Not For Every Eye

By Gérard Bessette and Steven Urquhart

Both touchingly comical and extremely provocative, thisnovel deals with ennui in Quebec and the intellectual alienation of a disenchanted hero, Hervé Jodoin. Jodoin has come to Saint Joachim to work in the town's only bookstore. The proprietor, Léon Chicoine, is a seemingly respectable man who claims to be the secret agent of free thought and liberty, keeping a collection of books for specific customers only. However, when Jodoin sells a book by a well-known, subversive author, the resulting crisis within the town involves not only Chicoine, but also the town priest and our hero's lonely landlady. This revised edition contains both English and French versions of the critical bibliography, a list of related readings, and chapter-by-chapter questions for discussion and essays.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
• Release date: Sep 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9781550962109

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In the electronic versions of this book

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NOT FOR EVERY EYE

Gérard Bessette

Translated by

Glen Shortliffe

Introduction and Revised Translation by

Steven Urquhart

Publishers of singular Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction, Drama, Translations and Graphic Books

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Bessette, Gérard, 1920-

[Libraire. English]

Not for every eye / Gérard Bessette ; Glen Shortliffe, translator ; Steven

Urquhart, translator, revision, and introduction.

(The Exile classics series ; no. 18) Translation of: Le libraire.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-55096-149-2

I. Shortliffe, Glen II. Urquhart, Steven, 1974- III. Title.

IV. Series: Exile classics 18

PS8503.E88L5213 2010 C843'.54 C2010-907141-7

eBooks

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All rights reserved; © The Estate of Gérard Bessette 1984, 2010

Original Translation © 1962 by Glen Shortliffe

Revised Transation, and Introduction © 2010 by Steven Urquhart

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Publication Copyright © Exile Editions, 2010. All rights reserved

We gratefully acknowledge, for their support toward our publishing activities, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

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In Memory of Gérard Bessette (1920-2005)

for Irene, Wendy, Tristan and Fiona

Contents

Introduction

Not for Every Eye

Related Reading

Questions for Discussion

Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Known as Le Libraire in French, Not for Every Eye is without a doubt Quebec-born author Gérard Bessette’s most famous novel. Translated into English in 1962, the novel was first published in 1960 by René Julliard in France, as Quebec editor Pierre Tisseyre feared censorship at the time. Called the "maudit Libraire" by Bessette himself due to the fact that it overshadowed his other novels, Not for Every Eye is a cornerstone of Quebecois literature and remains on the reading lists of many Quebec and Francophone literature courses throughout North America and beyond. Thus, it is important to see this classic reappear in English in the twenty-first century thanks to Exile Editions, whose name would seem to reflect Bessette’s own penchant during his lifetime for marginality and the significance of otherness in his entire works.

Although profoundly Quebecois, Gérard Bessette was certainly open to others and spoke English fluently throughout his life. The author understood just how important language is to comprehending different cultures as well as Canadian identity. In the case of Le Libraire, which has been translated into many languages, its English translation no doubt held special significance for him as it was undertaken by his friend and colleague, Glen Shortliffe. Bessette did however acknowledge in correspondence concerning other translations of the novel that Shortliffe rarely consulted him as he worked on the English version. While Bessette certainly appreciated Shortliffe’s efforts and the final product, it would appear that he was not necessarily implicated or deeply interested in controlling the translation process. As such, it seemed not only important, but also appropriate, to review the English translation of Not for Every Eye so as to verify its accuracy and to make necessary revisions before republishing it almost fifty years later. As expected, a certain number of expressions and translations did indeed need to be updated and/or simply reformulated. In this way, the revised version of Not for Every Eye is not an attempt to erase what was already a very good translation, but rather to further refine and ultimately improve upon it. The most significant change in the newly revised version involved reinstituting the word capharnaüm to describe the room where the bookstore owner, Léon Chicoine, keeps his stock of volumes not for every eye. In the original English translation, Shortliffe opted to replace this term with the latin phrase " sanctum sanctorum (Holy of Holies). Although this choice was perhaps understandable at the time, it was important to restore the word capharnaüm, – meaning shambles" – as several studies have since demonstrated its significance with respect to the novel’s comprehension and interpretation. I also paid careful attention to the nature of Hervé Jodoin’s speech, his age, stature, and personality, as well as the historical context of the novel and the date of its publication. In terms of the main character’s discourse, the revisions seek to highlight the oral nature of Jodoin’s written journal while retaining his in-depth and measured understanding of the multiple meanings attached to words that he uses, most often with disdainful and ironic distance. While reworking Shortliffe’s version, I therefore tried to better capture the original French while at the same time striking a balance between the speech tendencies of English and French Canada in the first half of the twentieth century and the expectations of readers in the twenty-first century.

With respect to the English title of the novel, which differs considerably from the French, its suitability was not questioned during the revisions. Chosen by the MacMillan Publishing Company according to Bessette’s correspondence with respect to Not for Every Eye, the title remains an intriguing one today and captures an idea that is central to the novel’s plot: censorship. Indeed, changing the title would have only confused English-speaking readers in the future and perhaps jeopardized any initial curiosity toward this provocative literary work. Faced with a novel whose title plays on the reader’s sense of self-importance and curiosity, how does one not open the book? As is the case with the French title that Ben Shek interpreted as the Libre air/e or freedom, the English title entices the reader to go beyond the limits imposed by categories and explore the legitimacy of social taboos found within its pages. And this, if for no other reason than to kill time like the main character, while glancing innocently at the pages of this satirical, funny, and carefully crafted masterpiece of modern French Canadian literature.

The subversive nature of the novel to which the title refers is also reflected by its position in the publication sequence of Bessette’s works. The author’s second novel, Not for Every Eye, is in reality his third, having been conceived more or less after Les Pédagogues, published in 1961. According to Bessette, Not for Every Eye was rapidly written over several months, most likely during the summer of 1957 and finished by the spring of 1958. This was at the same time that he left teaching at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario. Archival evidence and the novelist himself support this idea, not to mention the change in style to a first person narrative, which many critics over the years have highlighted in articles dedicated to the novel’s study. In Not for Every Eye, Hervé Jodoin’s subjectivity can be interpreted as the embodiment of Quebec’s Quiet Revolution. The publication date of the novel corresponds to the beginning of this period of radical change in the province, as do many of the ideas expressed by the main character’s words and actions. Known as Quebec’s equivalent to Albert Camus’ The Stranger (1942), the novel most certainly recalls this celebrated French masterpiece due in large part to Jodoin’s detached, ironic, taciturn behaviour, which challenges the collective norms and expectations of the time.

Half a century after its initial publication, Not for Every Eye is still an important work for many reasons. In terms of its historical value, the novel depicts the province’s heritage of literary censorship by the Catholic Church and highlights the erosion of socio-political and cultural conservatism that occurred in Quebec during this period of critical change and modernisation. Having been called a Man of the Quiet Revolution by celebrated journalist, author, and critic Gilles Marcotte, Hervé Jodoin is a symbol of Quebec’s increasingly liberal politics at the time with respect to issues such as sexuality, among others. Jacques Allard, another famous Quebec literary critic who first wrote a landmark article on the novel in 1967, stated that Not for Every Eye represented Quebec’s emancipation and its ability to speak up for itself as a province, having acquired a more unified, distinguishable identity and voice. Subject to many studies over the years, which have debated such affirmations, Not for Every Eye was recently analysed in terms of its critical history by Annette Hayward, a former colleague of Bessette’s at Queen’s University, where he taught between 1960 and 1979. In this article, she examines various readings of the novel that range from socio-critical ones to others such as my own article, which explores the book’s monstrous aesthetic. For academics and teachers alike, the novel consequently lends itself to a wide range of interpretative possibilities and thus can serve as a pedagogical tool for those exploring socio-cultural issues in Quebec, as well as different critical literary and philosophical theories.

As a University French professor, Bessette understood what good writing was all about and how Jodoin’s sarcastic, rebellious words and actions would appeal to an educated and inquisitive public. One cannot help but sense that this middle-aged man and former teacher is much more than a random stranger who gets involved in a book scandal in a small town outside Montreal. Despite his apparent desire to withdraw from society, Jodoin cannot prevent himself from defending his individual freedom and indirectly championing his individualism, which is representative not only of his entire generation, but also of all those who, regardless of age, question the arbitrary nature of collective norms. In the novel, this idea manifests itself indirectly through the character of Martin Guérard, the young book eater who embodies in many ways a double of Jodoin himself in his youth. Although it may not always be easy to identify with this enigmatic character, the reader can however understand the importance of his revolt and the need to remain true to oneself when faced with irrational circumstances.

As an important piece of fiction for its insight into the various issues associated with the Quiet Revolution and Quebec’s collective identity, Not for Every Eye is also interesting to read in terms of its vast intertextuality and the modernity of its ideas with respect to current issues such as tolerance and multiculturalism. For the contemporary reader, these issues are at the forefront of an increasingly global and plural society where tolerance of

Reviews for Not For Every Eye

[kewing_12 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A middle-aged failed teacher in francophone Quebec who is suffering from extreme ennui, gets a job as a clerk in a bookstore. The small community of St. Joachim suffers from social pressure, Catholic priests that serve as intellectual censors, a boarding house with a sexually lonely middle-aged woman, and a bookstore owner who professes liberal ideas so long as it is in private and no one in the community knows. I thought this sounded like an interesting setup; the room of censored books, sold only to customers of discretion and taste, and the subsequent sale of a book by Voltaire to a thoughtful high school student, is an interesting premise, but the suffocating ennui of the narrator failed to generate much sympathy for the story. And maybe that is the point.