Novel
Master of the River
Menaud, maître-draveur
Félix-Antoine Savard · 1937
Synopsis
Charlevoix. In spring, Menaud, master log driver, drives the wood cut over the winter down the river. The drive takes his son Joson from him. Around him, the mountains are passing by lease to foreigners, who close them off to the local people. His daughter Marie hesitates between Alexis, known as the Lucon, a log driver like him, and the Délié, who has gone over to the side of the buyers and to whom the guardianship of the leased lands will be entrusted. Menaud refuses to yield.
Context
The novel was published in Quebec City, by the Librairie Garneau, in June 1937; its author was forty years old and parish priest of Clermont. Its success was immediate, and a reissue was requested as early as 1938. The text then went through five versions, three of them quite distinct, in 1937, 1944 and 1964: the 1944 revision curbed the lyricism of the first in favour of a more sober style, and Yvan G. Lepage traced its successive states up to 1967 in his scholarly edition.
Who it is for
A short narrative, in a lyrical language full of trade words, those of the log drive and the forest; one must look at which version one is opening.
Prizes and reception
Medal of the Académie française in 1938; Fides sold about one hundred and seventy thousand copies from 1944 to 1987.
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