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.”
Date
2000
Publisher
Macfarlane Walter & Ross
Place
Toronto & Montreal
# of Pages
224p.
ISBN
978-1-55199-044-6
Language
en
Citation
Demchinsky, Bryan, and Elaine Kalman Naves. Storied Streets: Montreal in the Literary Imagination. Toronto & Montreal: Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 2000.
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