‘Bride of New France’ and ‘Into the Heart of the Country’

Reviewed by Christa Seeley

In the early history of New France, young French girls were selected to sail across the Atlantic and marry, in order that the new colony could expand. These girls were known as the filles de roi, or the King’s daughters. It was not an ideal life by any means; for many it was considered a fate worse than death. Married off to complete strangers, in a harsh environment the likes of which they had never seen before, these young girls faced an uncertain future. Suzanne Desrochers’ debut novel Bride of New France, is their story of difficulty and hardship told from the perspective of one of their own, Laure Beausejour:

She doesn’t express her fear that although the bright mountains of ice do look like a heaven of sorts, she doubts there are any angels in this heaven.

Desrochers takes us on a journey with Laure as she is sent from France to the New World. Taken from her parents at a young age, she is considered an orphan and held at the Salpetriere, a dormitory for women. A bold girl, with strong opinions, she dreams of a better life, of becoming a seamstress, of marrying a duke. Not once, however, did those dreams include travelling to Canada as a fille de roi. But after unintentionally angering the Superior, she finds herself on a ship to the New World and an uncertain future.

At times the writing style comes across as more analytical than literary.  Historical accuracy at times takes precedence over poetic license. This may be a result of Suzanne’s academic familiarity with the subject;  a historian by trade, Suzanne Desrochers has written her MA and PhD on the subject of the filles. This experience often works in the reader’s favour. Desrochers is able to delve into the story and characters with fantastic detail. You live life right alongside the unexpected bride. Before coming to Canada we are led through a sample of Laure’s life in France. Though once employed as a servant girl to a rich and kind mistress, Laure’s life in France is difficult. Death and depravity surround her and independence seems like an unachievable dream. Desrochers’ knowledge of the time period brings the settings to life and adds an important level of believability.

The women of history and their experiences are often neglected, so it is refreshing to see Laure give a voice to a group who helped lay the foundations of this country. Laure’s voice is the backbone of this story and it is a strong one. Though continuously faced with difficult situations she is always looking forward, refusing to resign herself to self-pity and despair. She is outspoken in a way that will make you laugh, she is proud in a way that makes her human and she is brave in a way that will make you love her.

Early on, when you’re still getting to know Laure, she sneaks out of the Salpetriere to visit a sick roommate at the Hotel-Dieu. This stood out as a strong moment for Laure’s character, her walk home beautifully juxtaposing both her bravery and her fear.

Laure heads along the Seine, back to the Salpetriere. She has nowhere else to go. Her clogs and feet and even her legs are covered in mud from the road. She stops to drink from the river like a horse. The water reaches the bottom of her stomach and makes it ache. Laure isn’t afraid of the Superior’s wrath, isn’t even afraid of being sent to the Maison de la Force. All Laure care about is  about is her failure…. Now it is too late.

There are times, however, when Laure’s selfishness is somewhat off-putting. Upon learning that she is being sent to Canada, she concocts a plan to convince her best friend, an innocent girl named Madeline, to come with her. Laure does this knowing that hardships are in store for them in the New World and knowing that Madeline had planned on devoting her life to God and never marrying. Though Laure’s fear is understandable, this type of selfishness only makes you pull away from the character, rather than connect to her.

The real success of this book, however, is that it keeps the reader engaged. This particular time period and place (seventeenth century New France) is a challenging one. French settlements are still relatively new. The population is small to say the least. At face value it certainly does not compare to the bustling excitement of Paris, filled with nobility and vagrants, prostitutes and hangings. There is a danger that historical novels of this subject matter can become more of an historical survey, focusing too much on weather and social structure, causing the reader to pull away from the characters and lose interest in the story itself.

Through the dynamic personality of Laure and her supporting cast, Desrochers’ novel does not fall into this trap. There are of course mentions of the hardships the weather and social structure brought. Alongside, however, there is the story of people, not just surviving, but living. Laure keeps the same strong personality she had in Paris, when she comes to New France. She sews dresses when they need sheets, she adopts a pig and names it after her husband. More importantly, she builds interesting relationships with the people of New France, in particular a forbidden love with the aboriginal, Deskaheh and the headstrong midwife, Madame Rouillard. The setting may be essential for this story but it is in the relationships between characters that readers will feel themselves swept away.

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In the first part of the eighteenth century, as the fur trade continued to grow, the Hudson’s Bay Company established Prince of Wales fort near modern-day Churchill to protect its interests and expand the trade. In history books Molly Norton only appears briefly. However, the half-native daughter of Governor Moses Norton and later the wife of Governor Samuel Hearne, Molly was a prime witness to the rise and decline of this iconic and strategically important fort.

In her new novel, Into the Heart of the Country, Pauline Holdstock paints a beautiful picture of northern Manitoba and what life would have been like there. Poetic descriptions of the vast, largely unexplored land can be found throughout. Her writing style is both artistic and vivid:

Then came a storm like a raging beast and it was as if the very air had taken animal life, the wind became a wolf’s breath with the power to freeze the heart in the throat, turn the blood to ice.

Descriptions such as the one above help set the scene and emphasize the theme of survival that runs throughout the novel. The reader may feel, however, that they are only skimming the surface of this survival. Though poetic, there is not a lot of depth given to the story, with more time given to descriptions of the area than to the relationships between the characters and their attempts to overcome the difficulties of life at the fort.

At first this story has the feel of a multi-generational epic, moving from Richard Norton, ill-prepared to run a fort in such a harsh environment, to his son, Moses, who is educated and full of arrogance, and finally to his daughter and her husband, Molly and Sam. The marriage of Molly and Sam, however, is the real core of the story. Their relationship makes the stories of both Richard and Moses seem like a long prologue before the actual story gets going.

Through Sam and Molly, Holdstock gives the reader an insider’s look at a marriage built on opposing personalities and beliefs. Sam was born in England but as the new governor of the fort he feels tied to the land in a way he never thought he would be. Molly, however, dreams of England and leaving her homeland behind. By interspersing Molly’s thoughts throughout the main narrative, the reader sees how two people with opposing personalities approach the same issues and how they make their marriage work for them. This gives the story a much more intimate feel and brings the reader closer to both Sam and Molly.

Ostensibly, Molly is the focus of this story. She is the character that is given the most depth, from whom you see the most growth. The emphasis placed on her experience starts at the very beginning of the novel, with frequent and long passages devoted to her perspective. The novel begins with her looking back. She tells the reader:

I see how I had no place in the world. No father or mother no sister living. No passage to England with Samuel. No stone hose. No lodge to return to. I lived only for the promise I had made to my sister’s bones.

These sentiments set the reader up for the story of Molly’s survival. They implore the reader to learn what happened to Samuel and her sister, to understand how she came to be so far from home and to understand how she reacts to these situations. Her struggles, however, are often pushed to the side, and the narrative oftentimes privileges the monotony of everyday life at the fort.

In addition, the voice of the Wecipwayanak women is also neglected. Frequently appearing as mothers and wives, they disappear as quickly as they come, unable to hold their own against the dominating personalities of the men. Despite having such an important role to play and their frequent appearance, they come across as nothing more than background noise. In the case of Marten Tail, the wife of a central character, she is simply “gifted” to Moses Norton and lies down before him without saying a single word.

Quill & Quire called this book “a disappointing historical portrait, beautifully written” and I have to concur. With Molly Norton playing an important part in this story, Holdstock had the opportunity delve deeply into the story of the Aboriginal women who resided at Prince of Wales Fort. Unfortunately she often veers off course. Their motivations and struggle to survive are not explored as well as they could have been. Beautiful writing aside, the reader is left wanting more of the characters and their relationships.