A different kind of happiness. The heritage decried in 'Robinson Crusoe' in Jacques Poulin's Les 'Grandes marees'

Woven of borrowings from, and allusions to, Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, Jacques Poulin's novel Les grandes marees belongs to the category of myths of new beginnings. However, behind an apparently classic Robinson-type nar rative, Poulin's novel is intended to denounce a way of life, a way of thin king and a set of values that have been inherited from Robinson Crusoe and are embodied in modern capitalist philosophy. Thus, through a resolutely an ti-Robinsonian world view and character, Les grandes marees explores the po ssibility of a new beginning--a new Genesis based on deeper and more human values.