We encounter Alphonse Daudet in Nîmes, where he was born. This 19th-century writer (1840–1897) holds a unique place in the French imagination; French children experience, from a very young age, a mix of fear, sadness and—paradoxically—joy as they hear the tale of La Chèvre de Monsieur Seguin (Monsieur Seguin’s Goat).
This children’s story, crafted with a masterful sense of drama, recounts the fate of Blanquette, a charming little goat who pays with her life for her desire for freedom—to the utter despair of her owner, who had tried, against her will, to save her from such a terrible end.
Tout à coup le vent fraîchit. La montagne devint violette ; c’était le soir…
— Déjà ! dit la petite chèvre ; et elle s’arrêta fort étonnée.
Suddenly, the wind freshened; the mountain turned violet; and evening fell…
—Already! said the little kid goat, and stopped in astonishment. *
The tale of The Pope’s Mule—who harbors a deep grudge against a young man who once mistreated her, and delivers a lethal kick when their paths cross again seven years later—is another delightful story still published and told to children today.
These stories come from the collection Les Lettres de mon moulin (Letters from My Windmill), which played a major role in the author’s popularity. The setting of Provence makes it a truly delightful read for anyone who loves the song of the cicadas, the scents of the garrigue, and the breeze blowing across sun-drenched hills.
Alphonse Daudet is also the author of Le Petit Chose—the deeply sad story of a child buffeted by life—and Tartarin de Tarascon, which recounts the tale of a comic character, as the alliteration in his very name suggests.
But Alphonse Daudet was also, regrettably, an anti-Dreyfusard. In late 19th-century France, the Dreyfus Affair created a fierce divide: on one side were those who believed a Jewish military officer framed for treason was guilty, in a society where antisemitism made some all too ready to believe in his guilt; on the other were those who questioned the accusation, given the lack of credible evidence. Alphonse Daudet’s most antisemitic views would later resurface most notably in the work of his son, Léon Daudet.
In his eulogy, his friend Émile Zola—one of the most prominent of the Dreyfusards—praised “a compassionate love for the humble” and “a mocking eye for fools and villains” as defining traits of Alphonse Daudet. Ultimately, these are the qualities we prefer to remember. Indeed, both a gentle compassion and a vein of mocking laughter run throughout his work, much to our delight.
* “Monsieur Seguin’s Last Kid Goat,” from Letters from My Windmill by Alphonse Daudet. Translation © 2009 Mireille Harmelin & Keith Adams. Source: Project Gutenberg.
Portrait of Alphonse Daudet, Goupil & Cie, public domain. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
