CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I [THE SÉRIGNAN JUBILEE] 1
II [THE URCHIN OF MALAVAL] 10
III [THE SCHOOLBOY: SAINT-LÉONS] 24
IV [THE SCHOOLBOY: SAINT-LÉONS] (continued) 39
V [AT THE COLLEGE OF RODEZ] 65
VI [THE PUPIL TEACHER: AVIGNON (1841–43)] 74
VII [THE SCHOOLMASTER: CARPENTRAS] 87
VIII [THE SCHOOLMASTER: CARPENTRAS] (continued) 99
IX [THE PROFESSOR: AJACCO] 118
X [THE PROFESSOR: AVIGNON (1852–1870)] 128
XI [THE PROFESSOR: AVIGNON] (continued) 143
XII [THE PROFESSOR: AVIGNON] (continued) 166
XIII [RETIREMENT: ORANGE] [[xiv]]199
XIV [THE HERMIT OF SÉRIGNAN (1879–1910)] 209
XV [THE HERMIT OF SÉRIGNAN] (continued) 223
XVI [THE HERMIT OF SÉRIGNAN] (continued) 232
XVII [THE COLLABORATORS] 253
XVIII [THE COLLABORATORS] (continued) 274
XIX [FABRE’S WRITINGS] 293
XX [FABRE’S WRITINGS] (continued) 324
XXI [A GREAT PREPARATION] 358
XXII [THE LAST HEIGHTS (1910–1915)] 366

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[[Contents]]

THE LIFE OF JEAN HENRI FABRE

[[1]]

CHAPTER I

THE SÉRIGNAN JUBILEE

In a few days’ time[1] naturalists, poets, and philosophers will repair in company to Sérignan, in the neighbourhood of Orange. What is calling them from every point of the intellectual horizon, from the most distant cities and capitals, to a little Provençal village? Moussu Fabré, they would tell you yonder, in a tone of respectful sympathy.

But who is the Moussu Fabré thus cherished by the simplest as well as by the most cultivated minds? He is a sturdy old man of all but ninety years, who has spent almost the whole of his life in the company of Wasps, Bees, Gnats, Beetles, Spiders, and Ants, and has described the doings of these tiny creatures in a most wonderful fashion in ten large volumes entitled Souvenirs Entomologiques or Etudes sur l’Instinct et les Mœurs des Insectes.[2] [[2]]