A whole generation of young people has been attracted to the veterinary profession because of Herriot's novels, which depict a way of life that is at the same time foreign and yet intensely attractive to the modern urban reader.

The appeal of the simple life has always been greatest at times when life was not simple at all, but overly civilized such as in eighteenth-century France. Yet Herriot's characters live a harsh existence, and survival is not taken for granted. There is death, detailed description of hardships, cold, physical suffering. Why then, does the modern reader see his books depicting an ideal way of life? A discussion could easily start with the question whether Herriot's books are truly "realistic" or idealized in spite of the harsh environment. In what way is he romanticizing his world, and the world of the Dales? What is his relationship with...