Demchinsky, Bryan.

Storied streets : Montreal in the literary imagination / Bryan Demchinsky and Elaine Kalman Naves.

Toronto : Macfarlane, Walter & Ross, ©2000.

224 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm

""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."" "Montreal - an island at the confluence of two rivers, adorned with an unspoiled mountain at its centre - has been the inspiration of poets, novelists, playwrights, and memoirists since the time of Jacques Cartier and 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." "Storied Streets is a lushly illustrated celebration of this rich heritage, in which the reader is led through the history and literary byways of Montreal's neighbourhoods, from their beginnings to the present, with evocative passages from novels, poems, and diaries helping to paint the scene.".
"Old Montreal is recalled in missionaries' lurid tales of martyrdom and a British soldier's memoirs of carousing at the Beaver Club. Mordecai Richler's provocative works are synonymous with the immigrant Main; Michel Tremblay is bard extraordinaire of the French working-class Plateau area; Gabrielle Roy found her first fictional inspiration in the industrial slums of St. Henri; Mairuth Sarsfield captured the black community of Little Burgundy, and David Fennario, the plucky spirit of Pointe St. Charles. Edward O. Phillips skewered Westmount with knowing wit, while Ringuet and Hugh Hood set their sights on Outremont. Poets Irving Layton, A.M. Klein, and F.R. Scott left tantalizing glimpses of many corners of the city, and even such outsiders as Jane Urquhart, Morley Callaghan, and Gwethalyn Graham adopted Montreal as setting and muse. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET.

155199044X
9781551990446
1551991039 (pbk.)
9781551991030 (pbk.)

Canadian literature Québec (Province) Montréal History and criticism.
French-Canadian literature Québec (Province) Montréal History and criticism.
Authors, French-Canadian Homes and haunts Québec (Province) Montréal.
Authors, Canadian Homes and haunts Québec (Province) Montréal.
Literary landmarks Québec (Province) Montréal.
Authors, Canadian (English) Québec (Province) Montréal History and criticism.
Montréal (Québec) dans la littérature.
Écrivains Résidences et lieux familiers Québec (Province) Montréal.
Écrivains canadiens-anglais Québec (Province) Montréal Histoire et critique.
Littérature canadienne-française Québec (Province) Montréal Histoire et critique.
Écrivains canadiens-français Résidences et lieux familiers Québec (Province) Montréal.
Écrivains canadiens Résidences et lieux familiers Québec (Province) Montréal.
Authors, Canadian Homes and haunts.
Authors, French-Canadian Homes and haunts.
Canadian literature.
French-Canadian literature.
Intellectual life.
Literary landmarks.
Literature.
Literatur
Montréal (Québec) Intellectual life.
Montréal (Québec) In literature.
Montréal (Québec) Descriptions et voyages.
Québec Montréal.
Kanada
Montréal <Motiv>
Canadian authors.
Neighborhoods Canada Québec (Province) Montréal.
Streets Canada Québec (Province) Montréal.
Architecture (object genre) Canada Ontario Ottawa.
Literary landmarks Canada Québec (Province) Montréal.

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Naves, Elaine Kalman.

Location: Library main montreal 212094
Call No.: FC2947.67 D4 2000
Status: Available