Has anybody at the SDMB readMemoirs of a Breton Peasant by Jean-Marie Deguignet? If so, what did you think of it?
I’ll come in with my own observations later. It’s late where I am and my mind is slowing down.
Considering there are only 2,5 of us present on the Dope, you might have sent us a PM instead of starting a thread.
And, no, haven’t read nor heard of it.
I hope I didn’t come across as insulting but even though the book was a best-seller in France, I had a little difficulty trying to obtain an English-language copy on Amazon. That made me think that perhaps the book’s subject matter (i.e., a first-hand account of a man’s hardscrabble life in Brittany during the 19th century and his experiences abroad in the French Army) would be of little interest to those outside of France or people (like me) who have an interest in books about the Celtic fringe.
I’ve not heard of it, but now that I have, it’s on my wish list. Of course, my mom’s family is French-Canadian, with a healthy chunk of Breton included (you have to go back, but it’s well-documented and quite obvious given my grandmother’s maiden name). I’m going to have to read it, now.
Do you know when your relatives on your mother’s side emigrated from Brittany to Canada? Memoirs describes what life in Brittany was like from about 1835 to 1905 and, judging from Deguignet’s depiction, it was an extremely harsh existence even taking into account both the time and the place.
Yep–1672. But I’m still interested in what the area was like at various points in time, not just when my genetic forebears were there. Like you, I have the fascination with fringe Celtic cultures going on.
I did my undergraduate dissertation on this book! I am pretty excited to see this thread. Old JM was a grumpy git. 
Yeah, he was certainly a bitter old bastard. However, given that his entire life seemed to consist of running headfirst into one wall after another, I can understand why he was that way.
Incidentally, one thing I was rather surprised about was how lawless Brittany supposedly was during the mid 1800s. The way Deguignet described it, it seems just one short step removed from a Hobbesian environment what with organized gangs of cattle rustlers who routinely stealing livestock with little fear of being caught, ship-wreckers who lure unfortunate vessels onto the rocky Breton coast so they can seize the booty contained within, bandits and cutthroats frequently wandering the roads, serial-killing inn keepers enticing unwary travelers off the roads so they can rob and murder them, and con men gulling the superstitious and illiterate populace with alarming frequency. In comparison, the American “Wild West” seems like a tea party attended by elderly nuns.
I recall an email from the Alliance française a few years ago with details of a discussion of this book.
Going in I didn’t expect this thread to garner much interest and it looks like I was right. So, before this thread slides into the archives, I’ll mention a few other things about the book.
On the whole, Memoirs depicts life in 19th century Brittany as being quite miserable even for the time period. Basically, the social structure seemed to have changed little from the Middle Ages with a small minority of French-speaking landowners presiding over a much larger populace of wretchedly poor and illiterate tenant farmers who mostly spoke only Breton. Poverty and unemployment were endemic with begging being the expected “profession” for most young Bretons around 1850.
Education was only for the elite minority. For everyone else, not even the most basic instruction in reading and writing was available. The fact the vast majority of Bretons were illiterate was of little concern. Deguignet learned to read and write on his own with little assistance from anyone. Still, he didn’t even learn any French until he was well into his teens.
The Catholic Church exerted heavy-handed influence over everyone in matters of spirituality and morality. However, while the Church was mostly effective in getting the people to comply with its precepts on the former, it was less successful on the latter judging from the routine acts of debauchery that Deguignet describes in the book. Criminal activity, as mentioned earlier, was so common that the simple act of traveling from one town to another seemingly put your life at risk.
Also, it seemed that if disease, accidents, and violence didn’t get you, alcoholism would. Deguignet’s wife drank herself to death when she was only in her 30s and the rest of her family are depicted as being heavy drinkers. (Deguignet himself seemed to have developed a drinking problem as the years of poverty, disappointment, and alienation caught up with him in his old age.)
Anyway, as someone living in 21st century America, I know it’s easy and myopic to make judgments like these. Still, it did provide an interesting window into what life was like long ago in a place far from my own.