cover image Montcalm & Wolfe: Two Men Who Forever Changed the Course of Canadian History

Montcalm & Wolfe: Two Men Who Forever Changed the Course of Canadian History

Roch Carrier, Trans. from the French by Donald Winkler. HarperCollins Canada, $34.99 (327p) ISBN 978-1-44343-688-5

The Battle of the Plains of Abraham lives on in Quebec history as a singular misfortune. Carrier (The Hockey Sweater) delves into the world that begot the battle through the lives and actions of the two opposite commanding generals, James Wolfe and Louis-Joseph de Montcalm. The book follows their separate paths until they fatefully collide above Quebec City and the after-math. Carrier keeps his account factual and unembellished, though there is the occasional hint of French bias. Readers can glean what life was like in the French colony and how the wars be-tween France and England impacted everyone who lived there. Carrier shows that the colony's higher ups profited handsomely at the expense of New France, quickening its ultimate takeover. Squabbling between Montcalm and the governor didn't help either. Despite all the strikes against the French colonists, they stood against the English, resisting in pockets even after the battle on the plains. Carrier posits that everyone, from the Canadien farmers to the soldiers to the generals to the colony as a whole, were pawns in a power struggle between their rulers. This is an enlightening account of a long lamented battle in its greater context. (Oct.)