Pierre-Jakez Helias (1914–1995)

What an enthralling read! Helias is a storyteller in the grand tradition. The book was written in the 1970s, but goes into incredible detail on life on a rural Breton farm in the 1920s, during his childhood. I was especially pleased that he gave ample respect to the roles of women, and that his mother even helped him by filling in details before she passed. I read this for my book research needs and I found a wealth to draw from.

This 1978 book, a bestseller in France before it was translated into English, recreates the peasant village in Brittany in which the author, an ethnologist, grew up in the first half of the twentieth century. Its evocative title came from a sentence uttered by Helios's grandfather on the importance of personal pride to the poor: "Since I am too poor to buy any other horse, at least the Horse of Pride will always have a stall in my stable. A wonderful book, rich in detail.

1529 The Horse of Pride: Life in a Breton Village, by Pierre-Jakes Helias translated and abridged by June Guicharnaud (read 24 July 1979) This is a book about life in a Breton village. Quite a surprising book for me to read. It was not very interesting to me--how I would love to read a similar book on life in a Sauerland village in the mid-1800's or in a Luxemburg village in that period. My foreign-born grandparents I feel very close to, mainly I think from my seeing their church records in show more Salt Lake City. Would I could see Eichhagen, Oberhundem, and Pratz! [the towns in which they were born] show less