The Horseman on the Roof (novel)
The Horseman on the Roof is an adventure novel by Jean Giono, which was published in 1951 in French. He is part of the " Hussars cycle ", to which according to the order in which they were written, the following novels include:
- (orig. Les Récits de la demi brigade )
- Angelo Pardi (orig. Angelo )
- (orig. Mort d'un personnage )
- The Horseman on the Roof,
- (orig. Le Bonheur fou ).
However, The Horseman on the Roof represents the chronologically first novel of the series and was first published.
From the year 1995, the same name based on the novel of the film The Horseman on the Roof comes with Juliette Binoche in the female lead.
Action
Giono tells the story of Angelo Pardi, a young aristocrat and colonel of hussars, a member of the Carbonari. To 1832, he is forced to flee from his native Piedmont, after he has killed an Austrian officer in a duel. He crossed the Alps and reached the Provence, in which just broke out of a cholera epidemic. Looking for Giuseppe, a friend and also the Carbonari belonging Youth Fellowship, he arrives in Manosque, while there is raging cholera. As suspected poisoners and persecuted, he takes refuge on the roofs of the city and explored from there to abandoned homes in search of food. By chance, he meets it for the first time Pauline de Théus which receives him without fear of infection.
After leaving the roofs, he is persuaded by a nun to help her with the cleaning of cholera dead. Although he views the task as completely pointless, he does it out of pride and in memory of a doctor who had fought bravely for the sick and died in Angelos presence of cholera.
In order to contain the epidemic, the city is evacuated and the remaining residents have to move to the neighboring hill. Angelo, where he met the searched Giuseppe, but cholera and the persecution of political opponents forcing them to flee. In the mountains of the Drôme at Sainte -Colombe they want to meet again. The country is, however, completely sealed off by the army. On a barrier, he meets Pauline de Théus again, which tries to her husband at Gap ( Hautes- Alpes) travel. Together, they manage to break through the barrier. During the onward journey, the two get closer.
Finally, however, they are caught by the military and placed in Vaumeilh quarantined. You escaped from the quarantine and travel together on. After an ambush and a night in the open, they find an abandoned estate with wine cellar. Angelo tells of his mother, an Italian duchess and romantic woman with revolutionary ideas, and Pauline about her childhood and her forty years older husband, but she truly loves.
The next day, they believe near the end of their journey so that they share in protection against cholera, reckless their food with an erudite unknown. A few hours later collapses Pauline and vomits. Angelo tries to save everything to protect them from the cholera and maintains them on all night. Miraculously, she survived the fever.
Despite their love for each other, they end up going their separate ways. After Angelo Pauline accompanied her husband, he sets out to do his duties as a revolutionary.