Book Release: "The Rosary in the Sun" by Francis Jammes

 

The Rosary in the Sun

Francis Jammes

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The most recent entry in the Undusted Texts Translations series is the first work of fiction in the series: the novel The Rosary in the Sun (1916) by French poet Francis Jammes (1868-1938).  Jammes early gained recognition for his poetry, particularly his 1898 collection From the Dawn Angelus to the Evening Angelus.  Despite the title of that collection, Jammes was a fallen-away Catholic until he struck up a friendship with poet and playwright Paul Claudel (1868-1955).  Due to that friendship, Jammes "converted" to practicing Catholicism in 1905, and all of his later works were infused with a fervent Catholicism.  The present novel is no exception: it tells the story of Dominica, a young rich girl from Marseille torn between our love for Christ and the poor and her love for a young scientist and for children.  A chance encounter with a poor widower and his son outside a hostel in Lourdes sets her on a course to finally resolve the dilemma of her vocation.  Due to Dominca's own fervent devotion to the Rosary, the novel itself is structured according to the fifteen mysteries of the Rosary.  (Of course, the modern Rosary has twenty mysteries, as St. John Paul II added a new set of five Luminous Mysteries in his 2002 apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariæ.)  

Jammes is little-known in both French and English: despite his early success, his fame declined, partly due to his rustic lifestyle in the countryside of southwestern France, in the shadow of the Pyrenees, away from the literary circles of Paris.  In English, a few collections of his poetry are available, as well as a handful of studies.  As far as I am aware, this is the first full-length prose work by Jammes to be available in English.

This new translation is available in both paperback and eBook formats; as with my other eBooks, it can be read for free by subscribers to Kindle Unlimited.

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