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
Biography
431 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm
9781583226162, 1583226168
53084014
The beggar boy, 1834-1853
The soldier, 1830-1868
The farmer, 1868-1882
Persecuted, 1882-1905
Translated from the French