Black Robe
| Black Robe | |
|---|---|
 First UK edition | |
| Author | Brian Moore |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical novel |
| Publisher |
McClelland and Stewart (Canada) Dutton (USA) Jonathan Cape (UK) |
Publication date | 1985 |
| Pages | 246 pp (first Canadian, US and UK editions) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-7710-6449-7 (first Canadian edition), ISBN 0-525-24311-9 (first US edition) ISBN 0224023292 (first UK edition) |
| OCLC | 16036820 |
| Preceded by | Cold Heaven |
| Followed by | The Colour of Blood |
Black Robe, first published in 1985, is a historical novel by Brian Moore set in New France in the 17th century.
The novel follows Father Laforgue, a French Jesuit priest traveling up river to repopulate the mission to the Huron Indians. (The First Nations peoples called the priests "Black Robes".) It chronicles his interactions with the "heathen" tribes of Algonkian (friendly) and Iroquois (unfriendly), as well as his inner struggles of faith, as he travels upriver to bring salvation to the Hurons.
Moore juxtaposes the "superstitious" religious beliefs of the Native people with the Christian religious beliefs of Father Laforgue, which the reader can see very nearly mirror each other.
The book was adapted into the 1991 film of the same title directed by Bruce Beresford, for which Moore wrote the screenplay.
Translations
- French: Robe Noire, trans. Ivan Steenhout, Payot, 1986, ISBN 2-228-88060-3
- Italian: Manto nero, trans. M. Murzi, Narrativa Piemme, 1992, ISBN 88-384-1653-2
- German: Schwarzrock, trans. Otto von Bayer, Diogenes Zürich, 1987, ISBN 3-257-21755-2
- Polish: Czarna suknia, trans. Andrzej Pawelec, Graffiti Kraków, 1992, ISBN 978-83-85695-20-2
Bibliography
- Hicks, Patrick. "The Language of the Tribes in Brian Moore's 'Black Robe'" in Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, Vol. 93, No. 372 (Winter, 2004), pp. 415–426. Irish Province of the Society of Jesus
- Schumacher, Antje. Brian Moore's Black Robe: Novel, Screenplay(s) and Film (European University Studies. Series 14: Anglo-Saxon Language and Literature. Vol. 494), Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Language: English ISBN 3631603215 ISBN 978-363160321, 2010
External links
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