Front cover image for Memoirs of a Breton peasant

Memoirs of a Breton peasant

"Born to landless farmers in Brittany in 1834, the young Déguignet was sent out several times a week to beg for the family's food. After spending some of his adolescent years as a cowherd and a domestic speaking only Breton, he left the provinces as a soldier, avid for knowledge of the vast world. He taught himself Latin, then French, then Italian and Spanish; he read history, philosophy, politics, and literature. He was sent to fight in the Crimean war, he served as attendant at Emperor Napoleon III's coronation, he supported Italy's liberation struggle, and was deployed to defend the ill-fated puppet emperor Maximilian in Mexico. After his return home Déguignet worked as a farmer and tobacconist, falling back into dire poverty
Print Book, English, 2004
Seven Stories Press, New York, 2004