Mandeville

In the musical landscape of Quebec, Gaston Mandeville towers as a landmark. Here’s a lyricist-composer who for close to twenty years has been fine-tuning his art, adding layers with a persuasive, committed interpretation. A reference in terms of writing, Mandeville was well educated: the school of folk and country music. A direct, hard-hitting style, sometimes tender, sometimes ironic, always with the same amount of talent, he uses songs to express life. No compromises, no complacency.

This work reflects on hypochondria as well as on the global functioning of the human mind and on the place of the patient/physician relationship in the wider organisation of society. First published in 1711, revised and enlarged in 1730, and now edited and published with a critical apparatus for the first time, this is a major work in the history of medical literature as well as a complex literary creation. Composed of three dialogues between a physician and two of his patients, Mandeville’s Treatise mirrors the digressive structure of a talking cure. Thanks to the soothing and enlightening effects of this casual conversation, the physician Mandeville demonstrates the healing power of words for a class of patients that he presents as men of learning who need above all to be addressed in their own language.