In the Village of Viger

by Duncan Campbell Scott, Tracy Ware (Afterword)

The ten stories in In the Village of Viger portray the life of a rural village as it faces the darkness of its own future. An established milliner, Madame Laroque, is upset by the advent of a younger, more popular rival. An innkeeper’s obsession with the Franco-Prussian War drives his descent into madness. A gardener longs to return to the village in France where his mother was born. At once comical, farcical, and tragic, this superb collection, first published in 1896, anticipates later collections of linked short stories including Alice Munro’s Who Do You Think You Are? and Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

131 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duncan_...

Reviews

[Rosemarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written collection of short stories about a small town in Quebec. The author is good at creating the atmosphere of this late 19th village.

[Alex Nonymous · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very mixed bag for me and I feel like it would be for most readers since the stories drastically differ in tone and even genre. I loved a handful of them, but also found a lot of them quite boring so as a whole, this was pretty "meh" for me.

[Dessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really thought I’d hate this book, or at least grind my teeth at it the way I’ve been grinding my way through all of this nineteenth century settler lit, but this little story cycle is actually weirdly welcoming and intimate. The machinations and workings of this small town are like nothing so much as they are a family dinner, complete with dramatic cousin and nostalgic grandfather and gossipy aunt.

[Shahna · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is boring and repetitive

[Ibis3 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I was expecting at all. Some of the stories contained some humour, some were rather sad, a few were actually spooky(!)--kinda in "Turn of the Screw" territory. My favourite was the last story "Coquelicot", which wasn't in the original collection. Tracy Ware's afterword put things in perspective. Seven and a half stars. Blog post to come.

[for-much-deliberation ... · Rating 4 out of 5]

Series of short stories about a small town...