The First
Canadian Novel

FULL REVIEW

Gambling, Paris during the restoration
John Richardson's first published novel, Écarté; or the Salons of Paris, took its name from the popular card game, écarté, in which two players confront one another for high stakes. It and the rouge et noir card game, played on a table with four diamond figures, two red and two black, were favourites in Paris during the Restoration of the 1820s, with which the novel deals. Rich Englishmen, inveigled by the luxurious state-run gaming houses of Paris and the beautiful women employed by them, lost their fortunes and often drowned themselves in the Seine River. The hero of the novel, Clifford Delmaine, becomes involved with a French marquis and a French mistress who plan to deprive him of his money and drive a wedge between him and his English companions. Richardson's insights into character and his depiction of a hero with many faults, which make him a victim of the Parisian demimonde, build the plot to a dramatic and realistic climax. The novel has been hailed as worthy of the best masters of romantic fiction. As the first novel by the first Canadian novelist, it holds a special place in Canadian literature.

The introduction is by David Beasley, who wrote the definitive biography of John Richardson, The Canadian Don Quixote. John Richardson had experienced war, hedonistic life in Regency England, and the soul-destroying attractions of the Paris gaming houses when he wrote this novel to bring realism to the English novel as Honoré de Blazac was doing in France.