Memoirs Of A Breton Peasant

“What makes it gripping reading is not only that it offers a rare view of 19th-century French society from the bottom up; it is also written from the perspective of a lifetime’s experience. He both suffers and celebrates his suffering as the price of his nonconformity. A fascinating account.” —Alan Riding, New York Times Book Review

“Linda Asher has now given Déguignet a splendidly faithful English voice: pugnacious, tetchy and opinionated.” —David Coward, London Review of Books

“Never a dull moment in his company. Must be read.” —Le Telegramme

Born in 1834 to landless farmers in Brittany, the young JEAN-MARIE DÉGUIGNET was sent out several times a week as a child to beg for his family’s food. After spending his adolescence as a cowherd and a domestic, he abandoned the province for a soldier’s life, avid for knowledge of the wider world. Having grown up speaking only Breton, Déguinet taught himself Latin, French, Italian and Spanish and read broadly in history, philosophy, politics and literature during his travels. He was sent to fight in the Crimean war, to attend Emperor Napoleon III’s coronation ceremonies, to support Italy’s liberation struggle, and to defend the hapless French puppet emperor Maximilian in Mexico. Eventually Déguinet returned home to Brittany, where he worked as a farmer and tobacconist before falling back into poverty. He died in 1905.

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