Beast, and Other Tales

Winner of the Global Humanities PrizeA classic of modern Provencal literature, Jouse d Arbaud s 1926 masterpiece The Beast of Vacares (also known as The Beast of Vaccares ) is a haunting parable. 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, the gardian is nonetheless drawn to the eloquent Beast, a dying demigod 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 Rhone meets the Mediterranean, The Beast seamlessly melds fantasy with naturalistic detail about the region s flora and fauna. Three additional stories The Caraco, Peire 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.