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Fiction Multicultural & Interracial

Fanny

A Translation of Les enfances de Fanny

translated by Raymond Y. Chamberlain

by (author) Louis Dantin

Publisher
Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa/University of Ottawa Press
Initial publish date
Apr 2024
Category
Multicultural & Interracial, Personal Memoirs, Historical, Religious, Literary
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780887721434
    Publish Date
    Jan 1973
    List Price
    $18.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780776635996
    Publish Date
    Apr 2024
    List Price
    $14.95

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Description

Fanny is the fictionalized autobiography of Louis Dantin, the pen name of author Eugene Seers.
Two great upheavals shape the protagonist's life—he leaves the priesthood and exiles himself to the United States, working for many years in the printing shop of the Harvard University Press. There he marries a black woman, cutting himself off doubly, according to the standards of his day—from the conservative community in which he was raised and from the race-conscious one in which he lives. Fanny deals with these exceedingly intimate, painful and bittersweet years of his life, which he devotes unremittingly to writing and criticism.
This work is interesting for several reasons. The author was romantically involved with a black woman, Fannie, for two years, until her death; he also maintained close ties with the black community in Boston. The author gives us a gripping "Scenes from Black Life in the United States," as one intended subtitle put it, and including his personal story. Fearing the scandal this subject might cause, Dantin refused to have the novel published during his lifetime.

About the authors

Contributor Notes

Louis Dantin is the “nom de plume” of Eugene Seers (1865-1945), writer and Canadian critic who was born at Beauharnois, up the St. Lawrence from Montreal. Seers studied theology in Canada and abroad where he was ordained as a priest. He lived in Rome and elsewhere in Europe and served for some time as secretary to the superior of his congregation. Returning to Montreal, he became involved with the “École Littéraire” of Montreal – a group of writers and poets who met out of common love for their art.

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