Riassunto
Trama e riassunto di Tartarino di Tarascona
A chi è rivolto
For readers who love gentle satire, travel comedy, and characters who are lovable and ridiculous at once. It also suits anyone curious about southern France.
Che cos’è questo libro
Tartarin of Tarascon is a short comic novel by the French writer Alphonse Daudet, published in 1872. It follows one man in a small town in the south of France who is adored by his neighbours as a mighty hunter, though he has never faced anything fiercer than a cap. Daudet grew up in that southern region and wrote with a mix of love and mockery. The book teases the habits of the Midi, where a good story and a plain fact are rarely kept apart.
You get a quick, warm, funny tale of a man who must either live up to his legend or lose it. Along the way you meet a town of armed men with nothing to shoot, a garden with a very small giant tree, and a sea voyage to Algeria. In the first key point, we visit Tarascon itself and the odd passion that rules it.
In questo riassunto
- 1A town of hunters with nothing to huntFree
- 2Two men live inside Tartarin
- 3A legend that will not let him stay
- 4He sets out with a mountain of gear
- 5Algiers is not the Orient he imagined
- 6Mirage, mockery and a warm heart
Punto chiave 1 di 6
A town of hunters with nothing to hunt
Tarascon is a town in the south of France where, it seems, every man is a hunter. On Sundays they march out into the countryside with guns, game bags and dogs, all ready for a great day. The trouble is that the land around the town has no game left at all. Years of hunting have left only one elusive old hare.
So the hunters invent their own sport. Each man throws his own cap high into the air and shoots at it. The man who hits his cap most often is crowned king of the hunt, and he carries it home with pride. The town calls this cap hunting, and it takes it very seriously.
The hunters have clubs, rivalries and local politics. The leading figure in the town is Tartarin, the acknowledged leader of the cap hunters. He is a short, round, bearded man of about forty-five, with a big voice and a bigger sense of himself. The hunters ask him to settle their disputes about hunting.
Daudet uses this setting to show how a whole community can feed on its own pretence. Nobody in Tarascon is lying on purpose. They simply like the picture of themselves as bold men of the gun, and they all help to paint it. That shared picture is what will soon catch Tartarin in its grip.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Tartarin
- Tartarin is the admired president of Tarascon’s cap hunters, whose neighbours expect him to become a mighty lion hunter.
- Bravida
- Bravida is a retired army captain and loyal friend who shares the town’s admiration for Tartarin.
- Costecalde
- Costecalde is the town gunsmith and Tartarin’s rival, eager to replace him as leader of the hunters.
- Bézuquet
- Bézuquet is the local chemist and Tartarin’s affectionate friend, concerned about the extravagant adventures he plans.
- Prince Gregory of Montenegro
- Prince Gregory of Montenegro is a smooth stranger who befriends Tartarin when the hunter arrives in Algiers.
- Baia
- Baia is a young Moorish woman who attracts Tartarin and draws his attention toward life in Algiers.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 62,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 5 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Tartarino di Tarascona
What is Tartarin of Tarascon about?
It is a comic novel about Tartarin, a boastful hunter in a small southern French town who has never shot real game. Pressed by his admirers, he travels to Algeria to hunt lions and face his own legend.
Where is Tarascon and is it a real place?
Tarascon is a real town in the south of France, in Provence, near the Rhône. Daudet used it as the home of a comic hero whose neighbours love big stories and big talk.
What does the baobab in the flowerpot mean?
Tartarin keeps a tiny baobab, a tree that normally grows huge, in a pot. It stands for the man himself, with large dreams and ambitions held in a very small and comfortable life.
Is Tartarin of Tarascon a true story?
No. It is fiction, published in 1872. Daudet drew on the Provençal character and on his own travels in Algeria, but Tartarin is an invented, comic figure, not a real person.
Is Tartarin of Tarascon hard to read?
No. It is short, light and told in a clear, chatty voice. The jokes about southern habits are easy to follow, and the plot moves in simple steps from town to sea to Algeria.