The next step in our examination of regionalism in Quebec literature is Maria Chapdelaine. I have published a short post on Maria Chapdelaine, a novel written by Louis Hémon (12 October 1880 – 8 July 1913), a Frenchman born in Brest. After studying law and oriental languages at the Sorbonne, Hémon moved to London and, in 1911, to Quebec, Canada. In 1912, he spent several months working with cultivateurs, or farmers, in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area, up the beautiful Saguenay River. He lived in a community called Péribonka and spent the winter of 1912-1913 in that community, writing his novel.
Having completed his manuscript, Hémon sent it to France and started travelling west, probably to Edmonton, where French citizens had settled at that time. Hémon was killed in a train accident on 8th July 1913, at Chapleau, Ontario. He did not live to see Maria Chapdelaine become a bestseller. It has been translated into more than 20 languages in 23 countries and it has been made into three movies.[i]
The plot is simple. But, although Maria Chapdelaine is a roman du terroir, it differs substantially from Patrice Lacombe’s La Terre paternelle and from Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau’sCharles Guérin. Louis Hémon did not feel dispossessed of his ancestral land and betrayed. And he had not transformed the insurrections of 1837-1838 into an ethnic conflict, which they were not, at least initially.
The artwork featured in this post are illustrations for Maria Chapdelaine, executed by Clarence Gagnon and housed at the McMichael Museum, in Kleinburg, Ontario.
However, Hémon worked with men like Maria Chapdelaine’s father, Samuel Chapdelaine a name not coincidentally resembling that of the Father of New France, Samuel de Champlain. These otherwise unemployed men were trying to transform rebellious soil into arable land. They had gone north, as the colourful curé Labelle (24 November 1833 – 4 January 1891) advocated, and were “making land” (faire de la terre).[ii] Father Labelle preached “colonisation.” That was the “patriotic” alternative to leaving for the New England states.
Maria’s ‘Choices:’ F. Paradis, L. Surprenant & E. Gagnon
As indicated in my post, Hémon gives Maria Chapdelaine three suitors: François Paradis, Lorenzo Surprenant and Eutrope Gagnon. François dies in a snow storm, which was to be expected. In traditional Quebec society, happiness was viewed not only as impossible, but as dangerous.Lorenzo Surprenant has come north to find a wife and take her down to the United States, but Maria turns him down. She will marry a neighbour, Eutrope Gagnon, and live as her mother lived. The names of the suitors are revealing: Paradis is paradise, Surprenant, surprizing, and Gagnon, close to the verb gagner: to win. Hémon’s novel is somewhat stylised.
Maria Chapdelaine also differs from La Terre paternelle and Charles Guérin in that, unlike Chauveau’s Charles Guérin, it does not feature an ‘ugly’ Englishman: Mr Wagnaër. As for La Terre paternelle, although the novel does not feature an explicit ‘ugly’ Englishman, Jean Chauvin fails where an Englishman would have succeeded. I believe this is the reason why Lacombe views cities as unhealthy.
—ooo—
Our next regionalistic novel is Father Félix-Antoine Savard‘s (August 31, 1896 – August 24, 1982) Menaud maître-draveur, 1937 (translated as Boss of the River, or Master of the River by Alan Sullivan (1947). It earned Savard a Medal from the French Academy.
[ii]Curé Labelle, a legendary figure, is featured in Claude-Henri Grignon’s (Sainte-Adèle, 8 July 1894 – Québec, 3 April 1976) novel Un homme et son péché (1933). Grignon’s novel was transformed into a very popular serialized radio and television drama. A film adaptation, entitled Séraphin: Un homme et son péché, Séraphin: Heart of Stone, was released in 2003, but it had been filmed in 1949. Séraphin is a miser and he is cruel to his wife Donalda.
“It was not the over-sensitivity of the misunderstood that made me move to Paris… Over there, I paint only Canadian subjects, I dream only of Canada. The motif remains fixed in my mind, and I don’t allow myself to be captivated by the charms of a new landscape. In Switzerland, Scandinavia-everywhere, I recall my French Canada.” (Clarence Gagnon)
I am republishing two posts that describe regionalism and the period when Quebeckers were leaving for the United States looking for employment.
Ringuet, or Dr Philippe Panneton, is the writer I am featuring. He is the author of Trente arpents (Thirty Acres). The novel was published in 1938, when the habitant had become a “cultivateur.” Colonisation had ennobled his work.
You will note a considerable degree of acceptance. The protagonist’s wife, Alphonsine, gives birth year after year, but her husband, Euchariste Moisan, sees the birth of children as Alphonsine’s inescapable fate. She has to have “son nombre,” her number. Therefore, Euchariste is somewhat indifferent. Yearly pregnancies and the death of children do not seem to affect him. Life goes by as inexorably as the seasons.Euchariste does not welcome changes: machines.
Euchariste also accepts the curé‘s, or parish priest, request. He will contribute a son to the Church. This was normal. Whenever a child showed intellectual promise, he was chosen by the parish priest and eventually entered the Grand Séminaire. Oguinase’s destiny is to become a priest.
Another son, Éphrem, is somewhat rebellious and is influenced by a relative who has left Canada for a more comfortable life in the United States. This relative has even changed his name.
I have chosen this particular post as it documents the rise and fall of the habitant turned cultivateur.
So good morning to all or you.
The Lake, Séminaire Saint-Sulpice, Montréal by Clarence Gagnon, 1917 (National Gallery of Canada)
Barns by Clarence Gagnon, 1926 (National Gallery of Canada)
Demographic Growth in Québec
During the one week (1805 – 16 April 1859) Alexis de Tocqueville spent in Bas-Canada (Lower Canada),[i] he marveled at the fact that there was still a French nation in North America. In particular, he “noticed the demographic growth of the French Canadians, their numbers almost ten times what it was when the colony was handed over to Great Britain.”[ii] There were about 70,000 Francophone Roman Catholics in 1763, the year New France became a British colony. In 1831, the population of Lower Canada was 550,000 (See Canada under British Rule, Wikipedia). However 8,000 United Empire Loyalists, including 300 slaves, had settled in the Eastern Townships.[iii]
Tocqueville feared for the future. French-Canadians were mainly habitants and quite prosperous but, on 1st September, 1831, Tocqueville confirmed in his notes that “the English have control of all foreign trade and run domestic trade without any opposition.” (Note 7)[iv]In other words, what would happen to the French nation he was so pleased to have visited? They were habitants, lawyers, doctors, priests and teachers who were members of a religious order). Until the 1960s, Nuns also administered hospitals.
So although there were shops, general stores, and several small businesses in Lower Canada, large businesses and factories belonged to the anglophone population. However, larevanche des berceaux, the revenge of the cradles, a very high birthrate, played a significant role in the survival of the francophone population of Canada and North America. The men “colonized” and women gave birth to a large number of children who reached adulthood. But Tocqueville also commented on the motherland’s neglect of its subjects in New France.
The Abandonment of New France
The Lower Canada visited by Alexis de Tocqueville had grown into a small nation due, to a large extent, to a very high birthrate. However, given the manner in which they greeted Tocqueville and Beaumont, I would suspect the small nation he visited had chosen to view itself as “conquered” rather than abandoned, thus “resisting” its fate. Yet, as Tocqueville stated, they had been abandoned, which constituted “one of the greatest ignominies of Louis XV’s shameful reign.”
Dans une lettre du 26 novembre 1831, commentant la politique française du XVIIIe siècle concernant la Nouvelle-France, il écrit de l’« abandon » de ces sujets français qu’il est « une des plus grandes ignominies du honteux règne de Louis XV ».[iv] (Corbo)
In a letter dated 26th November 1831, he criticizes France’s dealings with its North-American colony during the 18th century, referring to the “abandonment” of loyal subjects of the French Empire. Then he adds that it was “one of the greatest ignominies of Louis XV’s shameful reign.” (Corbo)
It is not uncommon for Québécois to speak of “la conquête” and to look upon the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, fought on 13 September 1759, as the British military victory that undid New France. In fact, in his account of his visit to Lower Canada, Alexis de Tocqueville himself used both the words: “conquis” (conquered) and “abandon,” (abandonment) referring to France’s lost colony.
Consequently, having lost the war, France had to cede some of its colonies and it ceded New France, “quelques arpents de neige” (a few acres of snow) (Voltaire‘s Candide 1759, chapter 23), as well as the eastern part of French Louisiana to Britain, keeping its sugar-rich Caribbean colonies (Guadeloupe and Martinique) and two small islands, Saint-Pierre et Miquelon, off the coast of the current Newfoundland, a pied-à-terre for its fisherman in the North Atlantic.
It follows that Tocqueville’s description of the cession of New France is, to a large extent, as he stated: “one of the greatest ignominies of Louis XV’s shameful reign.” New France was abandoned. However, I should think that it was in the best interest of the abandoned nation to redress horrific events by considering itself a “conquered,” rather than abandoned people. Doing so could be called damage control. Careful wording can constitute a form of resistance.
It would have to be resistance. New France was not ceded unconditionally. It kept its religion, its language and its seigneuries. Habitants remained on their thirty acres, and French Civil law was respected, to a reasonable extent. Here is an excerpt from the Treaty of Paris:
“His Britannick Majesty, on his side, agrees to grant the liberty of the Catholick religion to the inhabitant of Canada: he will, in consequence, give the most precise and most effectual orders, that his new Roman Catholic subjects may profess the worship of their religion according to the rites of the Romish church, as far as the laws of Great Britain permit. His Britannick Majesty farther agrees, that the French inhabitants, or others who had been subjects of the Most Christian King in Canada, may retire with all safety and freedom wherever they shall think proper, and may sell their estates, provided it be to the subjects of his Britannick Majesty, and bring away their effects as well as their persons, without being restrained in their emigration, under any pretence whatsoever, except that of debts or of criminal prosecutions: The term limited for this emigration shall be fixed to the space of eighteen months, to be computed from the day of the exchange of the ratification of the present treaty.” (See The Treaty of Paris, Wikipedia.)
Résistance
However, once the Traité de Pariswas signed, on 10 February 1763, how long could anyone expect England to keep its promises? The small nation Tocqueville and Beaumont visited was a British colony and, as such, its future as a French-language nation was imperiled. It is relatively easy to assimilate 70,000 inhabitants.
In the case of the “Royal Proclamation,” Canadiens, as they called themselves, were little less than a man away from possible assimilation. That man was James Murray (21 January 1721, Scotland – 18 June 1794, Battle, East Sussex), the Governor of the province of Quebec.
“In October of the same year [1763], London issues its « Royal Proclamation », thus allowing French-speakers to practice their religion. But Great Britain lets governor Murray know of its plans to found Protestant schools to assimilate the population. The proclamation also wants to replace the old French civil code of law by the British Common Law. Governor Murray judges this measure unrealistic and decides to keep the French civil laws.”[v]
“A member of the landed gentry, he supported the agrarian, French-speaking inhabitants over the newly arrived, English-speaking merchants. He was reluctant to call a legislative assembly, promised in the ROYAL PROCLAMATION OF 1763, because he feared that Canadians would be barred from it on religious grounds.”
The Seven Years War or French and Indian War (blue: Great Britain, Prussia Portugal, Britain, with allies; green: France, Spain, Austria, Russia, Sweden with allies.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Alexis de Tocqueville: 1831
When Alexis de Tocqueville visited Lower Canada in 1831, the 70,000 inhabitants, “abandoned,” in 1763, had become a small nation, which delighted him. The habitants The were in fact quite prosperous, but Tocqueville noted that “the English ha[d] control of all foreign trade and r[a]n domestic trade without any opposition,” which was alarming.[vi]What would the habitantdo once his thirty acres could no longer be divided?
Tocqueville’s fears were legitimate. Many habitants did leave for the United States, when Canadiens ran out of land. As I wrote in earlier posts, nearly a million French Canadians and Acadians would move to the United States during a period of Canadian history named l’Exode: the exodus. They could not find work in Canada. However, many chose to “make land,” faire de la terre, (Chapter 4, Maria Chapdelaine). The leader of this movement was a priest, le curé Labelle (24 November 1833 – 4 January 1891).
Le curé Labelle[vii] proposed that French Canadians go north, to the Laurentides, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, and turn unfriendly soil into arable land. Le curé Labelle saw colonization as a realistic option, which it was, to a lesser or greater extent. When Louis Hémon (12 October 1880 – 8 July 1913), a visitor from France, travelled to the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, the habitants, now called cultivateurs, were colonizing and the Francophone population of Quebec had grown to approximately 2 million inhabitants. Once again, a visitor from France was looking at an expanding nation. Hémon noticed a demographic victory and a will, on the part of the people of Quebec, to remain what they had always been.
Louis Hémon: 1913
Shortly after Louis Hémon arrived in Canada, he went to the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area. He worked at Péribonka during the summer and fall and then spent the winter of 1912-1913 writing his novel: Maria Chapdelaine. In his short novel, Louis Hémon captured a Quebec that was not about to die. After sending his novel to a publisher, Hémon started travelling west and was killed by a train, at Chapleau, Ontario. His novel was published in 1914 and proved an enduring success. Louis Hémon had seen not only a small nation, but a people who were a testimonial: “un témoignage.” Hémon did not express doubts concerning the survival of the small nation he was visiting: Quebec. “These people belong to a breed (race) that does not know how to die.” (See Chapter 15 of the novel.)
Ces gens sont d’une race qui ne sait pas mourir.
Conclusion
The growth of a population of 70,000 inhabitants, in 1763, to half a million, in 1831, when Alexis de Tocqueville visited Lower Canada, was perhaps due to an already high birthrate called the revanche des berceaux, the revenge of the cradles. It was not a trivial phenomenon. When Louis Hémon went to Péribonka, in 1912-1913, and spent the winter months writing Maria Chapdelaine, the francophone population of Quebec had risen to 2 million inhabitants. Three films are based onMaria Chapdelaine and we owe its first English translation to W. H. Blake.
The next step in our examination of regionalism in Quebec literature is Maria Chapdelaine. I have published a short post on Maria Chapdelaine, a novel written by Louis Hémon (12 October 1880 – 8 July 1913), a Frenchman born in Brest. After studying law and oriental languages in the Sorbonne, Hémon moved to London and, in 1911, to Quebec. In 1912, he spent several months working with cultivateurs, or farmers in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area, up the beautiful Saguenay River. He lived in a community called Péribonka and spent the winter of 1913 in that community, writing his novel.
Having completed his manuscript, Hémon sent it to France and started travelling west, probably to Edmonton where French citizens had settled at that time. Hémon was killed in a train accident on July 8, 1913, in Chapleau, Ontario. He did not live to see Maria Chapdelaine become a bestseller. It has been translated into more than 20 languages in 23 countries and it has been made into three movies.
The plot is simple, but, although Maria Chapdelaine is a roman du terroir, it differs substantiallyfrom Patrice Lacombe’sTerre paternelle and Pierre-Joseph-OlivierChauveau’s Charles Guérin. Louis Hémon did not feel dispossessed of his ancestral lang and betrayed. And he had not transformed Maria Chapdelaine into an ethnic conflict, which it was not, at least initially.
The artwork featured in this post are illustrations for Maria Chapdelaine, executed by Clarence Gagnon and housed at the McMichael Museum, in Kleinburg, Ontario.
However, Hémon worked with men like Maria Chapdelaine’s father, Samuel Chapdelaine a name not coincidentally resembling that of the Father of New France, Samuel de Champlain. These otherwise unemployed men were trying to transform rebellious soil into arable land. They had gone north, as the colourful curé Labelle (November 24, 1833 – January 4, 1891) advocated, and were “making land” (faire de la terre).[i] Father Labelle preached “colonisation.” That was the “patriotic” alternative to leaving for the New England states.
Maria’s ‘Choices:’ F. Paradis, L. Surprenant & E. Gagnon
As indicated in my post, Hémon gives Maria Chapdelaine three suitors: François Paradis, Lorenzo Surprenant and Eutrope Gagnon. François dies in a snow storm, which was to be expected. In traditional Quebec society, happiness was viewed not only as impossible, but as dangerous.Lorenzo Surprenant has come north to find a wife and take her down to the United States, but Maria turns him down. She will marry a neighbour, Eutrope Gagnon, and live as her mother lived. The names of the suitors are revealing: Paradis is paradise, Surprenant, surprizing, and Gagnon, close to the verb gagner: to win.
Maria Chapdelaine also differs from La Terre paternelle and Charles Guérin in that, unlike Chauveau’s Charles Guérin, it does not feature an ‘ugly’ Englishman: Mr Wagnaër. As for La Terre paternelle, although the novel does not feature an explicit ‘ugly’ Englishman, Jean Chauvin fails where an Englishman would have succeeded. I believe this is the reason why Lacombe views cities as unhealthy.
—ooo—
Our next regionalistic novel is Father Félix-Antoine Savard‘s (August 31, 1896 – August 24, 1982) Menaud maître-draveur, 1937 (translated as Boss of the River, or Master of the River by Alan Sullivan (1947). It earned Savard a Medal from the French Academy.
[i]Curé Labelle, a legendary figure, is featured in Claude-Henri Grignon’s (Sainte-Adèle, 8 July 1894 – Québec, 3 April 1976) novel Un homme et son péché(1933). Grignon’s novel was transformed into a very popular serialized radio and television drama and was also made into a movie twice. The second movie is entitled Séraphin:Heart of Stone (2003). Séraphin is a miser and he is cruel to his wife Donalda.
Having completed his manuscript, Hémon sent it to France and started travelling west, probably to Edmonton, where French citizens had settled at that time. Hémon was killed in a train accident on 8th July 1913, at Chapleau, Ontario. He did not live to see Maria Chapdelaine become a bestseller. It has been translated into more than 20 languages in 23 countries and it has been made into three movies.[i] 
The plot is simple. But, although Maria Chapdelaine is a roman du terroir, it differs substantially from Patrice Lacombe’s La Terre paternelle and from Pierre-Joseph-Olivier Chauveau’s Charles Guérin. Louis Hémon did not feel dispossessed of his ancestral land and betrayed. And he had not transformed the insurrections of 1837-1838 into an ethnic conflict, which they were not, at least initially.
© Micheline Walker
7 June 2012
WordPress
revised
14 January 2014
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