TWO SOLITUDES

by Hugh MacLennan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 17, 1944

A novel of considerable substance and balance, with a thematic problem in its presentation of one of Canada's minorities (this time the French-Catholic), well differentiated characterization, and an appealing love story. In other words, a good novel in the best tradition, -- of regional, religious and family pressures, of dissolving standards in a modernizing world. In the beginning, it is the story of Athanase Tallard, seigneur of the Catholic, anti-British village of St. Marc, -- Athanase who shocked the village by his friendship with the English, by his second marriage to a very young woman, by his private heresies, --and who finally broke with the church and ended his life without money or caste. It is next the story of Paul, his son by that second marriage, of the hard years which followed the bankruptcy and death of his father, and of his love for Heather, daughter of one of Montreal's most prominent, most wealthy, most English-Protestant families. Certain angles, certainly, bear parallel with Earth And High Heaven; it is however a less concentrated story of prejudice, -- a wider picture of national and religious hostility, of ancestral canons and change. A book which should be able to combine critical appreciation with a popular following.

Pub Date: Jan. 17, 1944

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Duell, Sloan & Pearce

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1944

Categories: FICTION