Sackcloth for Banner (Les Demi-Civilises)
Toronto: The Macmillan Company of Canada Limited, 1938. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. x, 262 pages. DJ is worn, torn soiled and chipped. Inscribed by the Translator on the fep. Inscription reads A Beth et Ted aver mes meilleurs souhaits de bonheur 14 Janv. 1939 Lukin Brette. Montreal bookseller's label at bottom of fep. Includes Foreword and Introduction. Jean-Charles Harvey, born November 10, 1891 in La Malbaie, Quebec, and died January 3, 1967 in Montreal,was a Quebec journalist, editor, novelist and essayist. In April 1934, he became famous following the scandal linked to the publication of his novel Les Demi-civililisés, which earned him the condemnation of the clergy, and in particular by Cardinal Villeneuve. Following the publication of his novel Les Demi-civililisés, targeted by censorship, he was forced to retract, but he still lost his job at Le Soleil on April 30, 1934. He then became director of the Bureau of Statistics of the Government of Quebec. Dismissed in 1937 by Prime Minister Maurice Duplessis, he moved to Montreal to found the weekly Le Jour. After eight and a half years of existence, Le Jour closed its doors in June 1946. Harvey then worked for the International Service of Radio-Canada and the CKAC radio station before becoming director of publications for Le Petit journal and Photo Journal. This is a novel of life in the city of Quebec and on the shores of the St. Lawrence below that city. It applies to that life a kind of treatment which is radically different from the familiar romantic and nostalgic treatment applied by the great majority of previous novelists in the same field. Mr. Harvey does not regard the collective life, attitudes, and opinions of his fellow-citizens as subjects which should be exempt from criticism, and he has no inhibitions about criticizing them. His work stands in somewhat the same relation to preceding French-Canadian fiction as the work of Sean O'Casey bears to the Irish drama and fiction of a generation earlier. The first few chapters of Mr. Harvey's novel will readily establish the fact that he possesses a nature of extreme sensitiveness, accompanied by a conscience which refuses to allow him the refuge common to such natures, a shutting of the eyes to the painful aspects of reality and a concentration upon a dreamworld nearer to the heart's desire. He is thus irresistibly impelled towards a kind of art in which the cruelties, the meannesses, the vulgarities of human nature are as fully and as faithfully depicted as its nobilities. The chief object of his interest is not individuals but the social milieu which they constitute; and he depicts that milieu as hostile to independence of thought, to nobility of character, to generosity of purpose. This is the story of a young man who attempted the impossible. Max Hubert emerges from his early experiences with personality, esthetic sense, thinking and writing ability, but neither money nor connections. A chance meeting with glamorous Dorothee leads to his appointment as editor of The Twentieth Century, founded by her millionaire father, Lue Meunier. As long as Dorothee and Max are in love, The Twentieth Century wages a winning fight against local prejudices, fallacies, cliques, and powers behind the throne. Condition: Good / Fair.
Keywords: Censorship, Quebec, Catholic Church, Millionaire, Lue Meunier, Dorothee Meunier, Max Hubert, Prejudice, Thomas Bouvier, Rum-running, Opium Smoking, convent, Suicide, Murderer, Death by Exposure, Snowstorm
[Book #82616]
Price: $150.00