The Horse of Pride: Life in a Breton Village

Rating:
Summary: Folklife Study
Review: Helias eloquently writes of life in his home village in this classic portrait of Breton folklife. He provides sufficient historical context to help readers understand the culture, but most of his descriptions come from his own memories and experiences. Sections where he describes life in the village and fields are especially interesting, and they provide rich details about everyday life. Helias left the village for higher education. The book's final chapters balance out the rich experiences of his childhood with the reflections of a seasoned scholar. This mixture of autobiography and ethnographic study makes the book especially interesting and poignant.

Rating:
Summary: Folklife Study
Review: Helias eloquently writes of life in his home village in this classic portrait of Breton folklife. He provides sufficient historical context to help readers understand the culture, but most of his descriptions come from his own memories and experiences. Sections where he describes life in the village and fields are especially interesting, and they provide rich details about everyday life. Helias left the village for higher education. The book's final chapters balance out the rich experiences of his childhood with the reflections of a seasoned scholar. This mixture of autobiography and ethnographic study makes the book especially interesting and poignant.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Portrait of Breton Folk Culture
Review: Helias's book is one of the classics of a genre known as "literary ethnography." Works in this style are designed both to provide a thorough understanding of life in a community as well as to artistically portray the experience of doing field research through well-written and elegant prose. Helias grew up in the community that he returned to study. Consequently, he knows about the daily life of his community, and his training in European folklife studies provides him with an amazing resource for writing about the quotidian realities of Breton folk culture. The book provides solid ethnographic description of daily life in the peasant village, and he writes of the ordinary and extraordinary experiences of daily life with equal grace and ease. The book reads beautifully, and the insights are timely and even more poignant 20 years after he completed his insightful study. This book is an inspiration to writers who present studies of folklife throughout the world, and it is essential reading for anyone interested in ethnographic writing.