L' Influence d'un livre

Influence d'un livre, L'

Influence d'un livre, L' (1837) by Philippe AUBERT DE GASPÉ, Jr, regarded as the first French Canadian novel, offers a subtle satire of spiritual poverty in Québec through an account of Charles Amand's quest for gold. Amand's alchemical misadventures, influenced by a treatise on magic, alternate with the courtship of his daughter Amélie by a young medical student, and take him from the countryside near St-Jean-Port-Joli to Québec and to Ile d'Anticosti. Written probably in collaboration with Aubert de Gaspé's father, author of Les ANCIENS CANADIENS (1863), the novel is remembered for its documentary and folkloric elements, incorporating into its plot the legend of Rose Latulipe and the murder of the peddler Guilmette as well as superstitious beliefs and customs. Le Chercheur de trésors (1864), a bowdlerized edition by Abbé H.R. CASGRAIN, was replaced in 1968 by Léopold Leblanc's edition, appending 4 of many excised passages.