CANADIAN LITERATURE (IN FRENCH). Early in the loth century, French Canadian literature entered upon a period of revival and rapid progress. This should not, however, be allowed to obscure the fact that important works were pro duced earlier, and laid the foundation for the intellectual move ment of the loth century.
The French language was introduced by the colonists of the 1 7th and 18th centuries, and has been preserved down to the present day in great purity by all groups of French Canadians, particularly those of the French province of Quebec. Some of the older forms of the language have been preserved more accurately than in France itself ; for linguistic development has been less rapid in Canada owing to the smaller number of persons who speak French and their distance from the mother country. Canadian French has, moreover, been enriched by new words of Canadian origin. About 1860 several writers, living in the province of Quebec, combined to form an intellectual movement which led to an improvement in the quantity and quality of French Canadian literature. The leaders were the Abbe Raymond Cas grain, Antoine Gerin-Lajoie, Hubert Larue and Joseph-Charles Tache.
Even before this time, however, there were writers whose works deserve to be remembered, and whose influence made itself felt on those who followed them. One of the most important names in the early history of French Canadian literature is that of Etienne Parent (1802-74), who was for many years editor of the first French Canadian journal Le Canadien, and who was also the author of a number of articles on political and social questions.
History.—The eloquent Histoire du Canada of Francois-Xavier Garneau (18o9-66) (q.v.), which began to appear in 1845, is, in spite of its defects, a standard work which still retains its value. Garneau did not have access to all the sources of informa tion which modern research has made available, and his style is sometimes over-enthusiastic, but his history formed the basis of all the historical studies written after it. Somewhat later than Garneau, the Abbe J.-B. A. Ferland (1805-65) published a Coors d'Histoire du Canada which gives an excellent account of French rule in the country.
One of the principal historians of the early period of French Canadian literature is Antoine Gerin-Lajoie (1824-82) who pub lished a well-documented political study entitled Dix ans d'His toire du Canada, 1840-1850, describing the struggles which pre ceded the setting up of responsible government after the Act of Union between Upper and Lower Canada in -1840.
The Abbe Raymond Casgrain (1831-1904) was a historian who combined learning with imagination. His works include skilfully composed descriptions of episodes in national history, such as Pelerinage an Pays d'Evangeline (1885), Montcalm et Levis (1891) and Une Seconde Arcadie (1894).
Benjamin Sulte (1841-1923) belonged to the generation of Canadian historians who explored both the wider and the more detailed aspects of history. After publishing L'Histoire des Canadiens-Francais (1882-84) he wrote a number of studies and monographs on special problems of Canadian history. Joseph Edmond Roy was undoubtedly one of the most painstaking historians of the end of the last century. His Histoire de la Seigneurie de Lauzon, in five volumes, contains most valu able information on the history of popular manners and customs.
In the loth century history continued to be the most important branch of French Canadian literature. More rigorous scientific methods were, however, adopted. The Abbe Auguste Gosselin wrote the history of the Catholic Church in Canada in the form of episcopal monographs. Mgr. Amedee Gosselin, archivist of the Laval University of Quebec, published an abundantly documented study, L'Instruction au Canada sorts le regime f rancais (1911).
Sir Joseph Chapais, professor at the Laval University of Que bec, has won a place among French Canadian historians by his numerous works, which are notable for their objective character. He published monographs on Jean Talon, commissioner of the king of France in Canada (19o4) and on the Marquis de Mont calm (iii). He then published his Coors d'Histoire du Canada in four volumes, dealing with the English rule from 1760-185o, which is dedicated to the Laval University. His great authority as a historian is largely due to his careful research work combined with the vitalizing influence of strong feeling and a lofty style.
The Abbe Lionel Groulx, professor at the University of Mont real, has published historical works which a strong nationalist tendency sometimes prevents from being altogether reliable. Among them are La Confederation Canadienne (1918) ; La Nais sauce d'une Race (1919 ), Lendemains de Conquete (1920) and Vers l'Emancipation Poetry.—Canadian poetry found its first inspiration in national history. The earliest poetic school which arose at Quebec was a school of patriotic poetry. This was one of the manifestations of the literary movement of 186o.
Octave Cremazie (1827-79) (q.v.), the first French Canadian poet, wrote patriotic verse inspired by memories of the French regime. Le Chant du vieux Soldat Canadien was one of his most popular poems with his fellow-countrymen, who shared his attachment to France and to their own French origin. His Dra peals de Carillon celebrates a victory of Montcalm. He also wrote poems dealing with European events, such as La Guerre de Crimee and Castelfidardo. He wrote a certain number of philo sophical poems, including Les Morts,and La Promenade des Trois _ports. Louis Frechette (1839-19o8) (q.v.) surpassed the older poet in the variety and in the quality of his work. The French Academy crowned his Flews boreales (1879) and La Legende d'un People (1887). Frechette also published other volumes of lyric poetry, including Les Oiseaux de Neige (18 79) and Feuilles vo lantes (1891) . Influenced by Victor Hugo, he attempted the epic style in La Legende d'un People. He took those events and those personalities which best represented the glories of French Cana dian history, and wove them into an epic of his country. La Legende d'un People, although it is sometimes too rhetorical in style, won an immense success.
Pamphile Lemay (1837-1918) was another of the followers of Cremazie. Although he had genuine lyrical feeling, he wrote with too much facility and without sufficient care. His early volumes, Essais poetiques (1865), Les Vengeances (1875), Une Gerbe (1879) and Petits Poemes (1883) bear traces of artistic negli gence. His talent is best illustrated by his volume of sonnets Les Gouttelettes (19o4). Lemay's principal theme is Canadian life with its traditions, its picturesque customs and its religious faith. He was undoubtedly a precursor of the Terroir school of recent years, which records with loving care the humble but picturesque aspects of French Canadian popular life.
William Chapman (1850-1917), a contemporary of the two last-mentioned poets and a member of the Quebec school, cele brated the glorious past of the French Canadians in his volume Les Aspirations (1904) . His style is sometimes rather strained; there is more sincerity and feeling in his Rayons du Nord (1910) and Flews de Givre (1912).
Other members of the patriotic school inaugurated by Cremazie are Alfred Garneau (1836-1904), who published his Poesies, Adolphe Poisson (1849-19221, author of Heures Perdues Sous les Pins (1902), and Chants du Soir (1917), and M. Neree Beauchemin, author of Floraisons matutinales (1897) and Patrie intime (1928). Alfred Garneau tends toward a more intimate style of lyric poetry, characterized by greater delicacy of form, thus preparing the way for a new school, consisting mainly of Montreal poets, which now came into existence.
Emile Nelligan, whose poetic career was unfortunately cut short by illness, published a number of psychological poems in 1903 which showed a certain morbidity of temperament, but a high degree of poetic talent. Albert Lozeau (1878-1924) is the most important and at the same time the most prolific of the Montreal psychological school. His volumes of verse, L'Ame Soli taire (19o7), Le Miroir des Jours (1912) and Les Images du Pays contain meditations on love, suffering, nature and Canadian life. Paul Morin, in Le Paon d'Email and Poemes de Cendre et d'Or, writes in a descriptive style; his main interest is in line and colour. His verse is impersonal, objective and largely exotic. His versification is of high quality; in this respect some of his poems surpass anything which French Canadian litera ture has produced. Jean Charbonneau, author of Les Blessures, L'Age de Sang and Les Predestines, and Albert Dreux, author of Les Soirs and Le Mauvais Passant, derive their inspiration from psychological study and from the love of nature.
Soon, however, there arose another poetical school which has greater affinity with the Quebec school. Its inspiration is patri otic, and it finds its subjects in the picturesque features of popu lar life, customs and traditions. Madame Blanche Lamontagne is the best poet of this group, which has been called the Terroir school. Her best-known volumes are Par nos Champs et nos Rives (1917), and La Vieille Maison Her poetry is full of sincere feeling, and shows great variety. Other poets of this school are Albert Ferland, author of Canada chante, Englebert Galleze, who wrote Chemins de l'Ame (1910), and Alphonse Desilets, author of Mon Pays, Ines Amours (1913) and Dans la Brise du Terroir (1922). The Abbe Arthur Lacasse, who pub lished Heures Solitaires (1916), L'Envol des Heures (1919) and Heures Sereines (1927) belongs both to the religious and to the Terroir schools.
There are not many French Canadian novels of great impor tance. Among the most successful novelists may be mentioned Joseph Marmette , who wrote a number of historical novels, and Laure Conan (1845-1924), whose psychological novels include Angeline de Montbrun (1884), L'Oublie (1902) and La Seve Immortelle (1924). Among the more recent writers, M. Ernest Choquette with his Les Ribaud (1898) and Claude Paysan (1899), R. de Roquebrune with Les Habits Rouges (1923), Les Dames Le Marchand (1927) and Harry Bernard with La Terre Vivante (1925) and La Maison vide (1926) have all produced works in which history and descriptions of manners are combined with psychological analysis.
French Canadian literature includes a large number of essays and travel sketches which have achieved considerable success. Faucher de Saint-Maurice (1844-97), a writer of great imagina tion and sensitiveness, wrote mainly travel impressions : De Que bec a Mexico (1866), A la Brunante, Contes et Recits (1874), De tribord a babord (1877) and Loin du Pays (1889).
Arthur Buies (184o-19o1) is undoubtedly the greatest master of the essay; he is notable for his witty and lively style. His principal works include Chroniques, Humeurs et Caprices (1873), Chroniques, Voyages (1875) and picturesque studies in descrip tive geography such as L'Outaouais superieur (1889) , Au Por tique des Laurentides (1891) and La Vallee de la Matapedia (5895).
Napoleon Legendre (1841-1907) and Ernest Gagnon 1915) wrote interesting studies of manners and history. Adolphe Routhier (I839-192o) left a considerable body of critical and other writings. A travers l'Europe (1881 and 1883), A travers l'Espagne (1889), De Quebec it Victoria (1893) and Quebec et Levis (1900) may be specially mentioned. He also wrote a novel on a Biblical subject, Le Centurion (19o9). Adolphe Routhier is notable for the taste and artistry of his prose style. One of the most polished prose writers of the present day is Adjutor Rivard, the author of popular artistic sketches, Chez nos Gens (1918).
Not much of importance has been produced in the sphere of political oratory except the speeches of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who excelled as a parliamentary speaker. The chief representatives of academic eloquence are Adolphe Routhier and Sir Joseph Chapais. A religious speaker of great power was Mgr. Paul-Eugene Roy (1859-1926), archbishop of Quebec. His published speeches, Discours patriotiques et religieuses (1926), Action Sociale catlio lique et Temperance (1927) and Apotres et Apostolat (1927) show great dialectical power combined with imagination and a graceful style.
Practically the first exponent of literary criticism was Mgr. Camille Roy, who began his work in this direction some 20 years ago. He was the first to make a systematic study of French Cana dian literature and its history. Henri d'Arles has also made valuable contributions to criticism with his Essais et Conferences (191o), Nos Historiens (1921) and Louis Frechette (1925).
The branch of French Canadian literature which has made least progress is the drama. No important theatrical works have as yet been produced. French Canadian literature is nevertheless in a flourishing condition at the present time. During the last 20 years there has been great progress in almost all branches of liter ary activity.
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--P. Gagnon, Essai de bibliographie canadienne (2 Bibliography.--P. Gagnon, Essai de bibliographie canadienne (2 vols., Quebec and Montreal, 1895-1912) ; N. E. Dionne, Inventaire chronologique des livres, brochures, journeaux et revues publies en langue francaise dans la province de Quebec 1764-1904; E. Lareau, Histoire de la litterature canadienne (Montreal, 5874 ; abridged ed. 1884) ; C. ab der Holden, Etudes de Litterature canadienne-francaise (Paris, 19o4), Nouvelles Etudes (Paris, 1909) ; Mgr. Camille Roy, Essais sur la Litterature canadienne (Quebec, 1907) ; "French Canadian Literature" (1913) , being vol. 12, pt. 2, of Canada and its Province (ed. A. Shortt and A. G. Doughty, Toronto, 1913 etc.), Nouveaux Essais (Quebec, 1914) , Manuel d'histoire de la litterature canadienne francaise (Quebec, 1918), Erables en fleurs (Quebec, 1923), and A l'Ombre des erables (Quebec, 1924) ; Makers of Canadian Literature (ed. A. Lorne Pierce and V. Morin, Toronto, 1923 etc.) ; A. Lorne Pierce, An Outline of Canadian Literature (Toronto, (C. Ro.)