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An allegory of sorts. Roughly idyllic or idealized version of French Canadian "frontier" life around the turn of the last century. I did enjoy the colloquialisms, such as the French-speaking Canadians referring to themselves as les Canadiens and les habitants tr. One of the dominant themes is I read a different French edition, but close enough. One of the dominant themes is the Christian struggle between good and evil, dark and light, here embodied in the antagonism between primeval forest and farm.
Slaying the forest as quickly and completely as possible, both by logging the Old Growth and by hacking fields out of the forests is portrayed as a religious duty, the bringing of the Word to the wilderness, civilization to barbaric nature one that shows no particular use for man. This brings to mind what Americans often think of as the Puritan view of the wilderness. Apparently, a view also shared by the pious Canadian Catholics. Their world view is fatalistic. God has his mysterious purposes, not to be questioned by humans.
One must bend to his will. And in return, nature must bend to the will of man. What we think of as the Puritan work ethic manifests itself here as the work ethic of the Catholic peasant. A man proposes to a woman by claiming to be a hard worker and never drinking a drop. Certainly, a drinking man would make a miserable life for a woman, true everywhere, but even more true in the hard circumstances of the northern homestead. Everyone here must be able to get up at the crack of dawn and labor hard till dark, just to survive.
A drinking man would mean an impoverished family. A woman married to such a man would live a miserable existence in an environment where the best situation is already a tough one. This is also an unquestionably patriarchal world.
A woman marries a man's decisions as well as the man himself. If he, like Samuel, Maria's father, is never a settler, must always move on once a farm has been cleared and is ready to become part of a settled community, then his wife has no choice but to move with him. She can be happy or not about it, but the decision is his to make, not hers.
In other respects, putting aside the gender-based division of labor, such a life is a partnership.
Also, as indicated by Maria's consideration of her 3 suitors, a woman marries not only a man, but a way of life and a place, the land. In the final instance, when faced with choosing between Lorenzo Surprenant tr. He was an adventurer, a guide to buyers of pelts from the Indians and a lumberman, not a farmer. The lesson intended, perhaps, is that paradise is meant not for daily life but only for the afterlife.
I read it in French in high school and now in English on my ipad. The translation is good but the editing was less than stellar with lots of spelling errors. Like all great literature, the tale is symbolic of much more than the lot of the book's characters. The choice faced by the heroine is really one faced by everyone at some point in life - between duty and ambition, known and unkown, heritage and progress. It is also a beautiful description of "Maria Chapdelaine" is a true Canadian classic. It is also a beautiful description of rural life in Quebec at the turn of the last century.
It captures some of the complexity of Quebec's situation. One that drove many French-Canadians to find their fortune elsewhere in Canada and the United States. The fact that it is so easy to question Maria's decision adds to the book's relevance.
Her choice is not self-evident, nor particularly compelling, even on the author's own terms. But life is like that. Maria's mother had a similar choice to make and always harboured some regret. Few people go through life without some thought of the fickleness of fate.
This book does not skirt from the difficulty of these choices or console us with a certain outcome. The book also illustrates the social environment that would In the second half of the 20th century, drive the Quiet Revolution in Quebec, and inspire the Parti Quebecois and divide Canada.
Overall, the writing is beautiful and the characters come to life. It is a very memorable book Oct 01, Mel Bossa rated it liked it Shelves: A classical story depicting rural life near Lac St-Jean at the turn of the 20th century. I thought it was beautiful and interesting, but Maria, the main character, was a little too saintly for my taste.
Something like, "Hey girls, why don't you be more like her? Her one true love dies and she sits at the window and cries without a noise?
I"m willing to believe that times were very different, but what about hormones and passion I believe those things existed in the s. Some passages felt more like an anthropological study then a true homage. Don't read this if: This book will make you run screaming towards the nearest city. Although this is an interesting period piece, the sheer tyranny of snow, oppressive woods, mosquitoes, stumps and people unable to speak their thoughts make this a bleak read.
And I never figured out how Maria communicated so much pent-up emotion to so many suit Don't read this if: And I never figured out how Maria communicated so much pent-up emotion to so many suitors by looking down demurely and saying nothing. The best part was the introduction, in which the translator griped about the French vocabulary used by the author a Frenchman writing about Quebec , which isn't terribly relevant in an English translation.
He also pointed out bloopers, which were fun to look for! Mar 20, Brendan Hodge rated it really liked it.
Fascinating story of a pivotal year in the life of the titular character in rural Quebec right before WW1. I couldn't help thinking of the later Little House books when reading this, because of the frontier setting, though it's actually written and taking place more in the era of the L M Montgomery books, though over in French speaking territory. I read this in high school but then it was an assignment. The book was dissected into numbers and categories. To tell the truth I didn't get it. I reread this work recently for the pleasure of it.
With all the extra baggage of the 40 years since I first read this book and the historical context this is a book about my ancestors, the hard work and long hours of clearing the land, creating communiti I read this in high school but then it was an assignment.
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