Louis Hémon (1880–1913)

Set among the pioneering French settlers of Quebec, clearing forest, surviving savage winters and solitude....and sustained by their Catholic faith
The eponymous heroine is a lovely daughter of a farmer; when three suitors come to the farmstead, her eyes are on dsashing Francois Paradis, off for a stint away logging/ trapping in the shanties. But there's also local farmer, Eutrope Gagnon, and an outsider, Lorenzo Surprenant, who's back visiting from the US, where he can offer her a life of ease and plenty....
I was a bit "meh" about this for the first half, where it seemed an average work, portraying the quebecois lifestyle. However it grew on me as the tale unfolds.
"And we have held fast, so that, it may be, many centuries hence the world will look upon us and say "These people are of a race that knows not how to perish...We are a testimony."… (mer)

Maria Chapdelaine is the story of a girl's coming of age in the depths of the Quebec wilderness. Life is hard there, but Maria and her family get by. She has three suitors, each of whom is very different. Eutrope Gagnon is her neighbor and promises her a life much like the one she has now, Francois Paradis is an adventurous trapper who grew up nearby but doesn't have the patience for the farm, and finally, Lorenzo Surprenant is the nephew of a neighbor who has emigrated to the United States where he makes good money in a factory and can promise her a much easier and luxurious life than the others. Who will she choose?

A celebration of French Canadian culture and highly recommended for those with an interest in good literature in general or in novels about pioneer living in the early twentieth century.… (mer)

I loved this book. I am not capable of reading it in the original French, so I can't know how the Canadian English of an earlier century compares with the French written by Monsieur Hémon, but I can say that the English is highly readable. It is poetic without being burdensome, telling a sparse world with richness of observed detail. The people are understated, but that is not just a literary device, it is a reflection of their response to the life they lived. Beautiful, transporting, at times worrying as we see pur protagonist struggle with her plight. There were two pages in the whole book I could have cut down or dispensed with, but that is because I live today, with the last century's review on matters of life, and because I have never lived the way Maria Chapdelaine did. So I accept them and I am truly delighted that I stumbled across this hidden Canadian classic.… (mer)