Elle by Douglas Glover
"Elle" by Douglas Glover is a postmodern novel that intertwines historical fiction with a rich narrative, exploring themes of identity, survival, and cultural intersections. The story follows Elle, a young noblewoman in sixteenth-century France, who is cast away to the Isle of Demons after an affair with a French nobleman, Richard. While marooned, she reflects on her tumultuous upbringing, including her mother's death and her father's violence. The narrative alternates between past and present, detailing Elle's relationships with her nurse Bastienne and the Inuit man Itslk, who rescues her after a period of isolation.
As Elle navigates her harsh surroundings, she experiences loss, including the death of her child, Emmanuel, and the eventual passing of her companions. The novel also features elements of magical realism, such as Elle's transformative experiences with a bear, symbolizing her connection to nature and her struggle for survival. The tale culminates in an exploration of memory and storytelling, as the older Elle recounts her past and her interactions with both her historical context and the contemporary world through the character of a modern Canadian student named Elle. This narrative invites readers to reflect on the complexities of human experience across time and cultures.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Elle by Douglas Glover
- Born: November 14, 1948
- Birthplace: Simcoe, Ontario. Canada
First published: 2003
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Historical
Time of plot: 1542–81; 2003
Locale: Isle of Demons, Quebec, Canada; Sept-Îles, Quebec, Canada; Saint-Malo, France; Paris
Principal Characters
Elle, a young sixteenth-century French noblewoman, the narrator
Itslk, a young Inuit man who rescues her
Richard, comte d’Épirgny, her French lover
Sieur de Roberval, Jean-Françoise de La Roque, a general leading a French expedition to Canada, her uncle
Bastienne, her nurse
Léon, the general’s dog, her companion
F., a worldly French monk and writer
Elle, a young Canadian woman of the twenty-first century
The Story
The story is based on a historical incident, but historical facts and details are altered significantly to create a postmodern novel. Elle—who narrates most of the novel—reflects on her childhood. She is of lesser French nobility living in the sixteenth century. Her mother dies when she is five, and her nurse, Bastienne, cares for her. When she is six, her father beats her savagely for eating a map of the world from his library.
In July 1542, Elle is aboard a ship under the charge of her uncle, the general Sieur de Roberval, Jean-Françoise de La Roque. The ship is full of French colonists bound for Canada. To relieve a toothache, Elle has sex with the young French nobleman Richard, the comte d’Épirgny. Richard is a passionate tennis player and has been her lover since she was thirteen.
Elle goes on deck. She ties one end of a piece of string around the collar of Léon—her uncle’s dog—and the other around her sick tooth. She entices Léon to jump overboard in pursuit of a tennis ball, yanking out her tooth as the dog is lost to the sea.
The vengeful general decides to cast out Elle on the pretext of her affair with Richard. He chooses to abandon her on the legendary Isle of Demons. The desolate island is uninhabited and lies in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence opposite the shore of what will later become Quebec Province.
Elle remembers her adolescence in France. Nineteen now, she has a three-year-old illegitimate son raised officially as the child of a servant. She has joined the expedition to Canada to get away.
Elle is put into a rowboat with her old nurse, Bastienne, and some provisions. Richard joins her, professing his love. The three are dropped off and the general’s ship departs. They put up quarters under a rock overhang. Elle feels she is pregnant.
After a month, they have built a hut where they keep a fire going. Richard builds himself a temporary tennis court on the beach but soon falls sick. He confesses his sins to Elle, relives a tennis game against the king of France, and dies.
Elle and Bastienne bury Richard. They survive into winter by eating birds and using their feathers to make crude clothes to keep warm. In December, Bastienne dies. Alone on the snow-swept island, Elle remembers how once she saw an Inuit girl brought to France before her departure. Near starvation, Elle feels her baby in her womb. Suddenly, an old, female white bear approaches to dig up Richard’s body. Elle talks to the bear. The bear dies the moment it turns to Elle. Elle cuts open its belly and creeps inside for warmth.
Elle is awakened when Léon licks her face—the dog has survived. There is also a young Inuit man named Itslk. He speaks some French because he has been working for French fishermen at their summer fishing camp. Itslk rescues Elle. He feeds her meat from the dead bear he butchers. At night, Elle and Itslk have sex even though Itslk is married in his home village. Léon becomes Elle’s loyal companion.
Itslk tells Elle he has come to the island on a quest. French fishermen have come to fish during the summer near his native village. They have affairs with his wife, who bears their children. Itslk asks his cousin, a wizard, to provide him with the means to drive away the French. The wizard sends Itslk on a quest to find a spirit to help him. Itslk follows a white bear who leads him to Elle. He believes that the bear has eaten Elle, who has become the bear, and that he will never be able to eject the French.
After telling Elle his story, Itslk leaves before she wakens the next morning. Elle gives birth to a deformed baby. She names him Emmanuel, but he dies a few hours after birth.
Elle’s narrative jumps ahead several decades to find her an old woman, married, and living back in provincial France. She is telling the story of her marooning to set the record straight.
Back in the spring of 1543, Elle decides to leave the island with Léon by crossing a small ice bridge. When Elle falls into the water, she is rescued by an old indigenous woman with a tattooed face. The old woman tends to Elle as Elle suffers from feverish nightmares. She learns the old woman and her community call themselves the Bear-Hunting People.
When the old woman dies, Elle believes she has turned into a bear, like Elle herself. Elle has a vision in which she frightens the indigenous people as a bear before reverting back to her human form. She gives her face a tattoo in the shape of the constellation of Ursa Major, the Great Bear.
In August 1543, Elle is discovered by sailors from an English ship. Its captain, Finch, takes Elle back to Europe, together with a bear cub. Elle lives in Saint-Malo, France, and keeps the bear. She begins a relationship with the worldly monk and writer F., a fictionalized version of the historical François Rabelais. Elle befriends a young Inuit woman, Come Winter, who was brought to France and baptized as Catherine. Come Winter dies of consumption in the spring of 1544. Afterward, Elle lives with F. until he dies in 1553.
By 1560, Elle lives in Paris. She ekes out a living as a letter writer and walks her bear at night. One night, she encounters the general in a cemetery. Elle believes she turns into a bear as she kills the general with his own sword.
In 2003, a young Canadian student named Elle spends a vacation with her older lover on Sept-Îles. The place is on the shore near the former Isle of Demons. Elle has strange dreams retelling the story of Elle the castaway. Young Elle has a vision of herself as a bear meeting an old bear, maybe housing the spirit of the older Elle.
Bibliography
Dutton, Danielle. Rev. of Elle, by Douglas Glover. Review of Contemporary Fiction 23.3. (2003): 122–23. Literary Reference Center. Web. 18 July 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=11290533&site=lrc-live>.
Leslie, Edward E. "A Country Peopled with Christians: Marguerite de la Roque on the Isle of Spirits." Desperate Journeys, Abandoned Souls. New York: Houghton, 1998. 123–32. Print.
Šlapkauskaite, Rūta. "Bears, Bodies and Boundaries in Douglas Glover’s Elle: A Novel." Transnational Literature 4.1 (2011): 1–13. Literary Reference Center Plus. Web. 18 July 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=69922500&site=lrc-plus>.
Westra, Haijo, and Adam Westra. "Douglas Glover’s Elle—A Menippean Satire." Numéro Cinq Magazine 2.2 (2011): n. pag. Web. 18 July 2014.
Wylie, Herb. "Lost in Transit." Rev. of Elle, by Douglas Glover. Canadian Literature 184 (2005): 132–33. Literary Reference Center. Web. 18 July 2014. <http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lfh&AN=17706310&site=lrc-live>.