The Unity of Lettres de mon moulin

Lettres de mon moulin is a surprisingly unified volume of short stories, considering the scattered mode of its compilation. Daudet's careful attention to theme and narrative voice in the changes he made in the texts, as he refined the collection in stages from journalistic "chroniques" to the definitive edition, shows the unity is part of the author's deliberate artistic intention. Unity of theme (implicit moral contrast between modern city life and traditional country life), of setting (the Midi, mainly Provence), and of authorial voice or personality are facilitated by the overall framework of the narrator's base, the windmill. (GEH)