Maria Chapdelaine: A Tale of French Canada Paperback – 1 March 2005
by Louis Hemon (Author), Michael Gnarowski (Editor), & 1 more
3.5 out of 5 stars 22 ratings
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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 frontier in Quebec, Maria endures the hardships of isolation and climate, and chooses between three suitors: a trapper, a farmer, and a Parisian immigrant.
Powerful in its simplicity, this novel captures the essence of the virtues of faith and tenacity that are the key ingredients of survivance. Translated into many languages and with some two hundred editions, it is enshrined as a classic of Canadian letters. A new introduction provides insights into Hemon's life.
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A young woman living with her family on the frontier in Quebec, Maria endures the hardships of isolation and climate and must choose between three suitors.-A young woman living with her family on the frontier in Quebec, Maria endures the hardships of isolation and climate and must choose between three suitors.
About the Author
Louis Hémon was born in 1880 and was raised in Paris, where he qualified for the French Colonial Service. Unwilling to accept a posting to Africa, Hémon embarked on a career as a sports writer and moved to London. He was also developing talent as a fiction writer. He sailed for Quebec in 1911 and died in 1913.
Product details
Publisher : Dundurn Group (1 March 2005)
Language : English
Paperback : 132 pages
ISBN-10 : 1894908031
ISBN-13 : 978-1894908030
Dimensions : 15.24 x 0.76 x 22.86 cmCustomer Reviews:
3.5 out of 5 stars 22 ratings
Top reviews
Mia
3.0 out of 5 stars French Canadian rural pastReviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on 13 September 2015
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I read this as background to my first visit to Quebec, suggested by a French Canadian. It is an insightful story of the hardships early settlers had to endure in remote areas of the province. On a walking tour of Quebec city some of these were echoed in the points made by the guide. In particular it brought home the contrast in the seasons which is still part of today's lifestyle.
The descriptive text is somewhat repetitive and dated in style but nevertheless well written and probably far better in the original French. A simple story about simple values and basic survival versus the potential allure of urban 'benefits' which in themselves brought a very different kind of hardship that only the reader can imagine.
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Amelia1991
4.0 out of 5 stars better than I expectedReviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 29 January 2013
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I purchased this book as a text for a class on Canadian Fiction. It was a far better book than I expected. This translation stays true to Hemon's original French and captures the beauty of his prose. It is a tale of French Canada through the eyes of an outsider, so there are a few inaccuracies. I enjoyed the characters.
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R. D. Larson
4.0 out of 5 stars A Glimpse of a French-Canadian Settler's LifeReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 27 July 2013
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Set at turn of the (19th/20th) century, this coming-of-age tale has a unique twist that fascinated me in its accurate detail and its desire to capture the lyricism and even sometimes the syntax of the original story in French. Maria Chapdelaine, a young girl living in the very far northern reaches of untamed Quebec, has three suitors, each offering her a completely different future. In just a few months she and her family taste the sometimes sweet but mostly bitter fruit of the harsh life these pioneers faced farming in the northern wilderness as she grapples with making her choice between those competing paths for her future.
I was raised in Minnesota and faced some of the same challenges in the story, albeit in a much milder form. The real aprehensive fear but also the unique experiences of accommodating -30 degree winters while living and working outdoors, the knowledge that jobs were hard to come by and those available were extremely hard work with little apparent future promise, and the loneliness that can come from being far from the soft crowded civilized life most of us take for granted.
I was moved by this story and, knowing a little of the future historic currents that dominated the lives of 20th century farm folks wresting a livelihood in the very inhospitable north, I thought a lot about Maria and how her story must have finally ended long after she left behind the life interval described in the book. I guess that makes it a pretty good read and definately worth the time involved.
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Bhamster
3.0 out of 5 stars An abrupt endingReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 21 November 2016
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I was just about to stop reading for the night when I was surprised to find the book was ended. I'm afraid I find it unsettling and unsatisfactory. Maybe I need to be Canadian but I found the description of the life completely unappealing.
There were also many errors in the text--as from a bad OCR scan.
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jane at amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars The translation is excellent and true to the periodReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 February 2016
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I purchased this book for my son and 12 year old granddaughter who are going to Quebec on a school trip. I read this book some years ago in French in conjunction with a class on French Canada. The translation is excellent and true to the period.
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Amelia1991
4.0 out of 5 stars better than I expectedReviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 29 January 2013
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I purchased this book as a text for a class on Canadian Fiction. It was a far better book than I expected. This translation stays true to Hemon's original French and captures the beauty of his prose. It is a tale of French Canada through the eyes of an outsider, so there are a few inaccuracies. I enjoyed the characters.
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R. D. Larson
4.0 out of 5 stars A Glimpse of a French-Canadian Settler's LifeReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 27 July 2013
Verified Purchase
Set at turn of the (19th/20th) century, this coming-of-age tale has a unique twist that fascinated me in its accurate detail and its desire to capture the lyricism and even sometimes the syntax of the original story in French. Maria Chapdelaine, a young girl living in the very far northern reaches of untamed Quebec, has three suitors, each offering her a completely different future. In just a few months she and her family taste the sometimes sweet but mostly bitter fruit of the harsh life these pioneers faced farming in the northern wilderness as she grapples with making her choice between those competing paths for her future.
I was raised in Minnesota and faced some of the same challenges in the story, albeit in a much milder form. The real aprehensive fear but also the unique experiences of accommodating -30 degree winters while living and working outdoors, the knowledge that jobs were hard to come by and those available were extremely hard work with little apparent future promise, and the loneliness that can come from being far from the soft crowded civilized life most of us take for granted.
I was moved by this story and, knowing a little of the future historic currents that dominated the lives of 20th century farm folks wresting a livelihood in the very inhospitable north, I thought a lot about Maria and how her story must have finally ended long after she left behind the life interval described in the book. I guess that makes it a pretty good read and definately worth the time involved.
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One person found this helpfulReport abuse
Bhamster
3.0 out of 5 stars An abrupt endingReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 21 November 2016
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I was just about to stop reading for the night when I was surprised to find the book was ended. I'm afraid I find it unsettling and unsatisfactory. Maybe I need to be Canadian but I found the description of the life completely unappealing.
There were also many errors in the text--as from a bad OCR scan.
Report abuse
jane at amazon
5.0 out of 5 stars The translation is excellent and true to the periodReviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 8 February 2016
Verified Purchase
I purchased this book for my son and 12 year old granddaughter who are going to Quebec on a school trip. I read this book some years ago in French in conjunction with a class on French Canada. The translation is excellent and true to the period.
Report abuse
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Goodreads
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Maria Chapdelaine
Louis Hemon
3.20
1,996 ratings111 reviews
This classic of 20th century literature has for a long time been taken over by conservative ideologies which wanted to present it as a “model of Canadian literature” and even as a “Catholic masterpiece”. To varying degrees, the very numerous editions published until very recently took up the “corrections” that served to perpetuate the myth of a French Canada where “nothing should change”. This edition is consistent with that of 1980, based on the original manuscript of Louis Hémon. It includes a foreword, a list of variants as well as an index of characters and places.
--
Peiman Iran
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October 20, 2017
Dear friends, in my opinion, this novel pits love and the needs of life like the earth against each other, and of course it can have other goals in its heart
. -------------------------
My dears, the story is related to the migration of French immigrants to the land of Canada.... a family named <Shabdolen> who Consisting of parents, four brothers and one sister, they immigrate to the lands located in Canada, and three other men accompany them along the way: <Francois Parade> a man who loves forest lands and life It is in the heart of nature - <Autrop Gagnon> who is a peasant and a farmer - <Lorenzo> who went to America and did not get what he wanted and changed his mind and now he has traveled with the Shabdolens to go to Canada
***** ***********
The daughter of the Shabdolens family, who is the main character of the story, is called <Maria>. Maria and Francois are in love, but Francois leaves them to travel to the forest lands of Canada and promises Maria that he will return and be with her. He gets married.........a lot of time passes and François gets lost on his journey and no one hears about him. On the other hand, Maria gets bored and tired of waiting to reach François and replaces her love for François with love. changes to the land and in order to be able to continue living, he decides to marry Utrup, who is a seasoned farmer and now owns the land. My
dears, it is better to read this story yourself and enjoy it
---- ----------------------------------------
I hope this review is useful for understanding this book < be
victorious and Iranian>
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Julie
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April 8, 2018
Time stands still, for a moment, in Louis Hémon's Maria Chapdelaine, allowing us a view into a society that faced an internal upheaval, stemming from its very roots. While Hémon was penning his novel, Québec was undergoing a mass migration of its French Canadian citizens into the United States: between 1840 and 1930, just over a million Québécois made the move to industrial towns in the US, seeking jobs. Hémon's novel reflects this heartbreaking quandary in which the citizens found themselves: how does one leave behind one's hearth and the place of ancestors; and conversely, how does one ignore the cry of the future and hungry children to feed?
The story is a simple one, commonplace and (almost) devoid of romance. Maria Chapdelaine is courted from three worthy suitors: Francois Paradis, the very essence of the adventurous coureurs de bois who were the backbone of early Québec society, they being responsible for carving a way into the harsh Canadian landscape; Eutrope Gagnon, the embodiment of the habitants who followed behind and carved the broken trails into concessions and built farms and towns in the heart of the country; and Lorenzo Surprenant, a "surprising" gift from the south, who represents American temptation and allure for an easier life: one that she will never know if she remains behind in Quebec.
Paradis alone offers Maria a chance at romantic love.
Francois Paradis regarda Maria à la dérobée, puis détourna de nouveau les yeux en serrant très fort ses main l'un contre l'autre. Qu'elle était donc plaisante à contempler! D'être assis auprès d'entrevoir sa poitrine forte, son beau visage honnête et patient, la simplicité franche de ses gestes rares et de ses attitudes, une grande faim d'elle lui venait et en même temps un attendrissement émerveillé, parce qu'il avait vécu presque toute sa vie rien qu'avec d'autres hommes, durement, dans les grand bois sauvages ou les plaines de neige.
He felt that she was one of those women who, when they give themselves, give everything without counting: the love of their body and their heart, the strength of their arms in the daily task, the complete devotion to a mind without detours. And the whole thing seemed so precious to him that he was afraid to ask for it.
The other two offer stability, dependability, and a sedate constancy which, while laudable, just don't pull at her heartstrings. She is head over heels in love with the adventurer, the romantic pioneer, and she would follow him, willingly -- despite her own better judgement.
Il lui semble que quelqu'un lui a chuchoté longtemps que le monde et la vie étaient des choses grises. La routine du travail journalier, coupée de plaisirs incomplets et passagers; les années qui s'écoulent, monotones, la rencontre d'un jeune homme tout pareil aux autres, dont la cour patiente et gaie finit par attendrir; le mariage, et puis une longue suite d'années presque semblables aux précédentes, dans une autre maison. C'est comme cela qu'on vit, a dit la voix. Ce n'est pas bien terrible et en tout cas if faut s'y soumettre; mais c'est uni, terne et froid comme un champ à l'automne.
It's not true, all that. Maria shakes her head in the shadows with an unconscious smile of ecstasy and thinks that wasn't true. When she thinks of Francois Paradis, of his appearance, of his presence, of what they are and will be for each other, her and him, something both shivers and burns inside her. All his strong youth, his patience and his simplicity have come to culminate in this: in this outpouring of hope and desire, in this foreknowledge of a miraculous contentment which is coming.
By wanting to choose a "miraculous" life instead of one "as cold as a field in autumn", it is almost predestined that Maria will lose her paradise. When the fall finally comes, she barely grieved, subjugating her life and her emotions, with barely a whimper,
While it is the song of a lonely girl, it is equally the song that Hémon wanted to sing for Quebec, his adopted land. He saw the flow of humanity moving south of the border, giving its heart, and its best years, to a foreign beauty; some part of him yearned to want to stanch the flow, and so not lose all the best that there was.
Maria shuddered: the tenderness that had come to bathe her heart vanished; she said to herself once more: "All the same... it's a hard country, here. Why stay?"
Then a third voice, greater than the others, arose in the silence: the voice of the country of Quebec, which was half a woman's song and half a priest's sermon... [It said
]
Nous avions apporté d'outre mer nos prières et nos chansons: elles sont toujours les mêmes. Nous avions apporté dans nos poitrines le coeur des hommes de notre pays, vaillant et vif, aussi prompt à la pitié qu'au rire, le coeur plus humain de tous les coeurs humains: il n'a pas changé ... ici toutes les choses que nous avons apportées avec nous, notre culte, notre langue, nos vertus et jusqu'à nos faiblesses deviennent des choses sacrés, intangibles et qui devront demeurer jusqu'à la fin.
C'est pourquoi il faut rester dans la province où nos pères sont restés, et vivre comme ils ont vécus, pour obéir au commandement inexprimé quie s'est formé dans leurs coeurs, qui a passé dans les nôtres et que nous devrons transmettre à notre à de nombreux enfants: Au pays de Québec rien ne doit mourir et rien ne doit changer...
This is a period piece if ever there was one: a slice of early (Québécois) pioneering life, caught in amber. Maria will forever be casting her eyes down, silently mourning for Paradis; she will be caught in that eternal spring, ever-promising to marry Gagnon -- an eternal consummation-postponed.
I view it in the end as a museum piece, and see it with charitable eyes: I recognize that it was poignant, and emotional without being (altogether) persuasive; un cri de coeur from a distant past.
Maria Chapdelaine, Clarence Gagnon
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Sylvain
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February 21, 2011
Moral of the story: you should remain miserable your whole life to honor your equally miserable ancestors.
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Matt
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November 26, 2019
Oh. My. God. Was this book ever boring. Maria Chapdelaine is about a girl whose father spends his entire life slaving away to build farms in the Canadian wilderness. Once his farm is complete, however, he gets bored, moves away, and begins the process again, willfully casting himself into servitude of the savage Canadian landscape. Maria, who has clearly inherited her father's stupidity, falls in love with men after meeting them an entire two times in her isolated life. Given a chance to leave her dreadful life and join civilization, Maria abandons any hope of living happily ever after following her mother's death. Reflecting on her mother's stoic adherence to her father's foolish whims, Maria listens to the wind and gets momentarily sentimental, thus choosing to reside in Northern Quebec - the forest she claims to hate several times throughout the novel. What a bore. "Maria Chapdelaine" is a boring title for this book, so I've included some of my own interpretations:
"We're Always Cold" by Louis Hemon
"How to Cut Hay" by Louis Hemon
"We Made Land" by Louis Hemon
EDIT: I wanted to come back to this because we discussed the book in class (the one in which I was forced to read Maria Chapdelaine) and a lot of the allegory went over my head. Upon a deeper reading, there really is a beautiful allegory of the Quebecois culture behind the characters. It's just underneath the long and arduous descriptions of how to get tree trunks out of the ground and stuff.
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K.
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July 26, 2011
Maria Chapdelaine is the story of Maria, a girl living in rural Quebec in the early days of the twentieth century, and the hardships that come with living at this time in this place. It addresses themes prevalent in Canadian Literature; that of climate, isolation and hard work in overcoming both. In true Canadian literary fashion, the story is harrowing but satisfying. It can be boring and tedious - though it is never through the fault of authors; it is simply the fact that those days offered little fun as people were too busy surviving harsh Canadian weather and harvesting food, what else can the authors do? But it is never void of touching moments. I remember a very lovely, innocent, romantic scene with Maria and a love interest out in the woods....
The tragedies that mark Maria's life and the important choices she's given as well as the even more crucial decision she has to make, makes her a sympathetic and wonderful character. Everything you did at the time was meant to ensure the survival of the family, of the community. And Maria's ultimate selflessness is both heartbreaking and admirable.
I think this is a true Canadian classic.
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Heep
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May 19, 2014
"Maria Chapdelaine" is a true Canadian classic. 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 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
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Celine Freniere
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June 4, 2015
This story is so removed from the reality of modern life that it is easy to understand why some readers might find it difficult to relate to. It is, however, a true depiction of a particular time and place (e.g.: Early 20th c. in Québec, in a remote area of French Canada.) My own grandparents and those before them lived this kind of reality: Harsh long winters, hard work, sacrifices, isolation and a deeply held religious belief. Dutiful Maria Chapdelaine is at the centre of this moving story. Will she follow her heart or will she choose the life her family wants for her?... I read the original version in French in the 1960's, and then again in English in 1978. Like all good books, it should be read again.
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Tabuyo
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February 7, 2023
The expectations were high and unfortunately it has not met them.
The setting and descriptions of nature are very good, but the plot of the story itself seemed very weak to me. It basically deals with the choice of husband by young Maria.
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Tammy
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February 19, 2021
So Beautifully written that it is a pleasure to read. Elegantly evocative of early settlement life in northern Quebec.
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Tony Laplume
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December 13, 2022
The version I read of this was published independently by someone out of the public domain, and they were a poor editor, but that is really here nor there about this short romance of the French Canadian frontier at the turn of the previous century, which turns downright elegiac at the end when the title character makes her choice about whether to stay or head to the US for an entirely new and different life. Apparently considered a classic in its native land, and I guess I can see why.
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paul wood
4.0 out of 5 stars and hard work were the joy that drove Quebeckers
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 5 February 2017
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Maria Chapdelaine is a must read for native Canadians and newly arrived Canadians to understand the world of Quebec before the Quiet Revolution which started in 1960 under the Jean Lesage's government in Quebec. For those who are unaware, since that time, the province of Quebec has undergone a 180 degree social change. It is the most secular corner in the western world, and has become devoid of any spiritual or moral patrimony. Beforehand, as this delightful novel shows, devotional faith, large families, and hard work were the joy that drove Quebeckers. Their world was wonderful, united, idyllic and certainly relationships were very strong. In this book the reader gets a taste of that lifestyle and also senses while reading it that "tout ne doit pas changer" , things must not change, which was the fear even as early back as the 19th century. The style of the book is excellent and can be read and studied by teenagers and older. It is both enjoyable and historical.
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altha
5.0 out of 5 stars Un récit pittoresque et lyrique.
Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on 29 October 2019
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This novel invites us to spend a few seasons with a Quebec family isolated in the forest, all busy surviving the rigors of the climate. Young Maria, beautiful in her simplicity and innocence, has three suitors: a woodsman, a farmer and a city dweller exiled in the United States. He had to choose between love and reason, adventure and security, like the Belle Province itself between tradition and progress. Maria attaches us to her over the pages by the courage she displays, silently, in the face of the cruelty of her destiny. And if the book has a real ethnographic value, painting a striking picture of life in Peribonka at the beginning of the 20th century, it acquires a universal scope by depicting to us in small touches the entry of a woman into adulthood. At the beginning of the book, Maria is still a child in a woman's body. At the end, she is an accomplished woman, who decides her life: almost silent throughout the book, it is she who pronounces the last sentence, the one that seals her destiny. We can only deplore the death of Louis Hémon at the age of 32 as his talent as a writer is revealed in this precise and alert writing, by turns picturesque and lyrical.
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Nancy Sweete
2.0 out of 5 stars The book was a disappointment. I purchased it after I saw a display ...
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 9 March 2016
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The book was a disappointment. I purchased it after I saw a display in the McMichael Gallery, Toronto. I was enchanted by the art work.
Although the online display indicated illustrations, the book was contained print only, unfortunately, no art work.
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Chantal Bellon
5.0 out of 5 stars Livre Maria Chapdeleine
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on 27 December 2020
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Parfait! Exactement ce que je voulais
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gleizes joelle
2.0 out of 5 stars Maria Chapdelaine
Reviewed in France 🇫🇷 on 6 November 2016
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So how can I say? given the enthusiasm for this book, i expected to have a good time. What nenni!! I struggled to “get into it” and in all honesty life in Quebec in the last century did not make me dream for a second.
It is a shame, because the writing is fluid and pleasant, and this text is an ode to the land of Canada.
So no, despite my good will I didn't hang on... a shame, this time the fate of a woman who is facing her obligations by sacrificing herself has not carried me.
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