The Canadians of Old

About this film

LibriVox recording of The Canadians of Old by Philippe Aubert de Gaspé. Read in English by Bruce Pirie. In his mid-70s, Philippe Aubert de Gaspé took on the project of recording the culture and heritage of French Canada, especially that of the 1700s, the world of his youth. The result, published in French in 1863, was the historical fiction "Les Anciens Canadiens (literally, “The Canadians of Old”) In this book, inspired by the historical novels of Sir Walter Scott, Aubert de Gaspé collected the customs, traditions, folk tales, superstitions, and songs of the Quebec people, wove in memories of life in his own ancestral home, and set all this within the momentous historical events that transformed Canada in the 18th century. Much of the book is historically accurate, based sometimes on the author’s own experiences and sometimes on memories passed on to him by eyewitnesses. For example, his account of being sent to debtor’s prison came from the author’s own experience. The fantastic ghost story of “La Corriveau” was based on the true story of a murderess whose body was on public display in iron chains (a “cage”) for weeks after her execution. That initial incident had already been sp…

Directors & creators

Philippe Aubert de Gaspé

Subjects

librivox; audiobooks; literature; Quebec; french canada; cultural heritage; conquest of quebec; plains of abraham; quebecois folklore; history of quebec

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