Louis Hémon

Louis Hémon (born October 12, 1880 in Brest , Brittany , † July 8, 1913 in Chapleau (Ontario) ) was a French writer who wrote his main work in Canada .

Life

Hémon received privileged training at the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris . After completing his law studies at the Sorbonne in 1901 , Louis Hémon changed his professional path and went to England, where he worked as a foreign language secretary. In 1911 he emigrated to Canada, where, in addition to office jobs (insurance secretary), he also worked on farms in the French-Canadian wilderness, at that time away from any modernization and industrialization. It was here that Hémon wrote his best-known work, Maria Chapdelaine, about peasant life in the region, which in many respects resembled life in his homeland, Brittany .

Louis Hémon died on July 8, 1913 in Canada when he was hit by a train.

Aftermath

About 10 years after the author's death, Maria Chapdelaine , which was only published in book form in 1916, became an international bestseller. The description of the rural-archaic everyday life at Lac Saint-Jean in the province of Québec played an important role in the development of the French-Canadian national consciousness, especially of the bourgeois-clerical classes against the increasingly dominant Anglophones, while the rural population is in the image of the god-fearing forestry people couldn't recognize. The ubiquitous criticism of the consequences of industrialization and the decline of tradition contributed to the international success.

See also: List of Canadian Writers .

Film adaptations

1950 - The Dreaming Heart ( Maria Chapdelaine ) - Director: Marc Allégret
1953 - Ladies' Favorite ( Monsieur Ripois ) - Director: René Clément
1972 - Death of a woodcutter ( La mort d'un bûcheron ) - based on the novel Maria Chapdelaine - directed by Gilles Carle
1983 Maria Chapdelaine Director: Gilles Carle

Web links

Literature by and about Louis Hémon in the catalog of the German National Library
Literature by and about Louis Hémon in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
Aurelien Boivin : Pour une lecture du roman quebecois: De "Maria Chapdelaine" a "Volkswagen Blues". Nuit blanche, Quebec 1996

Individual evidence

^ "Louis Hémon". In: Kindler's new literary lexicon. Munich 1996. Vol. 7: Gs-Ho, p. 669 f.
^ Other works presented: Germaine Guèvremont , Le Survenant (1945); Gabrielle Roy , Bonheur d'occasion (1945); André Langevin, Le Temps des hommes (1956); Yves Thériault , Agaguk (1981); Gérard Bessette , Le libraire (1968); Marie-Claire Blais , Une Saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel (1965); Jacques Godbout, Salut Galarneau (1967); Roch Carrier, La Guerre, Yes Sir! (1968); Jean-Yves Soucy, Un dieu chasseur (1976); Louis Caron, L'emmitouflé (1976); Michel Tremblay , Thérèse et Pierrette a l'école des Saints-Anges (1991); Anne Hébert , Les fous de Bassan (1984); Jacques Poulin, Volkswagen Blues (1984); Félix-Antoine Savard, Menaud, maître draveur (1937)

personal data
SURNAME	Hémon, Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	French author
DATE OF BIRTH	October 12, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH	Brest , Brittany
DATE OF DEATH	July 8, 1913
Place of death	Chapleau (Ontario)

[1] "Louis Hémon". In: Kindler's new literary lexicon. Munich 1996. Vol. 7: Gs-Ho, p. 669 f.

[2] Other works presented: Germaine Guèvremont , Le Survenant (1945); Gabrielle Roy , Bonheur d'occasion (1945); André Langevin, Le Temps des hommes (1956); Yves Thériault , Agaguk (1981); Gérard Bessette , Le libraire (1968); Marie-Claire Blais , Une Saison dans la vie d'Emmanuel (1965); Jacques Godbout, Salut Galarneau (1967); Roch Carrier, La Guerre, Yes Sir! (1968); Jean-Yves Soucy, Un dieu chasseur (1976); Louis Caron, L'emmitouflé (1976); Michel Tremblay , Thérèse et Pierrette a l'école des Saints-Anges (1991); Anne Hébert , Les fous de Bassan (1984); Jacques Poulin, Volkswagen Blues (1984); Félix-Antoine Savard, Menaud, maître draveur (1937)