Brief Account and Succinct Narrative of the Voyage Made in MDXXXV and MDXXXVI

Cartier, Jacques, 1491-1557Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.9

Word count: 211K words
Chapters: 22

Tags

Foreign Language Books World History North American DiscoveryTravel AdventureMaritime ExplorationDocumentary NarrativeSixteenth CenturyExotic Culture

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Bref récit et succincte narration de la navigation faite en MDXXXV et MDXXXVIAuthor: Cartier, Jacques, 1491-1557,Language: French, Class: E011: History: America: America, Release Date: May 1, 2004

Editor's review

This is Jacques Cartier's original account of his 1535–1536 voyages to North America, a primary document of the Age of Exploration: brief yet dense with information. The book preserves the spelling and syntax of sixteenth-century French, giving readers direct access to the tone and observational habits of early exploration narratives; it is an irreplaceable source for understanding early French activity in North America. Its strengths lie in restrained narration and concrete detail—routes sailed, encounters with local Indigenous peoples, and the winter stay—making it a useful supplementary reader for the history of navigation, colonialism, or French-language primary sources. It is best suited to desk study, ideally read alongside maps and an annotated edition. Because the text is old and in Old French, general readers will face a language barrier at first; it should be treated as a historical document rather than a light travelogue.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Scholars of North American colonial or maritime history who need primary sources
Advanced French students or those interested in Old French texts
History enthusiasts interested in sixteenth-century exploration narratives
Teachers preparing excerpts of primary documents for relevant courses

Not a good fit for

General readers seeking modern French or an easy travelogue
Readers without historical background who want only a story-driven adventure narrative
Readers with limited patience for archaic spelling and syntax

Reading tips

Begin with an introduction or background essay to grasp the basic outline of the 1535–1536 voyages before turning to the original text
Keep a map of northeastern North America at hand and mark routes and place names as you read to help orient yourself
Do not agonize over every Old French spelling variant; consult a modern French translation for comparison
Read in stages according to the voyage, summarizing each section in a few sentences to keep the whole in view

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

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FAQ

Is this book in French or English? How difficult is it?

The main text is in sixteenth-century French, retaining archaic spelling and syntax; it is neither modern French nor an English translation. Readers with French will still need time to adjust, and the difficulty is high; those without French are advised to use a modern translation or annotated edition alongside it.

Is it suitable for reading as a leisure travelogue?

Not really. It is a brief, restrained voyage account focused on recording facts and observations, with limited literary elaboration or storytelling; it is better suited to historical study, and leisure reading will feel dry.

What additional materials should I prepare?

A map of northeastern North America, a concise introduction to Cartier's voyages, and a modern French translation or annotated edition for comparison. These will significantly reduce obstacles in language and geography.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Cartier, Jacques, 1491-1557 Author · French · 1491–1557

Jacques Cartier (1491–1557) was a French navigator and explorer. He led several voyages to North America and penetrated the region of the St. Lawrence River, and his accounts became important early documents through which Europeans came to know the geography and waterways of eastern Canada. Two of his works are held here, both voyage narratives written in French: one recounts the journey of 1535–1536, and the other is the original relation of the 1534 voyage to Canada. These texts record coasts, rivers, and the conditions of the regions he visited through firsthand observation, in a plain and concrete style that combines the character of a ship's log with that of a geographical report. They are not only primary sources for the study of Cartier's expeditions but also provided a geographical foundation for later French exploration and colonization in North America. Public information on his early life and biographical details is limited.