The First Garden
by Anne Hébert
On This Page
Description
Flora Fontages is a famous Parisian actress who has been in exile from her native Canada for twenty years. When word comes that her long-estranged daughter, Maud, has disappeared in Quebec City, she decides to return home, accepting the part of Winnie, the old crone in Samuel Beckett's Happy Days, at a local theatre. The visit unexpectedly turns into a devastating confrontation with her past and present illusions, as Flora finds she must come to terms with all the roles she has ever played show more in life, as actress, woman, mother, child, and lover. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
I wanted to really like The First Garden by French Canadian author, Anne Hebert, but unfortunately I just couldn’t get past the weirdness. The story is about an aging actress who returns to Quebec City after an absence of twenty years. She is trying to reconnect with her daughter, Maude, who has disappeared. She accepts the part of Winnie, the old crone, in Samuel Beckett’s play, Happy Days and she develops a friendship with the young man who’s been living with her daughter and they explore the city, searching for Maude. This was about all that I was able to understand.
For me, the weirdness was that so much of the story takes place in the mind and emotions of the main character. In small scenes she appears to relive some of her show more own difficult past but also those of various women from the history of Quebec City. I never quite grasped what was going on, other than a plot-less exploration of character and perhaps a glimpse of Quebec’s culture through examining the past.
[The First Garden] was a fairly easy read, but very difficult to actually understand or relate to. Perhaps something was lost in the translation but I found this book to be so formless and abstract that I skimmed through the pages without really absorbing or understanding what I was reading.
The First Garden was obviously not a book for me. show less
For me, the weirdness was that so much of the story takes place in the mind and emotions of the main character. In small scenes she appears to relive some of her show more own difficult past but also those of various women from the history of Quebec City. I never quite grasped what was going on, other than a plot-less exploration of character and perhaps a glimpse of Quebec’s culture through examining the past.
[The First Garden] was a fairly easy read, but very difficult to actually understand or relate to. Perhaps something was lost in the translation but I found this book to be so formless and abstract that I skimmed through the pages without really absorbing or understanding what I was reading.
The First Garden was obviously not a book for me. show less
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
31+ Works 1,208 Members
Anne Hébert was born on August 1, 1916 in Sainte-Catherine-de-Fossambault, Quebec. Having begun writing poems, stories, and plays at a very young age, Hébert found her work being published in a variety of periodicals by the time she was in her early twenties. She earned recognition as a poet in the 40's and 50's. Hébert's first volume of show more poetry, Les Songes en Équilibre, appeared in 1942 to good critical response and was awarded the Prix David. In 1954, Hébert used a grant from the Royal Society to continue her writing in Paris. She won the Prix France-Canada and the Prix Duvernay in 1958 for Les Chambres de Bois, the Governor General's Literary Award in 1960 for Poèmes, the Molson Prize in 1967, another Governor General's Award in 1975 for Les Enfants du Sabbat, and the Prix Fémina in 1982 for Les Fous de Bassan. Anne Hébert died in Montreal on January 22, 2000 of bone cancer . (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Common Knowledge
- Original title
- Le premier jardin
- Original publication date
- 1988
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 111
- Popularity
- 291,820
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.61)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 1
