Body and Tradition in Nineteenth-Century France: Félix Arnaudin and the Moorlands of Gascony, 1870-1914

Abstract

In this short book William Pooley invites the reader on an imaginative journey through the moorlands of Gascony, to meet the inhabitants and to contemplate the terrain and horizon, in the company of a unique guide. Simon Arnaudin, known as Félix (1844Félix ( −1921, was the son of bourgeois parents and born in the village of Labouheyre. Following three years of secondary schooling in Montde-Marsan, Arnaudin pursued a solitary studious existence, confining his interests 'to a relatively small geographical area in order to produce better work' (p. 39). His unlimited ambition, to collect the folklore of his native territory (pays) known as the 'Grande Lande', resulted in a project that researchers would later judge impossible to complete.Arnaudin's perception of himself as a 'collector' is significant for comprehending the nature of this personal project. It was a passion for collecting that drove him. The resulting archive reflects