Short stories
The Torrent
Le Torrent
Anne Hébert · 1950
Synopsis
On an isolated farm, François Perreault grows up alone with his mother, Claudine, who has been rejected by her village for having had him out of wedlock. She means to atone for her fault by making him a priest and raises him under threat of punishment. At seventeen he refuses to enter the seminary; she strikes him on the head with a heavy bunch of keys, and he is left deaf. Shut up in silence, he hears only the roar of the nearby torrent, which he mistakes for the blood pulsing in his temples. Other stories follow.
Context
The title story, written in 1945, was judged too violent and refused by publishers; the author had the volume published at her own expense in 1950, under the imprint of Beauchemin in Montreal. The collection was reissued in 1963 by HMH, followed by two previously unpublished short stories, then in Paris by Seuil in 1965; the paperback edition gathers seven stories. An English translation by Gwendolyn Moore appeared in Montreal in 1973.
Who it is for
Stories in a stripped-down, hard language; the first is dark and violent, the others can be read in one sitting.
Prizes and reception
The title story is still taught in the cégeps, according to the Université de Sherbrooke.
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