Memoirs Of A Breton Peasant

Jean-Marie Deguignet, Bernez Rouz, Linda Asher

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French

Seven Stories
01 August 2011

Biography; Biography: historical, political & military; Social & cultural history

A fascinating document of an extraordinary life, Memoirs of A Breton Peasant reads with the liveliness of a novel and bristles with the vigor of an opinionated autodidact from the very lowest level of peasant society. Brittany during the nineteenth century was a place seemingly frozen in the Middle Ages, backwards by most French standards; formal education among rural society was either unavailable or dismissed as unnecessary, while the church and local myth defined most people's reasoning and motivation. Jean-Marie Deguignet is unique not only as a literate Breton peasant, but in his skepticism for the church, his interest in science, astronomy and languages, and for his keen-often caustic-observations of the world and people around him.

Born into rural poverty in 1834, Deguignet escapes Brittany by joining the French Army in 1854, and over the next fourteen years he fights in the Crimean war, attends Napoleon III's coronation ceremonies, supports Italy's liberation struggle, and defends the hapless French puppet emperor Maximilian in Mexico. He teaches himself Latin, French, Italian and Spanish and reads extensively on history, philosophy, politics, and literature. He returns home to live as a farmer and tobacco-seller, eventually falling back into dire poverty. Throughout the tale, Deguignet's freethinking, almost anarchic views put him ahead of his time and often (sadly, for him) out of step with his contemporaries.

Deguignet's voluminous journals (nearly 4,000 pages in total) were discovered in a farmhouse in Brittany a century after they were written. This narrative was drawn from them and became a surprise bestseller when published in France in 1998.

By: Jean-Marie Deguignet
Edited by: Bernez Rouz
Translated by: Linda Asher
Imprint: Seven Stories
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 155mm, Spine: 34mm
Weight: 741g
ISBN: 9781583226162
ISBN 10: 1583226168
Pages: 434
Publication Date: 01 August 2011
Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , ELT Advanced , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for Memoirs Of A Breton Peasant

What makes it gripping reading is not only that it offers a rare view of 19th-century French society from the bottom up; it is also written from the perspective of a lifetime's experience. He both suffers and celebrates his suffering as the price of his nonconformity. A fascinating account. --Alan Riding, New York Times Book Review Linda Asher has now given Dï¿½guignet a splendidly faithful English voice: pugnacious, tetchy and opinionated. --David Coward, London Review of Books Never a dull moment in his company. Must be read. --Le Telegramme From the Trade Paperback edition.