Maria Chapdelaine (Annotated)

Maria Chapdelaine is a spare yet resonant novel of French-Canadian pioneer life, set among the clearings and forests of the Lac Saint-Jean region. Through Maria's choice between three suitors—the adventurous François Paradis, the Americanized Lorenzo Surprenant, and the steadfast settler Eutrope Gagnon—Hémon dramatizes competing futures for Quebec: mobility, assimilation, or fidelity to land and f...