Tale
Adagio
Not translated into English
Félix Leclerc · 1943
Synopsis
Eighteen short tales, first read on the radio. A ferryman promised to Marie sees a band of Romani pass through the village, and one of the women bewitches him. A renowned violinist who can no longer play wants to sell his instrument back to the luthier who made it. A poor man caught stealing wood must explain himself before the farmer he stole from. The villagers and the animals often carry a lesson.
Context
The texts were first spoken on the airwaves of Radio-Canada, where their author had been writing since the end of the thirties; Fides gathered them in Montreal in 1943. Two volumes, of fables and then of poems, with titles likewise borrowed from music, followed in 1944, and a selection drawn from the three appeared in 1951. Seven years later, the man whom Paris discovered as a singer was already, at home, an author of books.
Who it is for
Very short tales, in a simple language made to be spoken aloud; they can be taken one by one.
Prizes and reception
An unexpected bookshop success, which made its author known in Quebec well before his songs.
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