Suzanne DesrochersCritiques

París, siglo XVII. Laure fue arrebatada de los brazos de sus padres y vive en el hospicio de la Salpêtrière junto a otros desharrapados. Gracias a la amabilidad de una protectora, ha aprendido a leer, escribir y coser, pero Laure desea tener algún día su propio taller de costura. Así, tras la muerte de una de sus compañeras, decide tomar la iniciativa y escribe una carta a la corte pidiendo ayuda para dejar el hospicio y cumplir su sueño. Sin embargo, la respuesta que recibe es, cuando menos, inesperada: el rey ordena que las huérfanas de la Salpêtrière mayores de edad sean enviadas a las tierras del nuevo continente conquistadas por Francia (el actual Quebec) para casarse con los soldados y los colonos.
Laure y una de sus mejores amigas son enviadas junto con otras ochocientas mujeres. Tras una durísima travesía, la llegada a tierra firme resulta decepcionante y todas ellas deberán acostumbrarse a las nuevas circunstancias. Debido a las durísimas condiciones de vida, la mejor amiga de Laure muere y la deja completamente sola. Entonces, es acogida por unas monjas para que se recupere del duro golpe. En la congregación, conoce a Deskaheh, un joven indio por el que se siente atraída. Pero su destino la reclama y tiene que partir para casarse con Mathurin, un rústico ex soldado convertido en cazador y vendedor de pieles. Cuando se instala en su cabaña, muy cerca de la región hostil habitada por los temidos indios iroqueses, el destino le depara una fantástica sorpresa: la inesperada aparición de Deskaheh, y la gran historia de amor que entonces tendrá lugar.

Based on the real-life young women who were sent by King Louis XIV from the orphanages and poor houses of Paris to settle and marry in Quebec in the 17th century. These women were known as the fille du roi. The novel was very limited in its scope but still delivered some interesting facts. Also a great social commentary of the times. 267 pages

I cannot comment on the historical content, as I know little of Les filles de roi (in fact, I read this book hoping to learn a little more). What I can say is that I enjoyed being transported to a different land and time, and surprisingly following this selfish but dreamer girl as she tried to grab something for herself out of life. While so many times in the beginning I wanted to tell her to simply accept the realities of her life, by the end I was routing for her to defy convention and go for what - and who - she really wanted. It takes a fair amount of writing skill to take a once unsympathetic character and make her sympathetic, to make her truly real, and Desrocher has done this. Well worth a read.

I cannot comment on the historical content, as I know little of Les filles de roi (in fact, I read this book hoping to learn a little more). What I can say is that I enjoyed being transported to a different land and time, and surprisingly following this selfish but dreamer girl as she tried to grab something for herself out of life. While so many times in the beginning I wanted to tell her to simply accept the realities of her life, by the end I was routing for her to defy convention and go for what - and who - she really wanted. It takes a fair amount of writing skill to take a once unsympathetic character and make her sympathetic, to make her truly real, and Desrocher has done this. Well worth a read.

I really wanted to like this book as I am intrigued by the stories of les Filles du Roi. This novel started as a thesis and it shows. The author seems to have done a lot of research and yet she does not seem able to bring her characters to life. The characters are very one-dimensional and make decisions and take actions that make no sense. The pacing of the novel is very uneven.

I felt that too much of the novel took place in France, before the girls are shipped off to Quebec to become wives to the men newly settled there. Once in Quebec, the details of the territory, living conditions and hardships are vivid and very interesting, but once again the author has Laure, her main character doing things that are reckless and jarringly inconceivable for a woman of that time in her circumstances. It is too bad, this was a book for which I had such high expectations!

I have seen some poor reviews of this one but I decided to give it a chance anyway as the description sounded very interesting to me, and I ended up glad that I gave it a shot. I enjoy historical fiction and this tells the tale of the "filles du roi" who came from France in the 1600's to marry French men who had moved to Canada to became fur traders. I've seen reviews that called the main character, Laure, selfish or unlikable but I found her to be a strong character that managed to continue to survive after being handed a very poor lot in life. After being removed from her vagrant parents and placed into a home for girls and being fed only bread and broth each day, barely enough to survive, and seeing friends and other girls die of scurvy or other disease she was sent to New France against her will and forced to marry a pig of a man. Her story is not an easy one and while there isn't a lot of action, the story itself is interesting and kept me reading. If you are looking for a fast action plot line this won't be the story for you but if you like a slow burn with a lot of French Canadian history then I recommend this one.

Too much historical detail for my liking. Like, I've read narrative non-fiction with more dialogue. Plus, Laure was kind of a jerk.

3.5 stars

It’s the mid-1600s. Laure grew up in a hospital in Paris that housed orphans. When some of the girls are chosen to be sent to New France (Canada) to become wives for the many men who are already there, Laure is one who is chosen to go. The girls have heard horror stories about New France, including about the “savages” and don’t know what to expect.

I enjoyed this. I listened to the audio, and the narrator spoke very slowly, but I only noticed that once in a while. I suppose it did also help with the few French words that were thrown in. The plot itself doesn’t move quickly and it took me a little bit of time at the start to get interested, but once I was interested, I did enjoy it. It was interesting to learn about the colonization of French Canada hundreds of years ago, and for me, it’s always more interesting through the eyes of a woman.½

Bride of New France, the debut novel from Canadian author Suzanne Desrochers, is set in Paris and New France in the latter part of the 17th century. As the novel opens the reader is introduced to Laure Beausejour, a young woman living at Paris' notorious Hospice de la Saltpetriere. Skilled at embroidery, Laure dreams of becoming a renowned seamstress and marrying well. This dream, however, is shattered when Laure is sent to New France as one of King Louis XIV's filles du roi (King's girl), a group of young women sent to the French colony to marry and raise a family.

The greatest strength of this novel lies with Desrochers' rich imagery, which leaves the reader with an astounding sense of time and place. These vivid descriptions are especially pronounced when the setting of the novel shifts to New France. Indeed, the reader can almost feel the cold air and hear the wind whistling through Laure's cabin during her first winter in the colony. In her new surroundings, her sense her isolation and loneliness is palpable. Through Laure, the reader gets to experience the hardships faced by the filles du roi and the colonist in general as they tried to tame the harsh and unforgiving environment in which they settled.

Although fluidly written, the manner in which this story is told makes it difficult to connect with Laure. A connection with the protagonist is also made difficult due to her lack of charisma. I was interested in Laure's struggles, but indifferent to the outcomes. Nevertheless, these facts did not impact in any overly negative way on my enjoyment of the novel.

Bride of New France is a worthwhile read for any fan of historical fiction, especially those interested in novels told from the perspective of ordinary individuals rather than famous historical figures. Suzanne Desrochers is a writer to watch and I look forward to hearing more from her.

I wanted to like it. The book has elements of true stories, but some elements are too far-fetched to seem real. It tells the story of the Filles du Roi (“brides” – orphans, poor, and mad girls and women) sent from France to wed fur traders and soldiers in Canada to further settlement there, but the protagonist is entirely unlikeable, and many of her actions seem entirely unlikely. As for the historical facts, yes, I was glad to read more about that period in the history of France and Canada. As for the way Laure was portrayed, not a fan.

I am extremely conflicted about this book. On the one hand, I loved the premise and found the book difficult to put down. I’ve always been intrigued by the Filles du Roi, girls send over to Canada by the French king to provide husbands for the fur-traders and soldiers there, in an attempt to develop permanent settlements rather than just trading outposts.

On the other hand, the protagonist is pretty unlikeable and hard to relate to. I had expected initially that there would be more character development, that she would eventually take to her new life and be happy in Canada, that she would work to build a better life for herself. None of that really happens. Laure seems determined to be miserable. She can’t imagine a good future for herself, so she just sort of limps through life passively. The author says in a note that this is deliberate: “How there could have been any excitement or hope in such a dangerous and terrible venture is really beyond my imagining…. I wanted to create a counterpoint to this grand narrative of the filles du roi as founding mothers.”

I can appreciate what she was trying to do, and in many ways it succeeded. But I also seem to believe more than she does in the human capacity to hope. I can easily imagine that someone previously confined to a poorhouse in France would be optimistic about the freedom of building her own life in a new country, even if that new life might involve hard work and lack of comfort and a husband who wasn’t her intellectual equal.

More importantly, though, reading about someone who’s consistently unhappy and hopeless just wasn’t particularly enjoyable or satisfying for me. I wanted to cheer with Laure as she embraced and succeeded in a new life. I *wanted* the grand narrative of heroism with its happy ending. Desrocher is a historian, and I appreciate her efforts to craft an informative, historically-accurate novel that makes the reader question prior assumptions about a traditional narrative. As a story read for enjoyment, though, I found that something was lacking here.½

I am so conflicted about this book!

The setting (17th century Paris and 'New France'/Canada) and premise (government-made orphan shipped with dozens of other girls to frontier Canada for forced marriages to French settlers) are fascinating, but I just couldn't stand the novel's narrative style (third person, present tense).

Our heroine, Laure, comes from a poverty-stricken family, and in 17th century Paris, by the King's decree, the poor were not allowed to be seen on the streets. When her family is seen, Laure is seized and sent to the Salpêtrière, a compound of imprisoned prostitutes, orphans, and other undesirables, where she's trained in lace-making. Her aspiration is to become a celebrated Parisian seamstress, a vocation she thinks will allow her to meet, and marry, a Duke.

Instead, she becomes a fille du roi, part of a convey of unwanted women -- some sick, some mad, some simply too poor to protest -- shipped to the French colony in the 'New World' in order to marry the wild single men there. Unsurprisingly, Laure's life is predictably grim and horrifying.

I'll admit to being shocked at how long it took Laure to get to Canada; from the jacket copy, I presumed it would be immediately, but it wasn't until about page 95 (of a 288 page novel) that Laure departs France. The story leading up to it didn't feel particularly necessary: as I noted on GoodReads, I wasn't 'close' to Laure, despite the immediacy of the present tense narrative. She always felt a bit standoffish and odd. I'd rather the story lingered more with Laure in Canada as I found some of her decisions and the events that happened between her and an Iroquois man to be baffling and confusing.

In her Historical Notes, Desrochers indicated the inspiration for this novel came out her thesis on the women who emigrated to the Americas as well as her desire was to show the realities of the women who colonized Canada -- to counter the mythic, patriotic, and admiring stories she'd been told as a child. She's successful in that: with each step in Laure's journey, my heart sank further and further.

Ultimately, despite my frustration with the style of the story, I was unable to put it down. Those curious can check out the novel's opening at the US publisher's website (although I should note it is missing the novel's prologue, weirdly enough. But you'll get a sense of Desrochers' writing style.) A great historical novel for those who like their historicals to articulate the grim reality women faced in the past or Francophiles who want to read about a less novelized era of French history.

Laure Beauséjour was taken from her beggar parents by the Paris authorities when she was just seven years old and placed in the Salpêtrière, a catch all institute for poor, sick, mentally ill, or criminal women (and by criminal read prostitutes). She was lucky enough to spend a few years as the serving girl of an elderly matron, who treated her as if she was her own daughter. The matron taught her to read, dressed her up in fancy clothes, doted on her. When the matron died, Laure found herself back in the Salpêtrière where she had to work her way up to the dorm of the bijoux, the model girls of the institute. there she works on her needlepoint and dreams of getting out and being a seamstress.

Her hopes are dashed when one of her dorm mates falls ill and dies. Laure, who never like the girl, is shaken to her core and writes a letter to the king to ask for better and more food for the girls. For her trouble she is sent on the next boat to Canada as a Fille du roi.

Desrochers has given us a historical novel with a capital H, with this glimpse into the before and after life of one of the poor girls shipped from France in order to populate the colony. Laure and all the other poor waifs from Paris were malnourished, uneducated and without any of the skills needed for their new life. Yet, the roughness of the new land is softened a little bit (not by much) by the new found freedom. There is nobody watching over her anymore- no superiors , no police, not even any of the old social norms that used to keep the women in place in the old world. In Laure, Desrochers has painted us a picture of a young, bitter woman who was not happy with her lot in Paris and is definitely not happy to find herself in Canada, which rings true to my ears. Yet she survives and soldiers on even if she never really reconciles herself to her fate. The plot gathers speed when she gets to the new world and she meets a young native man who seems as between two worlds as herself. Yet, the new world has its own rules and Laure must follow them even if it goes against her own heart.

Did I enjoy this book? Yes, but...I am struggling to understand my own lukewarm reaction to it. Perhaps it is because, though Laure's bitterness was understandable, it made it hard to empathise with her. I never felt directly affected by her plight, but more as if I was reading the Typical Trajectory of a Filles du Roi for social studies class. Though I found it interesting enough to keep reading, all the visceral reactions you have when you are reading a good book were not there: I did not feel horrified when I should have felt horrified, I did not feel the terrible loneliness of her first winter though I know it was terribly lonely. I did not feel too bad or worried for Laure when she made her bad decisions.

Perhaps my humming and hawing comes from the fact that it probably would be a good compliment for a Social Studies Class. I just wish I liked it more than I did.

I wasn't too impressed with this book. Partly it was because of the narrator who used a fake French accent that was very jarring. But mostly the story just didn't grab me.

Laure lived in a hospital for homeless women in Paris. Conditions were horrible and one of her dormitory mates died of starvation. Laure dreamed of opening her own seamstress business and meeting a nobleman. She was extremely gifted at lacemaking and sewing so possibly she could have succeeded. However she came into conflict with the head of the hospital when she wrote a letter to the King about living conditions. Suddenly Laure was booked to go to New France to marry a settler. She ended up in Montreal and became friends with a young native man. Eventually she did marry but she was left for long periods by her husband. The native man brought her food and saved her. The next year, when her husband was away again, Laure and the young man had an affair. Inevitably Laure became pregnant. She gave up her daughter to the natives because otherwise it would be obvious to everyone that her husband was not the father. However, her husband died before she gave birth so I couldn't quite see why she had to relinquish the child.

There are some interesting facts about life in New France as well as the situation of the poor in France. That was the redeeming feature of this book.

In Bride of New France, Suzanne Desrochers presents a fascinating picture of women, especially poor women, in the 1600s. Their lack of options and their poor treatment at the hands of almost everyone will raise a reader's ire. Unfortunately, Laure's story is meant to be particularly poignant but rings slightly false given the surprisingly little character development. However, the descriptions of Paris and of the settlement of Quebec more than make up for the lapse in storytelling. This is better enjoyed from a historical perspective than it is for the overarching storyline. While it is definitely interesting, it is not necessarily one I would recommend to others.

Historical novel of young French orphan sent to Canada to wed a French fur-trapper.

Not bad story about orphaned 17 year old Laure ending up in Ville Marie (montreal) and marrying a French soldier, now a courier de bois.

Bride of New France was a powerful and moving story that was hard to put down. Desrochers did an amazing amount of research and was able to create seventeenth century Paris and Canada for the reader. She was able to provide little details throughout the narrative that transported the reader there and into the harsh life that Laure lived. Laure was a very well developed character who changed from an idealist dreamer to a woman making the best of the reality that she had been dealt. Desrochers made Laure a root worthy character who had some selfish moments but in the end did the right thing. Bride of New France was such an engaging tale that flowed smoothly and created an experience the reader wouldn't forget. Overall this was a great read that I would most definitely recommend.

I absolutely loved the main character Laure. She is who I would have been in those times. I love that she didn't conform to what others thought she should be, I can identify with that today even. It's funny how so much has changed, yet some things about what are expected of women have not. Whether it be religious, familial, or societal. This book was amazing, really enjoyed it.

Bride of New France, by Suzanne Desrochers, is the story of a young orphan named Laure Beausejour as she is exiled to the new world. I received an advance reader copy through Goodreads’ giveaway.

Taken from her parents as a child, Laure was sent to Paris’ Salpêtrière, where women deemed unfit for society were placed. Laure got a brief glimpse of wealth and family while working as a servant, but when her madame passes, she must go back to the wretched conditions at the hospital. In addition the the plight of rats, the people there are severely underfed. Infants are fed a watery milk concoction and most don’t survive. One young woman, whom Laure initially despised, passes away from scurvy. Laure attempts to get a letter to the king asking for improved conditions, but the hospital’s Superior finds out. A spiteful woman, she sends Laure to Canada, still a wild country, as punishment. Once there, Laure must struggle through loss, marriage, and surviving in this new land.

Laure is neither very likeable nor relatable. She initially seems bitter and jealous. Mireille, another girl at the Salpêtrière, evokes her envy. When Mireille dies, she seems to change a bit, but is still very selfish. She encourages her best friend, Madeline, to accompany her to the new world knowing fully well how dangerous this might be. Once in Canada, she endangers Madeline once more, all so she won't have to be alone. To her credit, Laure seems a bit more headstrong than other women sent to Canada. Perhaps she has even grown by the end of the book.

This novel is written in the third-person–present-tense, and I don’t think it really works. It felt a bit impersonal and alienating. At times, it seemed more like a clinical look than an intimate portrait. This story relies so much on a central character that this non-connection leaves the novel feeling flat and lacking in emotion.

Still, this was certainly an interesting look at how the poor of Old France were treated. How the women exiled to the New France had to make do with what they had and simply try to survive. Those interested in this time in history, as well as women's struggles, may find this book enjoyable. It is certainly very illuminating, I just wish it felt more personal.

Please visit my blog for my review:
http://bookchateau.blogspot.com/2012/03/bride-of-new-france-suzanne-desrochers.h...

This novel came with a "National Bestseller" label and a glowing recommendation by Joseph Boyden, one of my favourite authors, but I was disappointed.

The book tells the story of Laure Beausejour, one of the filles du roi sent by royal decree to New France between 1663 and 1673 to become marriage partners to would-be colonists and so expand the European population. The daughter of street entertainers, she is incarcerated in the Hospice de la Salpetriere which houses thousands of women: prostitutes, the indigent, and the insane. She is chosen to be one of the King's Daughters and is sent to the New World where she is married to a man who abandons her so she must survive the winter by herself in a half-built shack. Her only friend is Deskaheh, an Iroquois man.

Characterization is one flaw in the book. As the protagonist, Laure is not especially well-developed. The author, in an afterword, describes Laure as "A dreamer and a pragmatist . . . [with] an insurmountable spirit" . . . [and] precocious determination" (296) but what stands out is her selfishness. She convinces Madeleine, her devoted but frail and innocent friend, to accompany her on her journey; the consequences are tragically predictable. Such selfishness makes her an unlikable character. What Desrochers describes as "precocious determination" is really naivety, a naivety which combined with selfishness and stubbornness endangers both herself and others several times throughout the novel.

Furthermore, Laure behaves inconsistently: at the beginning she easily escapes her prison to visit Mireille Langlois in the hospital. (Incidentally, Mireille is someone to whom she had never spoken so even Laure's best friend wonders "why she was risking so much for Mireille, whom she disliked" (22) .) However, when Laure is chosen to go on a one-way transport to Canada, "a punishment thought by many to be worse than death" (296), she makes no attempt to escape her fate.

Other characters fare no better. Madeleine is so angelic as to be unbelievable. Her one transgression is "vowing she would cause trouble in the dormitory if she were left behind" (81) when Laure is banished to Canada. With a few exceptions, those in authority are mean-spirited people with little sympathy for the suffering of others. Even the cliche of the noble savage is embodied in Deskaheh.

The book was begun as an M.A. thesis project and has stayed as such: it is more a thesis than a novel. It catalogues the struggles of life in Salpetriere and in the struggling colony. Much of the plot seems contrived to use as much research as possible. There is a great deal of exposition: this happened and then this happened. The result is that the reader is indifferent to the outcome of Laure's trials and tribulations. Presumably the historical information is accurate, although the description of the climb to the top of Mount Royal in Ville-Marie (Montreal) gave me pause.

The use of the present tense for historical fiction is questionable. That tense is supposed to suggest that events are happening in real time, but that is clearly not the case, so the choice is confusing.

Another weakness is the extensive use of romance fiction cliches: the beautiful orphan trapped by circumstance and condemned to a loveless marriage seeks love elsewhere.

The book gives a picture of the harsh realities of life in an inhospitable environment, both in Paris and in New France; as a work of fiction, however, it is less successful.½

Bride of New France is a rather simplistic novel. Not that there is anything bad about that, but it definitely reads more like a YA historical novel than one that would necessarily appeal to adults. The characters are fairly flat and there's no real sense of conflict. The narrative is straightforward and has a "and then this happened and then this happened and then this happened" feel. I found myself skimming through the pages at the end because of how easy and unchallenging the narrative was.

Bride of New France is not a bad novel. It's an amusing way to spend an afternoon or two, but it's not much more than that. I doubt that I'll remember that much about it in a year or so.½

Set in the late 1600s, Bride of New France is the story of Laure Beausejour, a young woman from a Paris workhouse, who is sent to Quebec, Canada (New France) by the French government for the purpose of marrying and bearing the children of a French officer. Many such “filles de roi” (king’s daughters) were dispatched to Canada with a view to stabilizing the settlement of New France. Naturally, the wilderness, isolation, and climate of the French frontier were a callous awakening not only to the filles du roi, but to the French soldiers who dared to settle there.

The novel is a decent read, if not particularly memorable. The historical fiction I suspect is accurate, but I did not find any of the characters, Laure included, to be especially well-developed. The back flap of the edition I read states that Desrochers “wrote her M.A. thesis on filles du roi, combining creative writing and history.” The novel reads a bit like a research thesis written in creative writing class – however, to be fair, it is also Desrocher’s first.

I can’t widely recommend this one. If it’s Canadian lit you’re after, there’s much better out there. However, if it’s the beginnings of European contact you’re interested in, you might enjoy Bride of New France.