A touch of fire : Marie-André Duplessis, the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec, and the writing of New France / Thomas M. Carr, Jr.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Carr, Thomas M., 1944- author.

Series:

McGill-Queen's Studies in Early Canada / Avant le Canada ; 1

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Duplessis, Marie-Andrée, 1687-1760.

Duplessis, Marie-Andrée.

Duplessis, Marie-Andrée, 1687-1760--Correspondence.

Hôtel-Dieu de Québec.

Hospitals.

Canada--History--To 1763 (New France).

Canada.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (x, 370 pages) : illustrations

Place of Publication:

Montreal, Quebec : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2020]

Summary:

Marie-André Duplessis (1687-1760) guided the Augustinian sisters at the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec - the oldest hospital north of Mexico - where she was elected mother superior six times. Although often overshadowed by colonial nuns who became foundresses or saints, she was a powerhouse during the last decades of the French regime and an accomplished woman of letters. She has been credited with Canada’s first literary narrative, Canada’s first music manual, and the first book by a Canadian woman printed during her own lifetime. In A Touch of Fire, the first biography of Duplessis, Thomas Carr analyzes how she navigated, in peace and war, the unstable, male-dominated colonial world of New France. Through a study of Duplessis's correspondence, her writings, and the rich Hôtel-Dieu archives, Carr details how she channelled the fire of her commitment to the hospital in order to advance its interests, preserve its history, and inspire her sister nuns. Duplessis chronicled New France as she wrote for and about her institution. Her administrative correspondence reveals her managerial successes and failures, and her private letters reshaped her friendship with a childhood Jansenist friend, Marie-Catherine Hecquet. Carr also delves into her relationship with her sister Geneviève Duplessis, who joined her in the cloister and became her managerial and spiritual partner. The addition of Duplessis's last letters provides a dramatic insider's view into the female experience of the siege and capture of Quebec in 1759. A Touch of Fire examines the life and work of an enterprising leader and major woman author of early Canada.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Figures

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Two Girls’ Friendship on the Rue Saint-Honoré in the Orbit of Independent Women

The Networks of an Enterprising Father and a Resilient Mother

Spiritual Mothers and Friends: Seeking the Peace of the Lord in Hospitality

Friend of a Jansenist, Sister of a Jesuit: The 1718 Jansenist Scare at the Hôtel-Dieu and Fashioning Epistolary Friendships

A Sister Team Managing the Oldest Hospital North of Mexico: Duplessis’s First Two Terms as Mother Superior (1732–38; 1744–50)

Writing the Spiritual Life at the Hôtel-Dieu

Duplessis Takes Women’s History Public: Les Annales de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec

1750–55 in a “Land of Crosses and Suffering”: Aborted Expansion, Burnout, and the Encyclopédie

1755–58 in a “Land of Crosses and Suffering”: Fire, Family Crosses, and War

A Woman’s Siege and Occupation: Navigating a Year of Male Military Failures

Epilogue and Conclusion: Bride of an Unworthy Spouse: Femme forte or femme tendre?

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780228002352

0228002354

9780228002345

0228002346

OCLC:

1145888145