BOOK 2 THE GREAT UPHEAVAL
By J. F. Charles (Michel Deligne Co)
ISBN: 2-87135-021-3
A little while ago I reviewed a European classic by J. F. Charles set in America and Canada which outlined How the West Was Lost by the French in the 1750s. I mentioned that there were six albums in the series and that as far as I knew only the first – Pioneers of the New World: The Pillory (ISBN: 2-87135-020-5) – had been translated into English.
Obviously I underestimated the knowledge – and generosity – of the readership I’m preaching to, as a few days ago this glorious little gem swished through my letterbox and plunked on my mat. So whoever you are (you didn’t sign the attached note) thank you very much indeed, and if I can ever reciprocate…?
The Great Upheaval (Le Grand Dérangement 1985) is the second of six albums – Le Champ d’en-haut (1987), La Croix de Saint-Louis (1988), Du sang dans la boue (1989) and La Mort du loup (1990) being the remaining four – which use the tempestuous history of the struggle between France and Britain in the 18th century to tell the story of Bourgeois wastrel Benjamin Graindall, who fled Paris for Canada to make his fortune.
At the close of The Pillory Graindall and other French survivors of a massacre are being held prisoners at Fort Niagara by the British when French forces attack to rescue Louise, Benjamin’s lover and daughter of a French General. In the carnage following the assault she and the experienced trapper Billy the Nantese are rescued, but Graindall appears to have been killed by cannon-fire.
The liberated French settlers are evacuated to Montreal and Louise, pregnant with the wastrel’s child, is taken by Billy to her aunt in Greenbay on the St Lawrence River. But the war is unrelenting and by 1756 the pair are overtaken by British forces. Until this time the joint Anglo-French Nova Scotia trading company controlled the resources of the New World region of Acadia, but the British advance allowed the English to dispossess the French and keep everything for themselves.
Like the Highland Clearances in Scotland (from 1725 until well into the 19th century) French settlers were forced from their lands between 1755 and 1762, literally driven into the sea. Most of the Acadians made their way down the coast, eventually settling in Louisiana. Forced together by hardship and circumstance Louisa and Billy grow closer and closer when their ship is forced into safe-harbour in Boston Bay…
Benjamin survived the attack on Fort Niagara. Wounded in the first attack he was dragged to safety by the wayward firebrand Mary Shirley. Braving the horrors of New England winters, and aided by friendly Indians they make their torturous way to New York and ultimately Albany where Benjamin is astounded to discover that the lascivious wild-child is actually the daughter of a wealthy and extremely powerful family.
He grudgingly becomes Mary’s stud and boy-toy but chafes under the witless pomp and snobbery of the English gentry. At a ball he accidentally maims the malignant Mr. Crimbel, manager of the Hudson Bay Company in a drunken brawl and flees. Frustrated Mary swears vengeance but Benjamin is already in Boston just as a refugee ship carrying Acadians beaches to avoid a winter storm. On the sands the three companions are finally reunited but Louise is torn as her first love and the father of her child greets her current lover… and his best friend
This powerful adventure saga of classic adventure is an historical drama in the inimitable Franco-Belgian manner, full of detail and yet entrancingly readable. Charles is a master of incredible wilderness scenes and breathtaking battle sequences, and here natural beauty is augmented by the veracity of historical grandeur he imparts into renditions of genteel English society.
Written with wife Maryse, Pioneers of the New World is a minor masterpiece and I fervently pray some publisher will adapt and release the series for English-reading public…
© 1985 Editions Michel Deligne SA and JF Charles. All Rights Reserved.