Thomas, A Secret Life
Page 33
He is given to concluding that as much as he would like more and better than what he has, what he has is not so bad after all. He’ll stay the course. Keep his aspirations he will, but he’ll also see what fresh opportunities come along. No life is completely under anyone’s control. That’s clear. It’s more like a river, the Seine and countless more. The lucky ones are those who find the current and move along with its onward flow.
FIN
Acknowledgements and a Few Notes
The idea to write this novel first came to me more than a quarter century ago. I recall the moment. I was reading a section of a document dating from 1778 when the words on the page literally made my head snap back. I thought: there’s a novel in that.Now, after an excessively long gestation period, there is—at least, the first of what could surely be several novels that tell the story of my central character Thomas’s journey through life.
Prior to turning to fiction I had a pretty long career as a historian whose specialty was the 18th century. Much of it was spent with Parks Canada, where I was fortunate enough to work for a long stretch at the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site on Cape Breton Island. For those who don’t know it, the Fortress is a partial re-creation of an entire 18th-century French fortified town. It’s la France outre mer, Cape Breton-style. My exploration of the history of Louisbourg, and by extension of the 18th-century French world from which Louisbourg sprang, laid the conscious and unconscious groundwork for this novel. I can never fully express my gratitude to the many colleagues and predecessors at the Fortress who made that place such a great research venue during the twenty-three years I worked there.
Having a background as a professionally trained historian specializing in the 18th century is a great help when writing a story set in the 18th century. The historian’s discipline, however, only takes you so far. One is not supposed to make up characters, invent dialogue and twist timelines and events according to the demands of a plot. It was quite an education for me as an apprentice novelist, and my apprenticeship goes on.
The document that sparked my desire to write this novel was written by one Thomas Pichon (1700–1781) near the end of his life. Anyone interested in reading that letter for themselves can find it on pages 25–26 of John Clarence Webster’s Thomas Pichon, “The Spy of Beausejour,” published by the Public Archives of Nova Scotia in 1937. A few lines from the 1778 letter are also extracted and presented in T. A. Crowley’s short biography of Pichon in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (now available online).
In the summer of 1985 my wife, Mary and I took our three kids to live in France for three and a half months. We selected Normandy, in part because it allowed me every so often to go to Vire, Pichon’s hometown. Vire is also where Pichon sent his many papers and books after his death. That collection is in the care of the local municipal library. I went through much of the Pichon collection and consulted various books, articles and images of early 18th-century Vire. I wanted to be able to depict the setting for the early part of the novel as accurately as possible. I would like to acknowledge the assistance I received from the staff of the Bibliothèque municipale de Vire who were there in 1985. Today’s Vire is a lovely place, but it is not the Vire of Thomas Pichon’s era. American and German tanks laid waste to much of the town in a ten-day battle in 1944. There is still the clock-tower gate and a few churches, but most of the rest dates from after the Second World War.
In the winter of 1988, I carried out more research in France. Thanks go to Mary’s parents, Marg and the late Les Topshee, for looking after the kids. That allowed us to go overseas sans enfants. I also thank the Canada Council for the Explorations grant they awarded me to undertake that in-depth research trip. It has been a long time coming, but the material gathered on that trip is finally surfacing in this novel and will continue to do so in however many more books it may take to tell the whole story.
I could not begin to list all the books and articles I have read about 18th-century France that have shaped my understanding of that era. Readers interested in such details should consult the bibliographies in my history books, especially Life and Religion at Louisbourg (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996), Endgame 1758 (University of Nebraska Press and Cape Breton University Press, 2007) and Control and Order in French Colonial Louisbourg (Michigan State University Press, 2001).
One particular source for this novel deserves a special mention. Its author is Geneviève Menant-Artigas and her study is called Lumières clandestines. Les papiers de Thomas Pichon, published by H. Champion in Paris in 2001. The book is about Thomas Pichon and his intellectual world. Her research and analysis was most helpful, though in the end what I have written is fiction, not history. From my perspective, there are now two Thomas Pichons. The historical personage, about whom Menant-Artigas writes, and the fictional creation I have penned. The two figures have a lot in common—parents pressuring them to enter the church, an early aspiration to pursue medicine, a move from Vire to Paris at age fifteen, an attraction to the sensual side of life, a penchant for writing and stretching the truth, and a close (maybe even marriage) relationship with Marguerite Salles—but there’s an awful lot in the novel that comes out of my imagination and not from any documentary source. Hélène, for instance, is a complete invention. Jean Gallitin is a name I borrowed and gave form and flesh to, but all I really know about him is that he was one of the real Thomas Pichon's many correspondents.
Turning to the setting for the latter two-thirds of the book, there are countless books, articles and images on early 18th-century Paris. The idea that Thomas might have been a part-time “fly” for the Paris police came to me when I recalled Alan Williams’s study The Police of Paris, 1718–1789 (Louisiana State University Press, 1979), a book I read maybe thirty years ago. The character Jacques whom Thomas and Gallatin encounter in the tavern outside Paris’s walls is based on Jacques-Louis Ménétra, author of Journal de ma vie (edited by Daniel Riche and published by Albin Michel, latest edition, 1998). Illustrations of that tavern, known as Au Tambour Royal or the Ramponeau Inn exist and guided my description of the scene.
To assist me in visualizing overall Paris at the time of this novel, the famous 1734 bird’s eye view known as the Plan de Turgot was incredibly helpful. The many sections of the plan have been scanned and made available on the Internet. If you’re in Paris, I highly recommend a visit to the Musée Carnavlaet, the official museum on the history of Paris. It is a treasure trove. Though like Vire, Paris has much changed since the early 18th century, there are a host of sources that enable one to revisit that period. Books, paintings, engravings and museums offer glimpses into this or that aspect of Paris life. I carried out a useful research trips to the city in 2011 and 2012 to finalize many details.
As for the process of turning an idea for a novel into a manuscript and then a manuscript into a book, I would like to thank the following: Sandy Balcom for suggesting books to re-familiarize myself with early 18th-century furnishings; Stephen Brumwell for planting the germ of an idea that a trilogy might be a better way to go than a single book; CBU Press for their enthusiasm for the manuscript and eagerness to turn it into a book; Kate Kennedy for being a terrific editor; Elizabeth Tait for pointing me toward books on the clothing of the period. Any erroneous descriptions found in the novel are entirely my fault.
I close by acknowledging the most important person in my life. That is Mary Topshee. Mary has been a part of my life almost as long as I can recall. Without Mary, I doubt this book or any of the non-fiction titles I have written would exist at all.
A. J. B. Johnston, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Previous books by A.J.B. Johnston
1758 : La Finale. Promesses, Splendeur et Désolation Dans la Dernière Décennie de Louisbourg. (Presses de l’Université Laval, 2011)
Endgame 1758. The Promise, the Glory and the Despair of Louisbourg’s Final Decade. (University of Nebraska Press and Cape Breton Unive
rsity Press, 2007)
Grand-Pré, Heart of Acadie / Grand-Pré, Coeur de l’Acadie. (Nimbus, 2004; co-authored with W. P. Kerr)
Louisbourg, An 18th-Century Town (Nimbus, 2004 [1991]; Co-authored with Kenneth Donovan, B.A. Balcom and Alex Storm)
Storied Shores: St. Peter’s, Isle Madame and Chapel Island in the 17th and 18th Centuries. (Cape Breton University Press, 2004)
Control and Order: The Evolution of French Colonial Louisbourg, 1713-1758. (Michigan State University Press, 2001)
Louisbourg: The Phoenix Fortress / Louisbourg, Reflets d’une époque (Nimbus, 1997)
Tracks Across the Landscape: A Commemorative History of the S&L Railway. (University College of Cape Breton Press, 1995; Co-Authored with Brian Campbell)
Life and Religion at Louisbourg, 1713-1758 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1996) / La religion dans la vie à Louisbourg (1713-1758). (Environnement Canada, 1988)
From the Hearth: Recipes from the World of 18th-Century Louisbourg. (University College of Cape Breton Press, 1986; co-authored with Hope Dunton)
The Summer of 1744, A Portrait of Life in 18th-Century Louisbourg / L'Été de 1744: La vie quotidienne à Louisbourg au XVIIIe siècle. (Parks Canada, 1983)
Defending Halifax: Ordnance, 1825-1906 / La défense de Halifax: artillerie, 1825-1906. (Parks Canada, 1981)