Memoirs of a Breton peasant

the long version

"Born to landless farmers in Brittany in 1834, the young Deguignet was sent out several times a week to beg for the family's food. After spending some of his adolescent years as a cowherd and a domestic speaking only Breton, he left the provinces as a soldier, avid for knowledge of the vast world. He taught himself Latin, then French, then Italian and Spanish; he read history, philosophy, politics, and literature. He was sent to fight in the Crimean war, he served as attendant at Emperor Napoleon III's coronation, he supported Italy's liberation struggle, and was deployed to defend the ill-fated puppet emperor Maximilian in Mexico. After his return home Deguignet worked as a farmer and tobacconist, falling back into dire poverty. Throughout the tale, his freethinking, almost anarchic views put him ahead of his time, and often (sadly, for him) out of step with his fellows." "Memoirs of a Breton Peasant is drawn from Deguignet's voluminous notebooks, written from 1897 to 1904, recently discovered in a grandniece's cupboard in Brittany."--BOOK JACKET.