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"The Three Devils, or, All's Well That Ends Well" 1867
- University of Ottawa Press
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Paul Stevens Translated by Wayne Grady THETHREE DEVILS OR, ALL'S WELLTHAT EMDSWELL Paul-Jules-Joseph Stevens was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1830, and emigrated to Canada in 1854 to become a school teacher in Berthier-en-Haut, now called Berthierville. He married Marie Valier in 1855 and the next year began publishing in such popular journals of the day as Le Pays, La Patrie, and UAvenir. Upon moving to Montreal in 1858, he gave private lessons in French and drawing, and began giving lectures at the Cabinet de lecture paroissial; his lectures were published in the journal L'Echo du cabinet de lecture paroissial from 1859 to 1866. Ostensibly on such highly moral precepts as "The Effects of Making Bad Friends," or "The Disastrous Consequences of Intemperance," these "lectures" were often retellings of traditional folktales, but were exceptionally literary and quite well written. They thus represented a kind of transition from the oral conte to the literary short story. Some of the stories were eventually published as Contespopulaires (Popular Tales} in Ottawa in 1867, the year Stevens moved to Coteau-du-Lac to become a private tutor to several wealthy families. He also wrote dozens of studies of popular figures in Canadian history, including Dollard des Ormeaux and Jean de Lauson, as well as a series of essays outlining the "principal events in Canada from its discovery byJacques Carrier to the death of Champlain," which appeared in various newspapersin 1864 and 1865. Perhaps because he remained fiercely and vocally loyal to Belgium, he was never very popular as a Quebec writer, but, as Aurelien Boivin has remarked,"he remains an intellectual story-teller shaped by the 17th-century tradition." "Les trois diables," translated by Wayne Grady as "The Three Devils," first appeared in Contespopulaires and was one of 8 PAUL STEVENS Stevens's more successful stories. It is typical of his use of the mannerisms of the folktale to shed light on contemporary morals—on the one hand, it is a caution against alcoholism (or at least against marrying an alcoholic wife); on the other, it is a romping celebration of the triumph of the meek over the machinations of the devil. Stevens died in Coteau-du-Lac on October 29, 1881. "The Three Devils" is a translation of "Les trois diables" published in Contespopulaires (Ottawa: C.-E. Desbarats, 1867); first appeared inL'Echo du cabinet de lecture paroissial, September 1, 1862. THE THREE DEVILSOR,ALL'SWELL THATENDS WELL 9 [54.166.234.171] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 14:38 GMT) dirrerent name, out as we all know we can no more cnoose our names than we can our fates. The wisest among us accept both as they come to us, and make the best of them. It is also true, by the way, that a person's name and character are not always perfectly matched. I once knew a boy who answered to the name Goodchild and who, without a word of a lie, was one of the worst brats ever to walk the face of the earth. I also knew a man named Armstrong who couldn't punch his way out of a wet paper bag. So there you have it. But getting back to Rich. If it were absolutely necessary I could draw you a pretty detailed portrait of him, but since that would drag my story out too long I'll just say that he was neither tall nor short, somewhere between fat and thin, and though he wasn't handsome he wasn't what you would call ugly, either. In a word, he wasvery much like you and me. As for how old he was, he didn't know his exact age, and could only give it to the nearest decade. At the time my story begins, he would have said he was in his fifties. In those days there wasn't a worker within ten miles who toiled as hard as Mr. Rich, or who did such fine work. Up at dawn, he hammered away at soles and stitched on uppers until sunset, hardly taking time off for meals. And yet, for all his industry, he was still as poor as a churchmouse . Surprised? Well, you shouldn't be. And if you read the rest of this story, you'll understand why. You see, Mr. Rich was married. Nothing odd about that, as you'd no doubt be the first to point out, and you'd be right. A shoemaker in...