For her fifth novel,
Les Fous de Bassan(published in 1982; translated in 1983 by Sheila Fischman under the title
In the Shadow of the Wind), Anne Hébert wins the Fémina prize, making the book an academic and popular success. “If the storyline mainly revolves around the fury of murder, the events seem less determined by the characters’ logic than by an underlying curse, emanating from the place itself” (Biron
et al., 2007: 317). The pattern of murder indeed reveals itself more unpredictable than in the previous novel,
Kamouraska(1970), where a woman drives her lover to kill an incestuous and dangerous husband. To quote the authors of
Histoire de la littérature québécoise(2007):
Anne Hébert’s entire production is haunted by the poetry of evil and what Robert Harvey calls
4755 words
Citation: Pascal, Marie. "Les Fous de Bassan". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 August 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35853, accessed 22 November 2024.]
