Described by poet James Reaney as a "folkloric father figure" of Canadian literature, de Gaspé became well-known to his contemporaries only at the end of his life, after the publication of his historical novel, Les Anciens Canadiens (1863). Delighted readers pressed him for more, and his memoirs appeared in 1866. In his work, de Gaspé has preserved the essence of the eighteenth-century man. Wit and wisdom combine with sentiment to give the reader a glimpse of the Quebec of his youth, as well as the foibles of family, friends, and historical figures.