- 105 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About This Book
"In providing a modern translation... Sheila Delany sheds light on a text that illustrates the complexity of Enlightenment attitudes toward religion." â Reading Religion "My God! Pardon me if I have dared to make sacred things serve a profane love; but it is you who have put passion into our hearts; they are not crimesâI feel this in the purity of my intentions." âAgatha, writing to ZoĂ© In pre-revolutionary Paris, a young woman falls for a handsome young priest. To be near him, she dresses as a man, enters his seminary, and is invited to become a fully ordained Catholic priestâa career forbidden to women then as now. Sylvain MarĂ©chal's epistolary novella offers a biting rebuke to religious institutions and a hypocritical society; its views on love, marriage, class, and virtue remain relevant today. The book ends in La Nouvelle France, which became part of British-run Canada during MarĂ©chal's lifetime. With thorough notes and introduction by Sheila Delany, this first translation of MarĂ©chal's novella, La femme abbĂ©, brings a little-known but revelatory text to the attention of readers interested in French history and literature, history of the novel, women's studies, and religious studies. "While the contents ofThe Woman Priestmake for a good story (drag, drama, and deathâwhat more can you ask for?), the astonishing complexity of the novella seems to lie not necessarily in the general plot line, but rather in the context in which the author wrote the bookâas brilliantly explained in Delany's introduction to her translation." â Canadian Literature
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Translatorâs Note
- The Woman Priest
- Notes
- Bibliography
- About the Author and Translator
- Other Titles from The University of Alberta Press