The Woman and the Miser

The Woman and the Miser (Un homme et son péché) is the story Séraphin Poudrier and his attractive young wife, Donalda. The impact of Grignon's characterization is so striking that the word 'Séraphin' has penetrated the common speech of French Canadians to mean a stingy avaricious person.

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Un homme et son péché is a novel by Claude-Henri Grignon, published in 1933, and one of Quebec's best-known literary works.

The story takes place during the colonization of the North (the Laurentian region of Quebec) in the late 19th century (c. 1885-90), near Sainte-Adèle. A miserly, unscrupulous man, Séraphin Poudrier dominates the small community, exploiting the poor and making the inhabitants of the Sainte-Adèle parish tremble. His wife, the gentle, pious and courageous Donalda, is the only living thing he seems to truly love. When Donalda falls ill, Séraphin refuses to seek a doctor's care, fearing it will cost him too much. Upon his wife's death, Séraphin places her in a coffin too small for her and buries her in the Poudrier lot at the cemetery.

Such extreme avarice does not go unpunished. Ultimately, and dramatically, Séraphin is the author of his own demise.