Isabelle's Notebooks

Marguerite Andersen is a professor of French Studies at the University
of Guelph. She is the author of Courts métrages et instantanés and La
Soupe.

This work of historical fiction by the Quebec author and translator
Sylvie Chaput is set in the 1830s, in Quebec City—a time when
francophones had “nothing but misery to contend with.” Oppressed by
the English, they also endured cholera and rebellion’s upheavals.
Against this backdrop, the fictional Isabelle Forest encounters
historical figures such as the painter Joseph Légaré and the writer
Philippe Aubert de Gaspé Jr., with whom she falls in love. Theirs is a
tragic story.

While Isabelle lives in a world of art, her counterpart Sophie lives a
habitant’s life. We learn much from both of them. Sophie describes the
making of potash salt, which is used by mills in England “to clean and
bleach cotton fibres,” and which supplies the farms with much-needed
income. Isabelle is taught painting by her uncle and also learns the
techniques of daguerreotypy and lithography. Peter Vranckx and Daniel
Sloate have done an excellent job of translating this poetic, vibrant
novel.