Maria Chapdelaine, the quintessential novel of the rugged life of early French-Canadian colonists, is based on the author’s experiences as a hired hand in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area. A young woman living with her family on the Quebec frontier, Maria endures the hardships of isolation and climate. Maria must eventually choose between three suitors who represent very different ways of life: a trapper, a farmer, and a Parisian immigrant. Powerful in its simplicity, this novel captures the essence of faith and tenacity, the key ingredients of survivance. Translated into many languages, Maria Chapdelaine is enshrined as a classic of Canadian letters. A new introduction by Michael Gnarowski examines its relevance and provides insights into Louis Hemon’s life.
Remarkable paintings grace the pages of Maria Chapdelaine, a novel written by a Frenchman yet embraced by generations of Canadian readers. Renowned Canadian artist Clarence Gagnon used a meticulous process to create fifty-four small paintings for Louis Hémon's early twentieth-century story set in the Quebec countryside. Gagnon's vivid illustrations depict the strength of body and soul necessary to survive such a harsh environment. In Clarence Gagnon: The "Maria Chapdelaine" Illustrations, art historian and curator Ian M. Thom provides insight into Gagnon's life and an appreciation of his art. All of the Gagnon Maria Chapdelaine illustrations are reproduced in this book, with excerpts from the novel. The complete set of paintings resides in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where it is considered a rare treasure.
It takes a hardy people to survive farming the harsh lands of the French Canadian wilderness, and Maria Chapdelaine must choose either to remain Québécois in this unforgiving land that has broken her heart, or to pursue a softer urban life in foreign New England. French writer Louis Hémon wrote Maria Chapdelaine during the two years he lived in Quebec, and it’s based on his experiences working on a farm in the Lac Saint-Jean region where the novel is set. It was his only work published in his lifetime, as he died in a tragic train accident before learning of its success. The novel is described as a masterwork that was Canada’s entry into world literature and Quebec’s introduction to the rest of the Francophone world. An enduring work, it has served as the basis of four movies, and has been adapted into plays, an illustrated novel, a radio novel, a television series, and an opera.
"Daniel Randolph Deal is a Southern aristocrat, having the required bloodline, but little of the nobility. A man resistant to the folly of ethics, he prefers a selective, self-indulgent morality. He is a confessed hedonist, albeit responsibly so."--Back cover
This debut historical novel tells the story of three bold, young women in 1667 who answered Louis XIV’s call to help France settle the New World. They are known as the filles du roi, or “King’s Daughters” —young women who leave prosperous France for an uncertain future across the Atlantic. Their duty is to marry and bring forth a new generation of loyal citizens. Each prospective bride has her reason for leaving—poverty, family rejection, a broken engagement. Despite their different backgrounds, Rose, Nicole, and Elisabeth all believe that marriage to a stranger is their best, perhaps only, chance of happiness. Once in Quebec, Elisabeth quickly accepts baker Gilbert Beaumont, who wants a business partner as well as a wife. Nicole, a farmer’s daughter from Rouen, marries a charming officer who promises comfort and security. Scarred by her traumatic past, Rose decides to take holy vows rather than marry. Yet no matter how carefully she chooses, each will be tested by hardship and heartbreaking loss—and sustained by the strength found in their uncommon friendship, and the precarious freedom offered by their new home. Praise for Promised to the Crown “An engaging, engrossing debut.” —Greer Macallister, USA Today bestselling author of The Magician’s Lie “An absorbing adventure with heart.” —Jennifer Laam, author of The Secret Daughter of the Tsar "An unforgettable saga of strength and sisterhood, one that will stay with you long after the final page.”--Anne Girard, author of Platinum Doll “A heart-wrenching and timeless tale of friendship, love, and hope that skillfully blends history and romance to educate, entertain, and inspire.”--Pam Jenoff, author of Last Summer at Chelsea Beach
As a work of art, as an insight into history, and as a moving story of survival in the midst of pitiless nature, "Maria Chapdelaine" has cast its spell over millions of readers around the world. At least 230 different editions have been published in twenty-three countries since it first appeared in 1916. Maria lives with her family near Peribonka in Quebec, a snowy, harsh world where work is hard and pleasures are few. She has three suitors from whom to choose, but in the end, her destiny is hers. After her mother dies, she takes up the family duties and stays with her younger siblings to care for them. Ever since it was published, "Maria Chapdelaine" was controversial. Was Maria right to submit to fate?
This novel by Emmanuel Dongala, author of THE BRIDGETOWER SONATA, details the struggle between classes in a central African nation in which a group poor women forms a union to battle corporate forces that leads to unexpected results.
Love in a Green Shade examines for the first time in depth the reception history of Daphnis and Chloe in literature, beginning with its Renaissance rediscovery and working through its various transformations in English, French, Spanish, and other literatures. At the same time, Richard F. Hardin launches a groundbreaking exploration of the idyllic romance tradition in fiction and drama. While Virgil and Theocritus beget a tradition of poetry concerned with male eroticism, idyllic romance centers on the couple in a story pointing toward marriage. In addition to Daphnis and Chloe, this study considers numerous works influenced by the idyllic romance tradition, including Shakespeare?s The Tempest, Milton?s Paradise Lost, Bernardin?s Paul et Virginie, Stowe?s The Pearl of Orr?s Island, Cather?s O Pioneers!, novels by Sand, Hardy, and Pardo Bazan, Louis Hemon?s Maria Chapdelaine, and Mishima?s The Sound of Waves.
