Prairie Women: Images in American and Canadian Fiction by Carol Fairbanks (review)

82Rocky Mountain Review the world has known" (97) — introduce the chapter entitled "L'Esprit de Géométrie et l'Esprit de Corps." Chapter 6, "From Philosopher to Prophet," analyzes among other literary events the path traversed between l'Ingénu and Quatre-vingt-treize, and leads us to "The Writer as Intellectual Hero." Very perceptively Clark shows the differences in meaning between political engagement as it pertains to Hugo and his voluntary and lonely exile, through Zola whose participation in the Dreyfus affair was a collective and late involvement, and to Sartre. The analysis of Les Mots as an exemplification of the birth of Sartre the writer is superbly conducted, with a clarity which even younger students find rewarding. In one form or another, Les Mots touches on all of Sartre's major concerns, the nature of man, the possibility of freedom, the possibility of literature. Even the reader who knows little of Sartre's works will have the pleasure of recognition; the critic well versed in the Sartrian canon will have those pleasures tenfold. The "Epilogue" speculates on the future of French Literary Culture. Sartre may have no direct heir, but French Literary Culture will not disappear with Sartre any more than it did when Hugo died in 1885, because France's civilization is built on and around words, because in France literature draws attention and confers glory. I might add that there is a certain elitist manner in Clark's style that I find not in disharmony with the subject and its presentation. On the occasion of his election to the Académie française in 1757, Buffon said that knowledge of singular facts, even new discoveries cannot guarantee immortality. "Posterity will retain well written works and these alone" (104). Clark's style shows that "the precedent of form over subject is not simply a habit of long standing but a deep conviction that the intellectual qualities to be found in writing are as valuable as, perhaps even more valuable than, the content of the work" (104). The wide scope of this book normally would lead the reader to expect many generalizations which could be attacked one by one and proven erroneous. This is precisely the miracle referred to in my first paragraph. Not a single time could a French chauvinist find fault or disagree with any of Clark's statements , ideas, explanations, and analyses. Not only should this book be found in every public and private library, but I recommend it to any layman who is interested in French culture. MARIE-FRANCE HILGAR University ofNevada, Las Vegas CAROL FAIRBANKS. Prairie Women: Images in American and Canadian Fiction. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986. 300 p. ''The image of the frontier woman — worn and resigned, but determined — pervades frontier letters, journals, diaries, memoirs, poems, paintings, popular songs, fiction, travel books, and illustrations," writes Carol Fairbanks (5). While she does not question the accuracy of this image, she laments its limitations, and reminds us that Cather and many other women writers have portrayed other facets of the frontier woman. By "looking back, seeing with new eyes, and entering old texts from a feminist critical perspective," says Fairbanks, "I hope to discover the ways women writers have described the experiences of Book Reviews83 pioneer prairie women and how they have named the 'new' land" (2). Studies of this sort are inevitably fraught with hazards of definition: "But what are the prairies?" asks Fairbanks (2). She focuses mainly on the prairies of the American Midwest and central Canada, with occasional forays as far south as Texas and as far north as Edmonton, Alberta. She notes that "Canadian writers have a more persisting sense [than Americans] of the prairie landscape, of prairie history, and of the prairie as home ground. Sixteen Canadian novels have been published since 1970 as compared with three American works" (252). Fairbanks argues that "Women's prairie fiction . . . reveals a pervasive optimism rarely found in the works of men" (252), and suggests at least two possible reasons. First, prairie women writing in the last quarter of the nineteenth century might have been consciously attempting to undermine, or at least modify, the public's image of the desolate...