Charlevoix: Two Centuries at Murray Bay.

Charlevoix: Two Centuries at Murray Bay. Dube, Philippe, Charlevoix: Two Centuries at Murray Bay Murray Bay,Canada: see La Malbaie. . Kingstonand Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1990. Pp. 271 Wetherell, Donald G., with Irene Kmets, 'UsefulPleasures': The Shaping of Leisure in Alberta 1896-1945. Regina:Alberta Culture and Multiculturalism/Canadian Plains Research Centre,1990. Pp. 430. Leisure is serious business in Canada, as in all societies touchedby the heavy hand of the Protestant ethic. Whether on the shores of theSt. Lawrence at glorious Murray Bay or in wild rose county, asociety's recreations tell us much about its values. In 'Useful Pleasures': The Shaping of Leisure in Alberta1896-1945. authors Donald G. Wetherell and Irene Kmets examine"social, economic and technological influences on leisure inAlberta." in the light of the political, economic and socialevolution of the province. They succeed admirably. The book hypothesizesthat the hegemony of the British/Ontario values of the province'sanglophone elite groups (whose numbers fluctuated around 50% of thepopulation between 1901 and 1945) infused the spectrum of leisureactivities in Alberta. The work ethic was paramount in society in theperiod, and most leisure activities were implicitly conceived asenhancements or inducements to productivity, good citizenship andrelated virtues. Wetherell and Kmets examine leisure in its many forms,from the development of libraries, parks, playgrounds, rodeos,fellowship organisations and the performing arts in the province to theevolution of radio and film, as well as the history of bars, poolroomsand cafes. (In a delightful chapter, the latter three"hangouts" are described as either sturdy bastions ofresistance or official scapegoats in the valorisation The valorization of capital is a concept created by Karl Marx in his critique of political economy. The German original term is "Verwertung" (specifically Kapitalverwertung of work.) In the course of the study, the role and influence ofleisure--defined as any activity "characterized by a feeling of(comparative) freedom" carried out during the time "free fromwork and other obligations"--on the various ethnic communities ofthe period is examined. It is clear that, while leisure organisationssuch as ethnic clubs and folk dancing groups may have helped preservesome old world traditions among such groups as Ukrainians and Germans,the trend of leisure and its concomitant social indoctrination wastoward integration to the values of the dominant group. These "British/Ontario values" valorised the need forprivate property, the market economy, liberal individualism andself-initiative. The emphasis on these values even transcended therural-urban divisions that characterised Alberta society. As the authorsobserve pointedly: "It seems to have been assumed that tounderstand and observe English Canada was to love it and yearn forassimilation into it." Some of the book's many photographscapture the blatant incarnation of these values: "Miss Canada,Vegreville, 1927" and "Loyal Orange Lodge (parade),Wetaskiwin, 1937." The text traces Sabbatarianism and temperance,good English Protestant tenets both, on the history of Alberta What is today the province of Alberta, Canada has been settled for thousands of years by the ancestors of today's First Nations. Discussion of First Nations activities are generally classified as pre-history. Recorded or written history begins with the arrival of Europeans. leisure:no dancin' on Sunday and drinkin' any time, any where,nosirree! In the face of such militant virtue, the reader feels asneaking sympathy for the six lazy louts pictured loitering outside aBig Valley poolroom pool��room?n.A commercial establishment or room for the playing of pool or billiards.Noun 1. poolroom - a room with pool tables where pool is played , 1927. Wetherell and Kmets also address the effects of American values andimmigrants on Alberta leisure. For example, the fascinating chapter onagricultural fairs and rodeos shows how the itinerant Wild West Showsfrom the United States influenced the development of the rodeo, and itsapotheosis apotheosis(əpŏth'ēō`sĭs), the act of raising a person who has died to the rank of a god. Historically, it was most important during the later Roman Empire. , the Calgary Stampede, as much as did nostalgia for theranching era in Southern Alberta. Mass media, like the cinema and radio,and the spread of the automobile carried for the most part the stamp ofAmerican values. Of course, radio in Alberta was the vehicle for SocialCredit and the voice of 'Bible Bill' Aberhart. The authors tackle their subject with the "glad heart andvigorous mind" so dear to the hegemonous group in Alberta. Theirstudy, originally commissioned for Alberta Culture and Multiculturalism,is detailed, convincing and lively--no mean feat. If only the book hadthe format it deserves: the pedestrian typeface and design do it adisservice. In content, one wishes that the book had been able to tracein depth, the leisure history of one immigrant group--the Ukrainians,for example--or make more comparisons with the history of leisure inSaskatchewan or Manitoba. As a literary historian. I regretted that theauthors scanted as source material the popular fiction of Albertawriters like Nellie McClung and Ralph Connor, both hardy Ontariotransplants. To turn from 'Useful Pleasures' to the opulent pages ofPhilippe Dube's Charlevoix: Two Centuries at Murray Bay is tomarvel at an Eastern elite and its pleasures in scenic Charlevoix Countyon Quebec's North Shore. Dube's study of Charlevoix County,whose heart is the golden age of the summer visitors and theirresidences, c. 1870-1925. is an eloquent labour of love originallypublished in French (Deux cent ans de villegiature dans Charlevoix:L'Histoire du pays visite (1986)). Tony Martin-Sperry's defttranslation has captured the lyricism lyr��i��cism?n.1. a. The character or quality of subjectivity and sensuality of expression, especially in the arts.b. The quality or state of being melodious; melodiousness.2. and erudition er��u��di��tion?n.Deep, extensive learning. See Synonyms at knowledge.Eruditionof editors—Hare.Noun 1. of the originalFrench, and the wonderful design and photographs of the volume (bookdesign award juries, please note) ensure that Charlevoix will grace bothacademic library shelves and the blanket box tables of the summer homesof Murray Bay. Dube, a historian at Laval, writes in the spirit of his epigraph ep��i��graph?n.1. An inscription, as on a statue or building.2. A motto or quotation, as at the beginning of a literary composition, setting forth a theme. from Arthur Buies: "A little volume about La Malbaie ... onrose-tinted silk paper, where the smell of seaweed lies mingled with theperfume of heliotrope heliotrope(hē`lēətrōp')[Gr.,=sun-turning] or turnsole,name for any plant that turns to face the sun, especially members of the genus Heliotropium of the family Boraginaceae. ." In his foreword, childhood summer residentTimothy Porteous refers to Dube's blend of "nostalgia anddiscovery." Indeed, Dube gives us the evolution of present-dayCharlevoix County, from a remote seigneury seign��eur��y?n. pl. seign��eur��iesThe power, rank, or estate of a seigneur.Noun 1. seigneury - the estate of a seigneurseigniory, signory of New France to thepost-Conquest property of Jacobite Scots British officers Malcolm Fraser(Mount Murray) and John Nairne (Murray Bay), to the summer playground ofan elite by the mid-19th century, thanks to its natural beauty andimproved water and then rail transportation to Quebec City and Montreal.Dube masters local history, cartography cartography:see map. cartographyor mapmakingArt and science of representing a geographic area graphically, usually by means of a map or chart. Political, cultural, or other nongeographic features may be superimposed. and architecture (with the aidof photographer Jacques Blouin), thanks in part to the resources of theregion's Musee regional Laure-Conan. The shores of La Malbaie have long been the playground of leadingMontreal and Quebec City families, and some members of the Ontario andEastern seaboard well-to-do. From the 1870s. increasing numbers of themercantile and financial elite of Montreal, like the Molsons (beer), theBuchanans (law and finance) and the Caverhills (hardware). were joinedby francophone financiers and politicians, like Sir Rodolphe Forget andpolitician Sir Lomer Gouin. To this heady mixture were added Ontariopolitician Edward Blake and his family and rich Americans of the ilk ofU.S. President William Howard Taft. (The latter's birthday party onSeptember 12 traditionally marked the end of the Murray Bay socialseason in its heyday.) In their activities on water and golf links, Dubesees a "worth ethic relaxed." Yet the visitors built like beavers, and the book celebrates"the shared tastes and values of the builders and occupants"of the homes and hotels of Charlevoix 1895-1925, its golden (and gilded)age. Dube blends architectural, social and local history to trace theevolution of summer architecture in Charlevoix, tracing its origins inthe English villa, the American colonial house and local habitantconstruction, among other sources. His material is rich: summer homes inthe region included designs by American architects Stanford White,Charles McKim and William Adams Delano William Adams Delano (January 21 1874 – January 12 1960) was a prominent American architect, a partner with Chester Holmes Aldrich (Providence, Rhode Island, June 4, 1871 – Rome, December 26 1940) in the firm of Delano & Aldrich that worked in the Beaux-Arts , and Canadian architects LouisAuguste Amos and Mackenzie Waters of the nationalist Diet Kitchen groupof the Twenties. Dube traces the work of Charles Warren, a native ofCharlevoix who studied building in the United States and returned toCharlevoix in 1894 as a vernacular architect to build some of its mostcharming and harmonious summer homes until his death in 1929. In fact, 1929 was a crucial point in the chronology of Charlevoix.It brought not only the Depression (always bad for resorts) and thedeath of its premier builder, but the opening of the second, vast,chateau-like Manoir Richelieu hotel, a reminder both of the grandiosestructures that had begun to be erected by the rich at rest there and amass automobile tourism different from the long summers of theturn-of-the-century elite. Transportation, houses, gardens,personalities--Dube neglects little of the Charlevoix summer in hisethno-historical study. There is a whisper of unease in this blend of romance andscholarship. Dube chose to concentrate on the tourist: "I took thisstranger as my target and observed him as the principal actor in anactivity, tourism, which had long been part of the life of Murray Bay.No longer was my gaze to be directed at the customary object ofethnography; the local, abandoning his passive role as the object of hisattention, would be studying the outsider." Yet the social attitudes of the summer visitors--within their owncircles and without--are not examined with the fidelity devoted to theirresidences. In the history of a resort, more evolves than architecture.What were the social attitudes, for example, to francophones (both thelocal residents and rich visitors), to Jews, or to the servant class?The servants' quarters are squirrelled away in perpendicular wingsin many of these houses--what was being said in the sitting room? Dubetouches on these topics in a positive light, evoking a kind of benignpaternalism paternalism (p·terˑ·n on the part of the visitor. Local people found work in thebrief summers--as domestic servants, hotel staff, carpenters, guides ...in what negative as well as positive ways did holidayers perceiveworker? Dube gives us the sun of Charlevoix summers, but there must havebeen cloud as well. An American couple, the artists Patrick Morgan andhis wife Maud Cabot, seem to have been the outsiders who did the most toencourage the gifted local artisans. The sources Dube quotes on theregion are at times paternalistic pa��ter��nal��ism?n.A policy or practice of treating or governing people in a fatherly manner, especially by providing for their needs without giving them rights or responsibilities. and condescending, and the habitanthumour about the fortunate few in their midst during the good weatherseems touched with irony. Architect and summer resident Isaac Stokes, in1895, after the first of many visits, observed: "The Minturns(American sojourners) knew most of the summer residents, many of themCanadians, and we went on numerous picnics and informal evening parties,where the habitants Habitants is the name used to refer to both the French settlers and the America-born inhabitants of French origin who farmed the land along the two shores of the St. Lawrence waterway in what is the present-day Province of Quebec in Canada. sang their native songs and danced their simple,rather awkward, dances." There are passing references to the disquiet of local cures at theerection of Protestant churches and Sunday golf. Little is said ofchanging demographic and linguistic patterns of summer residents fromthe mid-nineteenth century down, although one notes with interest thatCharlevoix was first nicknamed the Scotland of British North America British North Americaalso British AmericaThe former British possessions in North America north of the United States. The term was once used to designate Canada. ,then the Newport of Canada and finally the Switzerland of Quebec. BlueCottage is now "Porte-Bonheur." Eh bien, M. Dube? This fine book does leave one large stone unturned, but its textand superb bibliography (alas, no index!) point the way for others toenlarge on Philippe Dube's achievement. And, as Dube reminds us,Charlevoix summers have already given us such classics as GeorgeWrong's A Canadian Manor and Its Seigneurs (1908) and W. H.Blake's In a Fishing Country (1922), and translation of MariaChapdelaine. Sandy Campbell Department of English Noun 1. department of English - the academic department responsible for teaching English and American literatureEnglish departmentacademic department - a division of a school that is responsible for a given subject University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa or Universit�� d'Ottawa in French (also known as uOttawa or nicknamed U of O or Ottawa U) is a bilingual [1], research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario.