The Beast, and Other Tales

A classic of modern Provencal literature, Jus d'Arbaud's 1926 masterpiece The Beast of Vacars (sometimes titled The Beast of Vaccars, based on the French spelling) is a haunting parable about one man's heartbreaking encounter with a dying demi-god. Set during the fifteenth century, the tale is narrated by a solitary bull-herder - known as a gardian - who stumbles upon a starving creature that is half-man, half-goat. Terrified that he has met a devil or that his eyes are deceiving him, the gardian is nonetheless drawn to the eloquent Beast, who laments the loss of his glorious past even as he wields power over the animals around him. Torn between pity and fear, unable to understand his experiences and afraid he will be condemned for heresy, the gardian records his encounters in a journal, hoping that one day readers will make sense of what he cannot. Set in the vast, lonely landscape of the Camargue delta, where the Rhne meets the Mediterranean, The Beast seamlessly melds fantasy with realistic detail about the region's flora and fauna. Three additional stories - The Caraco, Pire Guilhem's Remorse, and The Longline explore the lives of twentieth-century gardians in the region. Each man succumbs to fears and social pressure, tragically losing what he most loves. The Beast should appeal to general readers as well as to those specifically interested in modern Provenal literature, nature writing, environmentalism, and the fate of pagan classical gods in the modern era.