La Sagouine - Softcover

Maillet, Antonine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0889241856 ISBN 13: 9780889241855

Publisher: Dundurn Press, 1979

Synopsis

"This is a true story. The story of La Sagouine, a scrubwoman, a woman of the sea, who was born with the century, with her feet in the water. Water was her fortune: the daughter of a cod fisherman, a sailor's girl, and later the wife of a fisherman who took oysters and smelts. A cleaning woman also, who ends up on all fours, with her bucket in front and her hands in the water." -Antonine Maillet

With well over 10,000 copies sold in French and English editions, La Sagouine is fast becoming a classic of its genre. The single character is that of La Sagouine, the washerwoman, who fills the stage with the voice of poverty, and of pride. Straight from the heart of Acadian New Brunswick, she is the embodiment of her world, and yet touches the hearts and souls of readers and audiences from all walks of life.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

"You see a descendant of one of your own ancestors and you say, Hi, there, Pit-à-Thomas-à-Picoté, how's it going, eh? Then you see someone across the room looks just like you do, and who's speaking like it's you who's talking, and who has the same job as you, and who wouldn't look down her nose at you just because you're a cleaning lady who's never done nothing much and never been nowhere."

The old woman speaks in a voice rough with the stuff of life. She's never done nothing much and never been nowhere, but the stories she tells fill a world. In her younger days, she traded favours with sailors to make ends meet; now she wears her body down scrubbing floors. She rants and reminisces, telling stories about herself, her friends and neighbours, the priest and his church, and every other aspect of of life in her village. Bawdy and tenacious, sharp-tongued and warm-hearted, la Sagouine's voice is the irrepressible voice of Acadie.

With La Sagouine, Antonine Maillet brought Acadian literature to the world's notice. Since then, Maillet has been awarded the Prix Goncourt (the first non-French citizen to be so honoured) and the Governor General's Award for her novels Pélagie-la-charette and Don l'Orignal.

About the Author

Antonine Maillet, the author, was born in Bouctouche, New Brunswick, in the heart of "l'Acadie." The author of twenty-six works of novels and plays, she has been awarded eleven literary prizes in Canada and Europe. Antonine Maillet is Docteur de lettres of Laval University of Quebec and has received thirteen honorary degrees.

Luis de Cepedes, the translator, was born in Paris in 1948 and educated in Canada and Latin America. For the last fifteen years, he has worked as a freelance writer for Radio-Canada (CBF-FM) with a number of dramatic scripts, historical studies and French adaptations of English and Latin American plays. His most recent works are the English translations of Maillet's Gapi and Sullivan and Evangeline Deusse, and the development of Evangeline Deusse for film.

About this edition

• Publisher: Dundurn Press
• Publication date: 1979
• ISBN 10: 0889241856
• ISBN 13: 9780889241855
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 183