Storied Streets: Montreal in the Literary Imagination

Type of resource
Authors/collaborators
Title
Storied Streets: Montreal in the Literary Imagination
Abstract
A look at how Montreal’s history and growth has been mirrored in literature. The authors point out that the city has had different impacts on writers over the centuries. They wrote: "O God! O Montreal!" was Samuel Butler's frustrated cry in his satiric poem, "A Psalm of Montreal," published in 1878. Charles Dickens called it a "heart-burning place," and Harriet Beecher Stowe declared the city "a mountain of churches." Hugh MacLennan was more affectionate: "If this sprawling half-continent has a heart, here it is." They claim that Montreal is “the only major city in the world with a flourishing literary tradition in English and French. Its landscape, history, and cultures have been immortalized by Hugh MacLennan, Gabrielle Roy, Mordecai Richler, Michel Tremblay, Yves Beauchemin, and scores of others; the characters of Duddy Kravitz, Athanase Tallard, Florent Boissonneault, the Fat Woman Next Door, and Leonard Cohen's Suzanne have rooted themselves in the imagination of countless readers.”
Place
Toronto & Montreal
Publisher
Macfarlane Walter & Ross
Date
2000
# of Pages
224p.
Language
en
ISBN
978-1-55199-044-6
Citation
Demchinsky, Bryan, and Elaine Kalman Naves. Storied Streets: Montreal in the Literary Imagination. Toronto & Montreal: Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 2000.
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