Frédéric Mistral
Frédéric Mistral was a notable French poet and regionalist writer, born in 1830 in Maillane, Provence. His upbringing in a rural environment, influenced by his family's connection to the Provençal language and culture, played a significant role in shaping his literary voice. Mistral became a key figure in the promotion of Provençal language and folklore, co-founding the Félibrige, a literary association dedicated to this cause, in 1854. His most celebrated works include the narrative poem "Mirèio," a tragic love story inspired by local folklore, and "Lou Tresor dóu Félibrige," an extensive dictionary and encyclopedia of Provençal customs and language. In recognition of his contributions to literature, Mistral was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1904. He used his prize money to establish the Museon Arlaten, a museum dedicated to Provençal culture in Arles. Mistral's legacy endures through his works and the cultural heritage he championed, marking him as a revered figure in both Provence and the broader literary world. He passed away in 1914, leaving behind a rich legacy steeped in the traditions and history of his beloved region.
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Subject Terms
Frédéric Mistral
French poet
- Born: September 8, 1830
- Birthplace: Maillane, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
- Died: March 25, 1914
- Place of death: Maillane, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
Biography
Frédéric Mistral (mee-strahl) was born in Maillane, a village between Avignon and Arles in the region of Provence in southern France. His work was deeply influenced by his childhood. Mistral’s father was a prosperous farmer and his mother a countrywoman who spoke the old Provençal language and taught her son the folklore and customs of the region. The memories of his father’s generation stretched back to before the French Revolution of 1789.
While at school in Avignon, Mistral met Joseph Roumanille, a Provençal writer and publisher, who was teaching at Mistral’s school. Roumanille and Mistral became lifelong friends and associates, dedicated to writing in Provençal, the language of the early troubadours of southern France. The region’s traditions of poetry, manners, and folklore were, by the mid-nineteenth century, being superceded by the dominant French culture. Mistral had soaked up this language and culture through his country childhood and had grown up with the old tales and ways.
Mistral studied law at the University of Aix-en-Provence, taking his degree in 1851 at the age of twenty-one. He returned home to Maillane. He was well enough off to live without following a profession, and his dedication to the language and culture of Provence became his lifelong vocation. In 1854, along with six other writers, including Roumanille, Mistral founded the Félibrige, a literary association dedicated to the preservation and promotion of the Provençal language, culture, and literature. This association still exists and is one of Mistral’s greatest contributions to the region.
Mistral’s literary reputation rests on three major works. The first is his long narrative poem, Mirèio, published in 1859 by Roumanille in Avignon. Mirèio is a tragic love story, an expanded folktale. The poem is deeply infused with a sense of place, history, and legend. Details of Provençal life are woven into the narrative. The poem was an immediate success in Provence and in Paris. The composer Charles Gounod adapted it for his opera Mireille (1864), and Mistral later translated the poem into French.
Mistral devoted twenty years of his life to preparing the multivolume work Lou Tresor dóu Félibrige (the treasury of Félibres), which was completed in 1878. Lou Tresor is a dictionary of the Provençal language and an encyclopedia of Provençal folklore and customs. It remains the definitive reference work on Provence.
The Song of the Rhône, published in 1897, was Mistral’s last major narrative poem. Another tragic love story based on folklore themes and characters, this work is a tribute to the vanishing craft and culture of the Rhone bargemen, describing Rhone shipping and landmarks in detail.
In 1904, Mistral won the Nobel Prize in Literature, in recognition of his study of Provençal language and contributions to literature. With his prize money, he founded the Museon Arlaten, a folk museum in Arles, devoted to the culture of Provence. This museum remains as an enduring monument to Mistral.
Memoirs of Mistral was published in 1906. These remembrances of his early life, ending with the publication of Mirèio, express the nostalgia for the old ways that determined his career and became the focus of his work. Mistral died at home in Maillane in 1914, widely recognized and revered in Provence and throughout the world as a great regionalist writer. The theme of his life and work was always Provence—its sites, history, and traditions, the lives and occupations of the people of the country and towns that he knew well, the life and tradition of his youth.
Bibliography
Aldington, Richard. Introduction to Mistral. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1960. Critical biography of Mistral by a British poet, scholar, and translator. Literary discussion and commentary. Intelligent, insightful, informative.
Edwards, Tudor. The Lion of Arles: A Portrait of Mistral and His Circle. New York: Fordham University Press, 1964. This lyrical biography places Mistral in the context of his circle: the members of the Félibrige and other French writers of the time. Edwards highlights the public Mistral, situating him in the politics of his time and region.
Lyle, Rob. Mistral. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1953. A slim volume analyzing Mistral’s poetry and literary output.
Mistral, Frédéric. The Memoirs of Frédéric Mistral. Translated by George Wickes. New York: New Directions Books, 1986. A good English translation of Mistral’s memoirs. Essential reading for the student of Mistral. Narrative, nostalgia, folklore, and place flow effortlessly and give the reader the essence of the culture Mistral meant to preserve.