Letters From My Mill

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 Letters From My Mill, by Alphonse Daudet

I came across this some months ago while weeding the French literature at work. We had a lot of ancient copies of modernist plays that needed replacing.   I took it home to get around to, but Fanda got there a lot faster than I did.  I'm completely unfamiliar with Daudet; as we know, French literature is my weakest point.  This was his first published work, in 1866, and it became a popular success, and it remained a favorite of his.

The conceit is that Daudet has rented a disused windmill, where he often goes for holidays or perhaps to live for periods of time.  The first few pieces are written as letters to friends in Paris, telling charming stories of the Avignon countryside -- some are cast as local incident, and some as legend.  After a while, we get reminiscences of former days in Paris or Algeria, or stories told by sailors.

On the whole it's charming, though the Algerian stories I could do without.  My copy is illustrated with line drawings by Barbosa; I don't know if they are usually included or not, but they were a nice addition.  My copy is old and obscure enough that there's no good photo of the cover, so I've included a nice French one for you.

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