Picounoc le maudit

Lemay, Pamphile, 1837-1918Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.4

Word count: 652K words
Chapters: 66

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.Picounoc le maudit by Pamphile LemayAuthor: Lemay, Pamphile, 1837-1918,Language: French, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Feb 18, 2008

Editor's review

Picounoc le maudit is a novel by the French-Canadian writer Pamphile Lemay (1837–1918), belonging to the regionalist and legendary narrative tradition of Quebec literature. Written in French, it revolves around the fate of a cursed figure, bearing the coloring of folk legend and moral allegory, while its language preserves the rhetorical habits of nineteenth-century French literature. For readers studying Quebec literature, French North American culture, or the nineteenth-century French novel, this public-domain work offers a rare sample of the original text. The Project Gutenberg edition is easy to search and copy in full, making it suitable as supplementary material for textual analysis or comparative literature courses. It is best read at a leisurely pace, with attention to the narrator's moral judgments and local-color descriptions, rather than judged by the pacing of modern fiction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Students and scholars of Quebec or French North American literature
Readers interested in the narrative tradition of the nineteenth-century French novel
Those seeking public-domain French texts for language learning
Instructors who need primary texts for comparative literature courses

Not a good fit for

General readers accustomed only to fast-paced modern fiction
Readers unable to read French and without a translation at hand
Beginners expecting full scholarly annotation and an introduction

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the storyline, then return to trace how the characters' fates echo the theme of the curse.
Read alongside background material on Quebec history and folklore to understand the cultural context of regionalist narrative.
French learners can excerpt long sentences chapter by chapter to analyze the syntax and rhetoric of nineteenth-century French.
Read in comparison with French legendary novels of the same period to observe common features of moral-allegorical narrative.

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.

FAQ

Is this book in French or English?

The original is in French; the Project Gutenberg edition preserves the French text without an English translation. Readers without French will need a dictionary or a parallel translation.

Is it suitable as French learning material?

It can serve as advanced reading material, but the long sentences and archaic vocabulary of nineteenth-century literary French make it better suited to learners with some foundation in French, used together with reference works.

Does this edition include notes or an introduction?

This electronic edition is a digitized public-domain text and generally contains no modern scholarly notes or introduction; readers must supply background material themselves.

Comments

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About the author

Lemay, Pamphile, 1837-1918 Author · Canadian · 1837–1918

Pamphile Lemay (1837–1918) was a French-Canadian poet and novelist. Public information about his life is limited, and his writing centres on rural life in Quebec and French-Canadian traditions. Drawing on local scenery, everyday human relations and religious faith, he depicts in a plain and somewhat lyrical style the moral order and lived experience of French-Canadian communities. His novels Picounoc le maudit and L'affaire Sougraine reflect his concern with tensions in rural society and with themes of crime and punishment, and his narratives often carry a moral scrutiny. The library holds two of his works; though few, they indicate his place in the tradition of regional writing in Quebec French literature.