Maria Chapdelaine: one of the most widely read French books you've never heard of

Ideas53:59The Many Lives of Maria Chapdelaine

"Ite, missa est. The door opened, and the men of the congregation began to come out of the church at Péribonka." 

And so begins Maria Chapdelaine: A Tale of French Canada. 

Written by Louis Hémon in 1913, Maria Chapdelaine is a coming-of-age novel about a young woman living near the remote village of Péribonka, located about 300 km north of Quebec City. Living with her family, she's presented with three suitors from whom she must choose her husband and, ultimately, a way of life: either to stay in the village as a farm wife or move to the United States. 

Many decades ago, I spent a summer studying French in Chicoutimi, Quebec, and that's where my fascination — you might even call it an obsession — with Maria Chapdelaine began. One day my class took a field trip north to the small town of Péribonka.

We visited the tiny homestead where Louis Hémon lived for a few months and where he wrote most of his novel. Although I hadn't yet read Maria Chapdelaine, the memories of that day have stayed with me over all these years.

When I heard that the new $6 million Louis Hémon Museum would be opening in Péribonka in 2024, I thought it was a great time to re-examine both my own lingering devotion to Maria, and that of the wider world.

Why, I wondered, did this slim novel, written by a man who'd recently arrived from France, about a pious adolescent girl in rural Quebec become such a global phenomenon? 

Initially serialized in the Parisian magazine Le Temps in 1914, Hémon's story was first published in book form in 1916. Maria Chapdelaine quickly became an international best-seller, getting translated into over twenty languages.

In fact, between the two world wars, it was reputed to be the most translated and highest-selling French-language book in the world. And incredibly, it's still one of the most widely read works of fiction ever written in French. 

Four film versions have hit the silver screen, the most recent one in 2021 by celebrated Quebec director Sébastien Pilote, a native of Saguenay where the novel is set.

"I felt that the novel belonged to me. I recognize its characters as if they were a part of my family. I feel like I recognize my uncles, my parents, and grandparents," Pilote recalled.

While making this documentary, I spoke with many people who also shared a connection to the plucky heroine and her ability to endure harsh winters and personal tragedies. People like Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, who told me that the novel, "really brings me back into the past. And it also brings us back, I think, into our ancestors' past and what they had to go through for us to be here today."

Maria Chapdelaine may be having a contemporary resurgence, but over the last 100 years, the novel has seen its fortunes rise and fall and its meaning hotly contested.

In 1921, it topped bestseller lists in the United Kingdom and the United States where it was seen as a simple love story. During the interwar years in many Catholic countries, the novel was skillfully marketed as propaganda, an ode to simplicity, devotion, and duty.

Following Quebec's Révolution tranquille (Quiet Revolution), the novel — though written by a Frenchman — has come to be regarded by many Quebec scholars and historians as a foundational work, one of the great novels of Quebec, a testimony to survivance, or survival.

Reflecting the book's renown, the entire region around Péribonka today is known as the Maria-Chapdelaine Regional County Municipality. Montreal has a street named rue Louis-Hémon, while the province has theatres, mountains, and parks named after the author and his literary creation. Plays have been written, and an opera scored, and the image of Maria Chapdelaine has even appeared on a Canadian stamp. Not bad for a fictional character. 

I learned that the story resonates outside of francophone culture as well: in 2016, Ontario's McMichael Canadian Art Collection mounted a major exhibit of artwork and memorabilia about Maria Chapdelaine, and in 2024-2025 it featured the 54 jewel-toned illustrations that celebrated Quebec artist Clarence Gagnon prepared for a special 1933 edition of the novel, now a highly prized collector's item.

According to Sarah Milroy, the museum's executive director and chief curator, the prints "are one of the real pride and joys of the McMichael collection and one of the most treasured works or known series of works by this artist or any artist of this period in any museum in Canada."

The new Musée Louis Hémon in Péribonka has been designed around the "home" of the fictional Maria, the house where author Louis Hémon stayed with the Bédards, a local family. 

The hope is that the brand-new Musée Louis Hémon — the only literary museum in Quebec — will bring back the tourists who once flocked to see Maria's stomping grounds and even asked for the autograph of Eva Bouchard, the woman said to have been the model for Hémon's beloved heroine.

And for anyone who wants to walk in the footsteps of the most recent actress to play Maria, talks are in the works to turn filmmaker Sébastian Pilote's soundstage in the woods near Péribonka into a visitors' experience centre. 

But for those who want to travel no further than the comfort of their couch, the novel remains in print and can be appreciated on many levels. As a piece of history, a literary classic, and a great love story. Above all, Maria remains alive and admired by those who, like me, have come to know her.

When I asked McGill literature professor Isabelle Daunais what she'd say to Maria if she ever had the chance to meet her — a question that I asked all my guests — she expressed an emotion common to everyone's response.

"I would say thank you. Thank you for being such a great character. She's a quiet person. She's a quiet character. It's all about what's inside of her. So maybe I would just salute her."

An ode to Maria Chapdeplaine

In 2017, Marie-Ève Bouchard (Meb) published Aira de laine, a collection of "blackout poetry" (poèmes par soustraction) which she created from Hémon's novel by blacking out the parts of the original text. 

"Both my parents are from Lac Saint-Jean and the novel is set there, and it was very dear to my mother's heart. I think there is a mythology, somehow, of what the French Canadian was. And the great irony, of course, it's that it's a Frenchman who wrote it", says Meb. 

Similar to many people I spoke with, Meb's connection to Maria runs deeper. Like the fictional character, Meb's mother died when she was very young.

"I lost my mother when I was 22. So, I think all my life I've been trying to find bits of her." As a result, she feels protective of Maria. "I would take Maria in my arms, and I would say, 'I'm sorry you lost your mother' because I know what she went through."

Meb recorded three of her "blackout" poems from Aria de laine for IDEAS. They can be heard here:

Ideas1:25Marie-Ève Bouchard reads from her collection of 'blackout poems,' Aria de laine

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*This episode was produced by Catherine Annau.