Bride of New France: A Novel

by Suzanne Desrochers

Overview

A richly imagined novel is about a young French woman sent to settle in the New World.

Transporting readers from cosmopolitan seventeenth-century Paris to the Canadian frontier, this vibrant debut tells of the struggle to survive in a brutal time and place. Laure Beausejour has been taken from her destitute family and raised in an infamous orphanage to be trained as a lace maker. Striking and willful, she dreams of becoming a seamstress and catching the eye of a nobleman. But after complaining about her living conditions, she is sent to Canada as a fille du roi, expected to marry a French farmer there. Laure is shocked by the primitive state of the colony and the mingling of the settlers with the native tribes. When her ill-matched husband leaves her alone in their derelict hut for the winter, she must rely on her wits and her clandestine relationship with an Iroquois man for survival.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393083873
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	07/30/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Suzanne Desrochers, of French Canadian descent, has conducted extensive research on the filles du roi and is writing a PhD thesis at King’s College London on the migration of women to America. She lives in Toronto.

Editorial Reviews

"A wholly original example of social history at its best."

Globe and Mail - John Barber

"Desrochers sheds new light on an all but forgotten chapter in the history of Canada. . . . The fascinating backstory propels the elegant . . . narrative."

Booklist - Margaret Flanagan

"Bride of New France is a haunting story of a courageous young woman, shipped over from France to the wilderness of Canada in the 17th century. Beautifully written, Suzanne Desrochers uses the rich detail of the time period to tell us of Laure’s remarkable bravery and determination and to remind us again of the resilience of our forbearers."

Kathleen Grissom

During the 17th century, hundreds of poor, lower-class women cast out from French society were shipped to the Canadian frontier to marry fur traders and soldiers and bear their children. Desrochers's debut novel illustrates that their exile was not met with excitement or a sense of adventure by these women, but rather with a sense of danger, sadness, and trepidation. Laure Beausejour grew up in the Salpêtrière, an orphanage and poorhouse in Paris. Despite dreams of becoming a successful seamstress, Laure is sent to Canada at age 17. The primitive wooded landscape, promises of a long and bitter winter, and tales of savage attacks by the native inhabitants greet Laure when she arrives. She marries but finds love and companionship in the one place that can lead only to heartbreak and deep sacrifice. VERDICT This is a dark tale, and readers shouldn't expect a happy ending, but historical fiction fans will appreciate the rich period details and commiserate with believable characters modeled after the founding mothers of French Canada.—Andrea Brooks, Northern Kentucky Univ. Lib., Highland Heights

Library Journal

Desrochers' debut follows a spirited young woman from a grim charity hospital in 17th-century Paris to the equally challenging Canadian wilderness. Snatched from her parents by a law that forbids begging on the city streets, the best Laure Beauséjour can hope for as an inmate of Salpêtrière Hospital is that her nimble fingers will get her a job with a seamstress, where she can assess single men for their marriageability. She has no interest in the cloistered life, unlike her pious friend Madeleine, who aspires only to become one of the nuns who oversee the hospital's indigent women with varying degrees of severity. But when Laure's ill-judged letter to the king complaining of their treatment results in her being sent to Canada, she persuades Madeleine to join her in the contingent of unruly women destined to atone for their sins by marrying settlers and providing population for New France. The improbable scene in which Madeleine decides to cast her lot with Laure is only one instance of the awkward tone and sketchy motivations that indicate a beginning novelist throughout this oddly conceived and structured narrative. With nearly half the text devoted to Laure's experiences in Paris and the voyage to the New World, the author fails to provide sufficient time and emotional weight for the ordeal in the Canadian wilderness, where the protagonist reluctantly marries an odious fur trader but finds herself drawn to one of the natives the French scornfully call Savages. Desrochers, who drew her fictional inspiration from her research for a masters' thesis at York University on the subject of female immigration, certainly conveys the bleak conditions endured by French settlers, particularly in the stark depiction of Laure facing starvation during her first Canadian winter. But she fails to bring to life any of the characters other than willful Laure, and her self-absorbed heroine is hard to like. Vivid historical background wasted on unengaging fiction.

Kirkus Reviews