True Tales : An English Translation of selections from Pamphile LeMay's Contes vrais

Abstract

A representative selection of taies ("Le Hibou," "Le Spectre de Babylas," "Le Baiser fatal," "Sang et or," "Baptême de sang," "Petite scène d'un grande drame," "Patriotisme," and "Les Marionnettes") from Pamphile LeMay's Contes vrais is translated into English. An introduction to the translation provides a biographical sketch of the author, an overview of his work, and a comparison of his work with that of other French- and English-Canadian writers of his day. Contes vrais in discussed with reference to the corpus of LeMay's work, particularly the earlier poems such as Les Vengeances which inform it. The French-Canadian conte is discussed, and its roots in the oral tradition of Québec are delineated. The translated taies are analysed in terms of the norms of the genre.