Published by Alto, Quebec, in 2008, it has been re-published by La Table Ronde, Paris, in 2011. He has just won the Seafarers' Prize at the Etonnants Voyageurs Festival this summer 2011.
I read this book in June, when I learned of its presentation in Saint-Malo, and I kept the evocation of it under my belt for this section Reading, so delighted was I by the interest of the subject, the quality of the narration and the freshness of the writing.
Alas, I was preceded by Arielle Cassim who has just reported on it on his blog Seableue. I bow and invite you to go there !
The author
Dominique Fortier was born in Quebec City in 1972 and lives in Montreal. After a doctorate in literature at McGill University, She works as an auditor, Translator and Editor. She has translated about fifteen literary and scientific works, in disciplines as diverse as political science, linguistics and botany. On the Good Use of the Stars is his first novel.
The work
I leave it to Seableue The first presentation. I will simply add the quote from Alto Editions :
Inspired by Sir John Franklin's last expedition, On the Proper Use of the Stars paints a rich picture of the whims of Victorian society in a patchwork that happily mixes the novel with the newspaper, History, poetry, The theatre, The adventure story, The Scientific Treatise and the Recipe for a Successful Plum Pudding. ”
Franklin Expedition
If you like this book, Don't forget to add the novel " Desire ” by Australian author Richard Flanagan, published by Belfond in 2010. In it, he recounts an inglorious episode in the life of the sulphurous Sir John Franklin, a few years before his final Arctic expedition.
Obsessed with Mathinna, a little Aboriginal girl he and his wife adopted, He will end up abusing her in sordid circumstances. What was supposed to be an example of a civilizing experiment turned into a disaster. Later, the scandal surrounding Franklin's disappearance in the Arctic broke out in London, accused of cannibalism during his expedition.
It was at the time of Great Britain's proud domination of the world… edifying and exciting !