1 h 47 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What holds a promise together when exile tears a whole village apart?
In Grand-Pré, meadows lie behind dikes, and pines and hemlocks stand near the sea. Evangeline Bellefontaine looks toward marriage with Gabriel Lajeunesse, the blacksmith’s son. Then British ships arrive in the bay of Minas. When the men and boys are ordered into the church, the village’s quiet life gives way to the threat of forced exile.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s long narrative poem follows Evangeline as she searches for Gabriel among Acadians scattered across America. Its prologue and two parts carry you from a farming village into a landscape of separation and longing. Through the betrothal, the gathering in the church, and the long search, a question persists: how much can devotion endure when home and certainty disappear?
What you’ll discover
- A village before exile Enter Grand-Pré through its meadows, sea tides, and the dikes its farmers build.
- A promise under threat Share Evangeline and Gabriel’s hopes as news of British ships unsettles their village.
- The church gathering Watch a familiar place become a trap as the men gather to hear orders.
- Devotion across distance Follow a steadfast woman whose love keeps her searching through exile and uncertainty.
- A rolling verse line Feel how Longfellow’s dactylic hexameter carries landscapes and longing in a loose, swaying rhythm.
Is it for you?
This is for readers who like a story of love and loss set against real history, and for anyone curious about the Acadians. It may suit you less if you want fast plotting or modern, clipped language.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Grand-Pré is a village at peace
- A betrothal is signed under a darkening sky
- The church becomes a trap
- Evangeline begins her long search
- Faithfulness and loss are what the poem is about
- A long line and a landscape tell the story
Who’s who
- Evangeline BellefontaineA gentle and steadfast young woman of Grand-Pré who loves Gabriel and, after the village is lost, sets out to find him.
- Gabriel LajeunesseThe blacksmith's son, promised to Evangeline, who is carried away by the exile and becomes the goal of her search.
- Benedict BellefontaineEvangeline's father, a wealthy and trusted farmer who hopes for justice from the crown and wishes to see his daughter married.
- Basil LajeunesseThe village blacksmith and Gabriel's father, a blunt and doubtful man who is a friend of Benedict and wishes the match well.
- Father FelicianThe village priest, who blesses the betrothal and urges his people toward patience, prayer and forgiveness in their trouble.
- Leblanc the notaryThe old village notary who draws up the marriage contract and tells tales of the past at the betrothal feast.
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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Evangeline
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow· 1847
An Acadian woman searches for her love after forced exile.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
Grand-Pré is a village at peace
The poem opens with a long look at the land. A forest of pines and hemlocks stands near the sea, and below it lie the meadows of Grand-Pré, held back from the tides by dikes the farmers built. The Acadians are French-speaking Catholics, and Longfellow shows them as honest, simple and close to each other. Doors have no locks, because there is nothing to fear and nothing to hide.
At the center of the village stands the farm of Benedict Bellefontaine, a rich and respected farmer who is old now and a widower. His daughter Evangeline is seventeen. She is the light of his house, and she is known for her kindness and for her calm, clear eyes. Young men of the village look at her, but her heart belongs to one of them.
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The author
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
1807–1882 · American poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was one of America's most celebrated nineteenth-century poets, a Harvard professor whose works — Evangeline, Paul Revere's Ride, and The Song of Hiawatha — made him a household name on both sides of the Atlantic.
“This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,”
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What is Evangeline about?
It is a narrative poem about Evangeline, an Acadian girl who is separated from her betrothed, Gabriel, when the British force the Acadians from their homes in 1755. She spends years searching for him.
Is Evangeline a true story?
The poem is fiction, but it rests on a real event, the expulsion of the Acadians from Nova Scotia that began in 1755. Longfellow published it in 1847, after hearing the outline of the tale from a friend.
Who are the Acadians?
The Acadians were French-speaking settlers in Acadia, a region of eastern Canada that includes Nova Scotia. After the British forced thousands of them out, many scattered, and some settled in Louisiana, where their descendants are called Cajuns.
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