![Josephine-Eleonore d'Estimauville (1816-1893)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Josephine-Eleonore_d%27Estimauville_%281816-1893%29.jpg)
''Kamouraska'' (1970) is a historical novel written by Canadian
Anne Hébert
Anne Hébert (pronounced in French) (August 1, 1916 – January 22, 2000), was a Canadian author and poet. She won Canada's top literary honor, the Governor General's Award, three times, twice for fiction and once for poetry.
Early life
Hébe ...
. Written in
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
, the book has been translated into many languages.
Set in 19th century
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, it tells the story of Elisabeth D’Aulnières, who conspires with her lover, an American doctor, to kill her husband, the
seigneur
''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (or ...
of
Kamouraska in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region. The narrative begins with Elisabeth beside the deathbed of her second husband, Jérôme Rolland, a notary. The story is told in a series of
flashbacks. The narrative begins in the
third person
Third person, or third-person, may refer to:
* Third person (grammar), a point of view (in English, ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', and ''they'')
** Illeism, the act of referring to oneself in the third person
* Third-person narrative, a perspective in p ...
, but later switches to the viewpoint of Elisabeth telling her story in the first person.
The book is used in many schools for the study of novels.
The story is based on events surrounding the 1838 murder of Achille Taché, seigneur of
Kamouraska, by George Holmes, an American doctor. He was said to be in love with Taché's wife, Josephte-Joséphine-Eléonore d'Estimauville; Holmes and d'Estimauville were both living in
Sorel, Quebec at the time. Holmes fled to the United States to evade the 1839 trial, and d'Estimauville was acquitted by the jury of any role in the killing of her husband.
The book sold 30,000 copies in France in 1970. The book was nominated for the
Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine '' La Vie heureuse'' (today known as '' Femina''). The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury. They reward French-language works written ...
in 1970, and won the
Prix des libraires in 1971. The book was translated into English by Norman Shapiro, a professor at
Wesleyan University
Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...
.
In 1973 the novel was adapted as a
film of the same name directed by
Claude Jutra
Claude Jutra (; March 11, 1930 – November 5, 1986) was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter. . It starred
Geneviève Bujold
Geneviève Bujold (; born July 1, 1942) is a Canadian actress. For her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in the period drama film ''Anne of the Thousand Days'' (1969), Bujold received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Her other film cre ...
and
Richard Jordan
Robert Anson Jordan Jr. (July 19, 1937 – August 30, 1993) was an American actor. A long-time member of the New York Shakespeare Festival, he performed in many Off Broadway and Broadway plays. His films include ''Logan's Run'', ''Les Misérab ...
. Jutra and Hébert collaborated on the screenplay.
Charles Wilson adapted the book as an opera in three acts, to his own libretto; it was premiered in concert in Toronto in 1979.
References
Brian Busby
Brian John Busby (born August 29, 1962) is a Canadian literary historian and anthologist. Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, he attended John Abbott College and Concordia University. Busby began his writing career writing daytime soap operas and ...
, ''Character Parts: Who's Really Who in
CanLit
Canadian literature is the literature of a Multiculturalism in Canada, multicultural country, written in languages including Canadian English, Canadian French, Indigenous languages of Canada, Indigenous languages, and many others such as Canadi ...
'' (2003) -
1970 Canadian novels
Fiction set in 1838
Novels by Anne Hébert
Canadian French-language novels
Novels set in Quebec
Canadian historical novels
Canadian novels adapted into films
Novels set in the 1830s
1838 in Canada
Novels adapted into operas
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