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 Quebec frontier, Maria endures the hardships of isolation and climate. Maria must eventually choose between three suitors who represent very different ways of life: a trapper, a farmer, and a Parisian immigrant.

Powerful in its simplicity, this novel captures the essence of faith and tenacity, the key ingredients of survivance. Translated...

Published in 1916 this tale of survival and the cruelties of nature has been printed in 23 countries. Maria lives near Quebec with her family. Life is hard is this area for Maria. She must choose her life partner from three vary different men. After the death of her mother Maria chooses to stay at home and raise her younger siblings. How will this life altering choice effect her future?

First published in 1914 Maria Chapdelaine is considered to be a classic in Canadian literature. Maria Chapodelaine is a lyrical love story set in the harsh environment of nineteenth-century Quebec. Maria awaits the return of Francois, her lover. She is a young farm girl who evokes the spirit of the French families breaking land and building homes in the Hinterlands of 19th century Quebec.

Louis Hemon wrote this book during his time working at a farm in the Lac Saint-Jean region. He never saw the widespread publication of his landmark novel. Since his death, Maria Chapdelaine has been translated into more than 20 languages in 23 countries, while other novels were published posthumously. The work was also celebrated through a series of paintings by renowned Canadian artist, Rajka Kupesic.

Maria a dix-huit ans et vit sur une terre de colonisation au Lac Saint-Jean. Trois hommes la courtisent, trois destins s'offrent a Maria: Francois Paradis, Lorenzo Surprenant et Eutrope Gagnon. Le premier est un bucheron epris de liberte, le second est citadin aux Etats-Unis et le troisieme est, comme le pere de Maria, un colon. La mort de la mere de Maria, les qualites qu'on lui trouve, orientent Maria vers un role semblable."

" Les membres du Jury retournaient de la morgue vers la salle des seances, a travers le petit jardin municipal, si soigneusement pare. Les allees de bitume serpentaient entre de minuscules pelouses ovales, tondues ras, defendues par des lignes d'arceaux; elles cotoyaient des massifs de fleurs disposees en rosaces multicolores, longeaient des groupes d'arbustes soignes comme des bouquets, tournaient autour d'arbres malingres eleves a grand'peine dans le sol pauvre de la cite...""

"Maria Chapdelaine" from Louis Hemon. Francophone writer best known for his novel Maria Chapdelaine (1880-1913).