Large Format for easy reading. A classic French Canadian novel. A harsh, realistic story of pioneer life in Quebec, it profoundly influenced subsequent Canadian authors.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A timeless and universal story,
By
This review is from: Maria Chapdelaine (Dodo Press) (Paperback)
When recalling the past we tend to idealize it, to view it with fondness and nostalgia, and to hold them up as the best of times. But the question becomes, were those times really that good? Why do we recall them with such fondness? Why do we hold them up as a paragon for how we should live our lives today? Invariably we find some fault or failing of or present age, something we wish we could change. We idealize and objectify the past, remembering the good and forgetting the bad. "Maria Chapdelaine" is hardly a nostalgic trip down memory lane. The Quebecois who populate the book are living a hardscrabble life that wouldn't seem out of place in the American South, and yet the simple life is all they know. Like Southerners the Quebecois life revolves around family, farm, and faith. In some respects "Maria Chapdelaine" reminds me of Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind"; both are reflections on a society that is passing from remembrance, which is being changed by outside influences and events. Both authors wrote their novels as their societies were beginning to change and adapt to modernity and outside influences and they both served as a means of capturing the essence of the world that was passing from memory. And much like "Gone with the Wind", "Maria Chapdelaine" is about the concept of place, how you are perceived by others, and the role of community in enforcing conformity. While there is considerable difference in the central characters, the themes remain similar. Maria has to make choices that are shaped and informed by the environment she lives in. While Scarlet is rebellious, Maria is chaste and demure, the embodiment of the ideal of womanhood for Quebecois. Like Scarlet, Maria is conflicted over potential suitors, the adventurous Francois Paradis, fellow neighbor Eutrope Gagnon, and Lorenzo Suprenant, who has rejected the country for the city. This troika of suitors represent the three directions Quebec was being pulled in. All three men are symbolic representations of Quebec: Francois representing Quebec's voyageur past, Eutrope the present, and Lorenzo the future. Maria's heart is truly with Francois (the past), but when he meets and untimely end Maria ultimately rejects Lorenzo (the future), settling instead for Eutrope (the present). The world around Maria seeks to ratify the status quo, to glorify the ideals of family, farm, and faith. While it appears Maria wants to break free of that life and transcend it, those thoughts are nothing more than passing fancies. The passing of her mother amidst the trapping of their hardscrabble existence should have been motivation for Maria to chose Lorenzo and leave her environs, yet she sees her mother as the embodiment of perfect womanhood and knows she must stay. While Scarlet is headstrong, impulsive, and pragmatic, Maria is stoic, contemplative, and something of an idealist. To leave her family and her place would be a betrayal. She is as much a part of the land as is Eutrope.In a sense "Maria Chapdelaine" is almost existential. Maria's community feels far removed from the outside world, as though forgotten and abandoned. The power's that control the characters destiny are far removed and detached, and there is little these characters can do to take matters into their own hands. They are left to their own devices and must cope with the world as best they can. You can learn as much about a society from reading the literature it produces as you can from reading its history and that is true here. Literature is not only a reflection of a society, but also its shared common heritage and values. Yet some themes are universal, which is what makes "Maria Chapdelaine" relevant and important. Maria seeks to belong to a community, to a place. She seeks the validation and ratification of those around her and seeks guidance from those institutions that are central to her life. The peer pressures of her community force conformity, meaning Maria stay in the community and marry Eutrope. We see a little of ourselves in both Maria, attempting to relate to changes in our world and grappling with challenges both great and small. We often see ourselves as living lives removed from the larger issues of the world, distant and removed. Yet with dignity and grace and humor we cope with those changes and look back on lessons learned with fondness.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A beautiful story of life on a frontier,
By
This review is from: Maria Chapdelaine (Dodo Press) (Paperback)
Few books are this well written; it is a grim and yet entrancing novel of life on the Quebec frontier and the incredible hardships of creating a new farm out of old growth forest and fresh growth mosquitos.Like 'The Grapes of Wrath' by John Steinbeck, it's a novel by a journalist. Like Steinbeck, who lived with the people he wrote about, Louis Hemon was a successful French reporter before wanderlust brought him to Canada in 1912. He spent a year living and working on a farm such as he portrays in this book; then he left in search of another experience. The book is lyrical, but not insightful. Hemon's descriptions of the work and the people are vivid -- my Dad lived a life much like this in the same era in Ontario -- but Hemon fails to examine or explain the social system of Quebec which was based on strong backs and empty minds. Steinbeck wrote about hard times with a sense of optimism, hope and determination; Hemon portrays the peasant's resignation to fate. The Chapdelaine family knew of a better life in a farm closer to the village, and certainly in the village, with the ultimate paradise being across the border in the New England mill towns to which so many Quebecois have fled for the past two centuries. Yet, illiterate and restricted by their sense of family values, their only criteria were obedience to the Roman Catholic church and their immediate family. For a parallel novel of the cruel slavery to selfish tradition, think of 'Like Water for Chocolate' by Laura Esquivel. I have known rural Mexican girls who epitomized that novel to the letter. For a contrasting view of 1912, read Stephen Leacock's 'Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town' which portrays a smalltown faith in a divinely ordained system of progress. Leacock's subjects considered themselves to be very avant-garde, the finest liottle town in Canada; their ambitions and pretensions are the basis of his humour. In Quebec, the revolt against the status quo began in the 1950s and subsequently turned the province from the welfare basket of Canada into one of the most dynamic economic, social and cultural regions of the Americas. The tragedy of Canadian literature is that authors since then have increasingly and often brilliantly contemplated their own navels -- rather than live among the people and write about society itself. The book is a gem. Quebec survived such exploitation and thrived, just as Ireland cast off its centuries-old chains and became "the Celtic Tiger." It is a book about the roots of a great society; anyone reading it will understand the incredible burden of the frontier, the people who made it into today's world and the tyranny of dead ideas.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Choosing a Husband,
By Sonia (United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Maria Chapdelaine (Dodo Press) (Paperback)
Can you imagine what life seems like at the beginning of the 20th century? How does a woman choose a spouse? And what factors does a woman take into consideration when choosing a spouse?Well Louis Hemon is able to answer these questions for readers in the 21st century. Maria Chapdelaine is a tale about the life of a French Canadian young woman. It portrays the hardship that peasant Canadians faced in that era. The novel gives its audience an idea of what loves means in that era. In other words, how does a man woo a young woman in Canada and how does a woman respond to a proposal of marriage. In Maria's case, she is just like any modern cosmopolitan woman. However, what makes her unique is the fact that she has to take her family into consideration. She had to consider whether the man would help in the day to day running of her household that is to say, is the male man enough to chop wood, hunt and build a house. Indeed, Maria chooses a man after taking these factors into consideration. She chooses her neighbor Eutrope Gagnon in spite of the factor that another suitor Lorenzo Surprenant tries to entice her with the benefits of living in the city.
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