Felicity's Fool

Ian C. Nelson is assistant director of libraries at the University of
Saskatchewan and director of La Troupe du Jour, Regina Summer Stage.

The winner of the 1991 Governor General’s Award for children’s
literature has produced another little masterpiece. Written with the
limpid flow of a fable, it is the tale of a boy, preoccupied with the
question of happiness, who becomes a doctor in mid-19th-century
Montreal. Aware of the woeful limitations of prescribing potions and
powders, the good doctor turns his attention to the plight of lunatics
in the asylum of St. Jean de Dieu, which is under the direction of its
historical founder, Sister Thérиse-de-Jésus. With this tale Gravel
shows himself worthy of the mantle of the author of Candide, Voltaire.
Felicitously translated from the French by the award-winning Sheila
Fischman, Felicity’s Fool could become a Canadian classic in both
official languages.