Memoirs of a Breton Peasant

by Jean-Marie Déguignet, Linda Asher (Translator)

A fascinating document of an extraordinary life, Memoirs of A Breton Peasant reads with the liveliness of a novel and bristles with the vigor of an opinionated autodidact from the very lowest level of peasant society. Brittany during the nineteenth century was a place seemingly frozen in the Middle Ages, backwards by most French standards; formal education among rural society was either unavailable or dismissed as unnecessary, while the church and local myth defined most people's reasoning and motivation. Jean-Marie Déguignet is unique not only as a literate Breton peasant, but in his skepticism for the church, his interest in science, astronomy and languages, and for his keen—often caustic—observations of the world and people around him.

Born into rural poverty in 1834, Déguignet escapes Brittany by joining the French Army in 1854, and over the next fourteen years he fights in the Crimean war, attends Napoleon III’s coronation ceremonies, supports Italy’s liberation struggle, and defends the hapless French puppet emperor Maximilian in Mexico. He teaches himself Latin, French, Italian and Spanish and reads extensively on history, philosophy, politics, and literature. He returns home to live as a farmer and tobacco-seller, eventually falling back into dire poverty. Throughout the tale, Deguignet’s freethinking, almost anarchic views put him ahead of his time and often (sadly, for him) out of step with his contemporaries.

Déguignet’s voluminous journals (nearly 4,000 pages in total) were discovered in a farmhouse in Brittany a century after they were written. This narrative was drawn from them and became a surprise bestseller when published in France in 1998.

Genres: Nonfiction, France, History

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1904

Reviews

[Elliot Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had an interesting conversation with an Internet acquaintance when I was first embarking on this book. I mentioned the title, and he told me it didn't sound particularly intriguing.

"Not intriguing?" was my response. "My dear C____, this book is ALL ABOUT intriguing! We are talking about a mid-19th-century autodidact from the lowest stratum of his society who essentially taught himself to read and write in Breton, French, Spanish, Italian and Latin, in one of the most culturally and religiously conservative regions of France, who attributes the powers of intellect that enabled him to rise from beggar boy to Army sergeant to a kick in the head from a horse when he was nine years old that should have killed him, but instead "softened up his brain pan", according to himself, to allow knowledge to come thru'.

"This was after surviving a host of childhood diseases, as well as general starvation and deprivation that should have killed him a half-dozen times by the time that horse kicked him.

"The little beggar boy becomes an atheist, a proud Republican (in the days after the Revolution, Napoleon the First, and the restoration of the Bourbons made "Republican" a dirty word), a soldier and world traveller, a farmer on advanced agronomic principles, a travelling insurance salesman, and comes full circle back to dire poverty. A guy who, to keep himself somewhat sane after surviving the loss of his farm, his wife, his children, his subsequent businesses, and almost being crushed by a cart, writes down his life story in a series of notebooks - a life story that got published almost 100 years after his death and became a best-seller in France!"

My friend C___'s response was to say, "that does sound intriguing. But it still needs a better title. One that gives more of a sense of everything you just said."

Well...he didn't name it "The Memoirs of 'Give 'Em the Hell I No Longer Believe In' Jean-Marie"...but he could have. Damn. I kinda found myself falling for the guy, for all that he descends into paranoid, bitter, misogynistic rantings by the end of his tale (where he is being evicted from his garret, apparently because of complaints not only about himself, but about his lice, which he refers to somewhat in the light of little friends).

Jean-Marie Deguignet, have I mentioned the love? AND the fact that I really wish you'd had some kind soul to keep you company, and relatively nit-free, at the end of your days? Someone who would have taken you to task for citing the misogyny of the early Church fathers, when you obviously had no use for the Church in any other respect? (he apparently lost any faith he had left after visiting Jerusalem and being appalled by the hucksterism of the Christians there, capitalizing on the credulity of pilgrims. As for the misogyny, I guess marrying a woman who descends into the DTs and whose mom helps makes your life a merry hell might have something to do with that). Someone who would have cheered you on when you told the village priests and squires to cram it when they tried to intimidate you into Respecting Their Authoriteh?

Alas, it was not to be. But this book is a wonder and a revelation. There are a lot of memoirs written by generals and noblemen. Not so many by the guy who's born on the bottom rung of society, born to be cannon fodder, who's just plain too ornery to die young and give the bastards the satisfaction. Heartily recommended.

[Lessidisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

On suit la vie de Jean-Marie Déguignet, breton né en 1834 et mort en 1905, né dans une famille pauvre, il ne va pas à l'école mais mendie, il s'éduque tout seul car il avait une soif d'apprendre. Il apprend à lire et à écrire le breton au catéchisme et sur son temps libre, il apprend le français, il rejoint l'armée pour pouvoir sortir de sa Bretagne et voyager dans le monde, il apprend des langues étrangères, il devient ensuite cultivateur. Comme il est ouvertement anti-religion les curés lui font la misère. Il passe son temps à traiter ses compatriotes d'abrutis, c'est très drôle. C'est vrai que les bretons qui l'entourent sont quelque peu attardés et font preuve de méchanceté.

Une personne sur reddit avait mentionné ce livre ; merci. Je découvre sur internet qu'il a fait parti du top 10 des ventes de livres en France en l'an 2000 !

La première nuit à la caserne fut une triste nuit pour moi, habitué à coucher dans les meules de foin et de paille, dans les étables ou dans des lits clos. Je trouvais bien étroit mon lit militaire et aussitôt que je voulais m'endormir, il me semblait que je roulais dans un précipice ;

Le caporal, quoique connaissant parfaitement la cause du phénomène, n'en avait jamais vu, sinon de petits tourbillons d’air comme on en voit partout, soulevant la poussière et quelquefois même de petits tas de paille et de foin. Les Bretons appellent ces tourbillons guerven et croient qu'ils sont produits comme les tempêtes par les âmes des méchants riches.

Le vieux Rospart avait pris Marie-Yvonne, sa nièce, par le bras, la poussa vers moi, en lui disant :
« Tiens ma nièce, voilà ton bon ami, qui sera mon neveu, n'est-ce pas vrai mon sergent ? »
La fille, qui savait bien qu'elle ne pouvait choisir le mari qui lui conviendrait, répondait dans ce langage moqueur particulier aux Bretons, que c'était bien moi qu'elle avait toujours vu dans ses rêves. Si elle n'était pas encore mariée, c'était parce qu'elle m'attendait.

[Bruce MacBain · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the 1970’s, a handwritten manuscript of some four thousand pages (of which only a small portion was previously known) came to light in the city of Quimper, Brittany. They constitute the memoirs of a remarkable man: Jean-Marie Déguignet (1834 – 1905). The present translation is a tightly edited version of that manuscript. This peasant, born in abject poverty and raised amid the ignorance and superstition (his words) of rural Breton society, grew into a self-educated, questioning, free-thinking, anti-clerical, misogynistic, socialist cynic who was successively a beggar, cowherd, soldier, traveler, farmer, insurance salesman, shopkeeper, outcast, and, finally, derelict. How he happened to take such a different path from his peasant countrymen, he himself ascribed to having been kicked in the head by a horse at the age of nine! Whatever the cause, this intelligent, angry man, who never missed an opportunity to denounce a priest or a politician (or an in-law), has left us a fascinating account of a truly unique personal story. I would like to have known him.

[David Espinel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le titre du bouquin avait attiré mon attention, mais l'histoire a été de loin la chose la plus remarquable. On rentre dans la Bretagne du XIX siècle, accompagnés de Jean-Marie Déguinet, mendiant, fermier, vachier, soldat, écrivant, auto didact, athée et philosophe tout en étant un paysan sans access à l'école. Bref, une histoire très interesante. Je recommande vivement.

[Derek Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing man. Déguignet, born into an illiterate Breton family and surrounded by illiterate, superstitious neighbors, learned to read basically on his own, went out into the world, mastered Latin, French, Spanish, Italian (and possibly classical Greek), rejected Christianity and all religion, served in several countries in the French army, absorbed the latest farming techniques and wrote over 50 notebooks of memoirs and essays on almost every topic imaginable. On the down side, he married badly, lost everything he gained, suffered from incurable intellectual arrogance, boiled over with vitriol against all authority but most particularly that of the Church, refused to kowtow to anyone and died an embittered pauper.
Especially considering his time and place, he unleashes a stupefying intellect and rampaging mind in these selections from his remaining notebooks, discovered by chance in an attic (like many of Schubert's later compositions). The editors have excised his worst rants – for which we should be grateful, considering the ones that remain. The translation is very good and must have been particularly difficult, considering that Déguignet sprinkled his Breton writing with snippets from all the various languages he knew.
This is a wonderful read (though you might skip over his snarling epithets hurled at the Church), but in the end a sad one, the history of a superb mind sinking into total lack of recognition. It puts the kibosh on the idea, if anyone still holds it, that the world is remotely fair.

[Graziano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mentre parroco ci mostrava le scene spaventose dei diavoli e dell'inferno, mi domandavo come un poveraccio come me, che non ha chiesto di venire al mondo e che nel corso della vita ha sofferto dieci volte più di quanto non abbia goduto, potesse essere condannato ai tormenti eterni per aver avuto un istante di superbia, di invidia o di lussuria, cose alle quali inevitabilmente siamo esposti per la nostra natura. (pagine 61 e 62)

C'è un proverbio bretone che dice: "Daou, tri sort amzer n'eus in den neket hanet neil ous i ben. - L'uomo passa attraverso due o tre periodi di tempo che non si assomigliano". (pagina 273)

Così dicono i bretoni: "Ar wiryone neket mad da lavaret - La verità non si può dire". (pagina 424)

Ho fatto i miei studi servendomi del grande libro della Natura, che era sempre aperto notte e giorno, nel quale ho appreso le numerosissime scienze naturali, tutte più o meno utili oggi: in the struggle for life. (pagina 448)

[Nancy Eister · Rating 4 out of 5]

The life story of an intelligent , questioning man who pulls himself out of his illiterate, mean environment and sees much of the world and learns several languages as a French soldier in many wars.
His story is all the more amazing because it is a rare written account from one of the poor, the proletariat, whose stories are rarely written, collected, or valued.
Deguignet attributes his photographic memory and zest for learning to being kicked in the head by a horse at a young age! He is scathing about political leaders, snobs, cruel peasants and all religious figures..his account of the history he lived through varies widely from official history. A brilliant man who after all died in poverty..a fascinating , eye opening account.

[Einar Snorri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bókin endar á því að Jean skrifar um síðustu ár sín, sem eru full af biturleika og paranoju. Allir búnir að yfirgefa kallinn, meira að segja synir hans þrír. í sjúkum huga hans, þá hefur hann ekkert gert nema rétt og gott í gegnum alla ævina, en aðrir hafa viljað honum illt og bruggað launráð. Það er alltaf viðvörunarmerki þegar fólk er ófært um sjálfsgagnrýni og það sannast bærilega á Jean blessuðum.

[BowbytheBay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The beginning a little slow, but then it picks up. His experiences in the wars was interesting. As were experiences trying to find a home for himself upon his return. It seems a contest theme for returning soldiers. At the end he is pretty bitter (perhaps rightly so) but it does get a tad tiresome. However, all in all, an excellent book and insight into the life of a french peasant.

[Hildegart · Rating 3 out of 5]

easy to read. It just did not grab my attention.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, it's a good presentation of the times this man lived in, yet, by the end of the book, I found myself not really liking him.