Hill of Destiny, 1929), Un de Baumugnes (1929, tr. Lovers Are Never Losers, 1931), and Regain (1930, tr. Harvest, 1939)—describes Provençal life, emphasizing closeness to nature. Giono expressed his pacifism in Refus d'obéissance (1937). Among his later novels are Le Bonheur fou (1957, tr. The Straw Man, 1959), Angelo (1958), and Ennemonde (1968, tr. 1970).

See study by N. L. Goodrich (1973).