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Maria Chapdelaine is a novel written by Louis Hémon (1880-1913), a French visitor to Quebec. Having spent eight years in England and the author of Battling Malone, a novel, Hémon travelled to Canada in 1911 and spent a winter in Peribonka where French-Canadians, as they were then called, were opening up new farming land. Maria Chapelaine is the daughter of Samuel Chapdelaine who chose to move north and create farming land rather than settle in the United States and work in a factory. His choice was the patriotic choice and the one advocated by the Church, le curé Labelle in particular.
Maria is young and attractively plump. She has wide hips, which is seen as an advantage for women whose destiny it is to marry and give birth to several children while helping their husbands. Her family lives quite a distance away from the nearest church, which saddens Maria's mother whose dream it is to live in a parish.
Maria is being courted by three men. François Paradis craves the wilderness and spends his winters in a the habitat of a coureur des bois, minus the canoe. He is about to leave when the narrative begins, but says he will return when spring comes. Maria is also courted by Eutrope Gagnon, who has elected to live as does Samuel, Maria's father. Her third suitor is Lorenzo Surprenant. He has moved to the New England states and works in a factory. By marrying Surprenant, Maria would live comfortably. So these are her choices.
Maria Chapdelaine is a masterpiece in that it fully captures the mind of the hardworking individual who will remain faithful to his land and religion. The novel also depicts with considerable accuracy the archetypal figure of the man irrepressibly attracted by the wilderness. François Paradis seems a descendant of the fearless explorers of the French régime. As for Lorenzo, his chosing to live in the United States is presented as perfectly understandable. He is offering Maria a more comfortable life than do François and Eutrope, but he has reneged on the values Samuel has espoused. Yet, whatever their values, all three suitors are depicted as equally acceptable would-be husbands. Each has the sympathy of the reader and that of the author. So Maria's dilemma is very real.
In 1913, having submitted his manuscript, Louis Hémon was hit by a train as he was travelling west. He never knew what an enduring success his novel would prove. Hémon was able to penetrate and portray the very soul of French-Canadians and he did so using a succinct but brilliant plot: the three choices, if indeed that are choices.
Because it was written by a Frenchman, the question has often been raised as to whether or not Maria Chapdelaine is a Quebec novel.
This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 07:23, 27 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]
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