''The Horseman on the Roof'' (orig. French ''Le Hussard sur le toit'') is a 1951 adventure novel written by

Jean Giono Jean Giono (30 March 1895 – 8 October 1970) was a French writer who wrote works of fiction mostly set in the Provence region of France. First period Jean Giono was born to a family of modest means, his father a cobbler of Piedmontese descent a ...

. It tells the story of Angelo Pardi, a young Italian carbonaro colonel of

hussars A hussar ( , ; hu, huszár, pl, husarz, sh, husar / ) was a member of a class of light cavalry, originating in Central Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely ...

, caught up in the 1832 cholera epidemic in

Provence Provence (, , , , ; oc, Provença or ''Prouvènço'' , ) is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bor ...

. In 1995, it was made into a film of the same name directed by

Jean-Paul Rappeneau Jean-Paul Rappeneau (born 8 April 1932) is a French film director and screenwriter. Career He started out in film as an assistant and screenwriter collaborating with Louis Malle on ''Zazie dans le métro'' in 1960 and '' Vie privée'' in 1961. ...

See also