Maurice Druon was born in Paris. He is the nephew of the writer Joseph Kessel, with whom he wrote the Chant des Partisans, which, with music composed by Anna Marly, was used as an anthem by the French Resistance during the Second World War.
In 1948 he received the Prix Goncourt for his novel Les grandes familles. On December 8, 1966, he was elected to the 30th seat of the Acad茅mie fran莽aise, succeeding Georges Duhamel.
While his scholarly writing earned him a seat at the Acad茅mie, he is best known for a series of seven historical novels published in the 1950s under the title Les Rois Maudits (The Accursed Kings).
He was Minister of Cultural Affairs in 1973 and 1974 in Pierre Messmer's cabinet, and a deputy of Paris from 1978 to 1981.
Tistou les Pouces Verts (1957) = Tistou of the Green Thumbs, Maurice Druon
Tistou is a strange name, which cannot be found anywhere, in any country, or in any book. He is a little boy who was not bigger than a loaf of bread in a baker's basket at birth. A long-sleeved mother-in-law, and a black-clad godfather, are named for him in church, but no one can name him, calling him Tistou.
He is the green Thumbs Tistou, the Tistou has magical fingers, who touch anything, become flowers and plants. When he was eight-year-old, Tistou is sent home from school, his parents decide that he must learn from real life instead, and where better to start than gardening?
With Moustache the dreamy gardener, Tistou discovers a remarkable gift--that he has green thumbs! Everything he touches sprouts beautiful plants. Now Tistou has lots to do. With the power of flowers, he can change everything--prisons, slums, hospitals...even war.
A witty, charming, and wise tale about an unlikely guerrilla gardener, Tistou is a French children's classic that ranks with The Little Prince and The Man who Planted Trees.
Found this old book among my things while cleaning up today. Nostalgia took over me, as it was one of my childhood favorites. Decided to reread it, and was pleasantly surprised, because it felt as relevant to me, now an adult, as it did so many years ago.
This little book is so sweet, addressing major issues through the eyes of a child.
You take something from it if you're 10, and it still has new things to tell you when you're 26.
This book is a classic of my childhood; my old copy fell apart years ago, from having been read a hundred times, carried around everywhere, and probably dropped in the bath once or twice. I recently found a lovely copy at the bookstore and I couldn鈥檛 help myself: my shelves simply needed a copy of 鈥淭istou les Pouces Verts鈥�.
Written by Maurice Druon, who鈥檚 historical saga 鈥淭he Accursed Kings鈥� made him a huge success (and the direct inspiration for Mr. Martin鈥檚 fantasy saga/hot mess 鈥淎 Song of Ice and Fire鈥�), this book was something no one saw coming when it was published in the 1950鈥檚. Druon had been writing about kings, queens, popes, politics, assassinations and wars for years 鈥� and then he went and published a children鈥檚 book about鈥� flowers?!
Yup, flowers.
Tistou is a child born into a very wealthy and privileged family: his father is rich and handsome, his mother beautiful and sweet, they live in an enormous house that is kept clean and shiny by kind servants, and have a huge garden lovingly tended by a mustachioed gardener. In other words, a fairy tale, right? Until Tistou is sent to school, where he can鈥檛 help but fall asleep in class every single day. His father decides that Tistou will not go to school, and instead, be educated by being taken around various places in the city in order to learn about the world, how it works, and everyone鈥檚 place in it. What he could not have foreseen was how Tistou would react to the sudden understanding that the world is not the beautiful, sparkling place he has always believed it to be 鈥� and how he will go about trying to make the world a better place.
Looking back, I wonder if Druon had read anything about Buddhism, because the chapters where Mr. Trounadisse shows Tistou places like the hospital, the prison and his father's cannon factory are very reminiscent of the stories about the Buddha wandering the streets of his father鈥檚 kingdom and being shocked by the sight of sick, old and dying people. Both Tistou and the Buddha鈥檚 heartbreak at the sight of all this suffering kicks them into action, which in Tistou鈥檚 case is directly linked to the discovery of a very special ability: he has green thumbs! This means that whenever he touches a place where a plant or flower鈥檚 seed has been, it causes them to bloom and grow almost instantaneously. Well, what is a young boy with green thumbs and a big heart to do in the face of unhappiness?
In many ways, it鈥檚 similar to 鈥淭he Little Prince鈥� (/review/show... a tale that you first read as a child but can find moving and meaningful at any age. It can feel similarly preachy and heavy-handed (Are you telling us that war is bad, Mr. Druon?! What!?!), but its timeless fairy-tale-like charm trumps any cynical criticism I could have about it.
When I see a lush garden, or when I give or receive flowers or a plant, I always think of Tistou. It might be silly, but I like to imagine the little boy sticking his thumbs deep in a planter and step back, satisfied in the knowledge that soon, something beautiful and green will be growing where he was.
A classic of French children literature that should not be missed.
So perhaps the messages presented and featured in Maurice Druon's Tistou mit den gr眉nen Daumen (the French original title of which is Tistou les pouces vests) can indeed be regarded as a trifle too philosophical and even rather overly heavy-handed. However and in my humble opinion, author Maurice Druon鈥檚 presented text is so sweet and little Tistou with his green thumbs (which he uses in the gardens, to cheer and cure a paralysed girl, but most importantly and by specific and necessary design to thwart his industrialist father's war and weapon mongering with and by basically flower power) so totally and utterly winsome that this does not really matter all that much (or perhaps I should say that at least this never mattered and does still not matter all that much to me). A simple and caressingly beautifully heartening and evocative little tale is Tistou mit den gr眉nen Daumen and little Tistou's philosophies, his behaviours and actions, his constant (and in the end angelic) striving for world peace, they are truly and indeed as important and as relevant now as when I originally read Tistou mit den gr眉nen Daumen in 1974 (and actually, the salient and sad fact that weapons of mass destruction, that industrialists becoming filthy and gladly rich on weapons, on the marketing of war, majorly profitting from destruction and mayhem, that these infuriating and tragically loathsome truths are still such an important and relevant global issue and topic of and for discussion and consideration, this is all very much and painfully, sadly infuriating, the sweetness and loveliness of Tistou as a character, the implied optimism of his actions, of his flowery protests against war quite notwithstanding). Highly recommended (and if you are able to read French, do consider reading the original, although I absolutely love the German translation of my youth to absolute pieces and will always consider it a total personal favourite).
There aren't enough words to describe the richness and joy of this book. I read it as a child and it has remained my all time favorite story. Unfortunately, it has been long out of print and copies are hard to come by online.
Translated from French, the book tells the story of a young innocent who grows up in a wealthy estate, with beautiful and loving parents who dote on him. As he begins to question life's big questions, ("why is there sickness? Why is there war?") he quickly learns how adults manage to answer him with less than satisfactory responses. Tistou then discovers he has developed a magical gift, and proceeds to make life more meaningful for all those he sees as suffering. The author exquisitely reveals how a young child can cut through adulthood's loss of innocence to make the world a better place. Through discovering Tistou's true nature, we learn about the possibilities within ourselves. If at all possible, find a copy of this book.
I happened across a woman on youtube who actually reads the entire book. If you want to at least "read" it that way, if you can't find a copy, you can here: .
A lovely little book I enjoyed way more than The Little Prince. :)
On a side note, I got this book in the 90', probably right after the revolution... from somebody in France. Back then, my French was really at the very beginning, all I could have done was look at the illustrations.
Skip some decades :) and surprise, surprise, I thought of it yesterday and read it pretty much in one sitting.
Da pollice nero ma figlia e nipote di una mamma e di una nonna pollice verde, sono davvero felice di aver letto questo libro. Libro per ragazzi ma il messaggio che trasmette 猫 adatto a tutti, grandi e piccini perch茅 il valore delle cose non ha mai un鈥檈t脿. Il protagonista 猫 Tist霉, un bimbo ma non solo, a cui non manca proprio nulla: vive nella Casa-che-brilla ed 猫 sempre felice. Nonostante sia bravo e gentile, molto spesso si pone domande che danno fastidio ai grandi perch茅, secondo loro, 猫 troppo piccolo per scoprire le 鈥渃ose da grandi鈥�. Ma non molla, infatti, pian piano riuscir脿 a scoprire questo mondo e a cambiarne visione proprio con un potere magico: i pollici verdi che portano tanto verde e tanta felicit脿 ovunque tocchi qualcosa鈥�! Questo dono che possiede l鈥檋a scoperto grazie a Mustacchio, il giardiniere tutto baffi e poche parole. Infatti tra le strade della sua citt脿, si rende conto che petali, foglie, alberi e rampicanti hanno il potere di seminare felicit脿 l脿 dove i suoi occhi limpidi vedono solo tristezza, solitudine e miseria: ad esempio nella prigione, all鈥檕spedale, nella baraccopoli. Piccoli gesti, per grandi avventure e grandi insegnamenti, questa 猫 la missione del piccolo Tist霉: la bellezza pu貌 salvare il mondo e Tist霉 riesce persino a fermare una guerra! Il finale 猫 davvero emozionante鈥� durante la lettura 猫 impossibile non diventare amico di Tist霉.