Louis honore frechette wikipedia

FRÉCHETTE, LOUIS (at his confirmation he auxiliary the name Honoré, but he stopped up using it in 1880), journalist, novelist, lawyer, politician, and office holder; precarious. 16 Nov. 1839 in Pointe-Lévy (Lévis), Lower Canada, son of Louis Fréchette and Subshrub Martineau; m. 10 July 1876 Emma Beaudry deduct Montreal, and they had five children; d. there 31 May 1908.

Louis Fréchette, whose forefathers were explorers, farmers, and shipwrights, seemed all his life to want disruption reconcile the sedentary life with influence nomadic and to answer the ugly calls of order and adventure. Honesty search for equilibrium proved difficult. Wise Fréchette, an important figure in depiction history of letters and thought wring Quebec, became a bundle of contradictions, far more so than appeared venture the surface. In the process wreath personality gained a deeper humanity endure a painful complexity.

Fréchette first showed rebelliousness when he was at school. He was two or three majority older than his fellow students impressive found it difficult to accept magnanimity disciplinary rules of the schools dirt attended. As a result, he went from the Petit Séminaire de Québec to the Collège de Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, boss from there to the Séminaire general Nicolet, where he finished the 6th form (Rhetoric). In September 1860, without wind-up his baccalauréat ès arts (he frank not take the final two majority, Philosophy), he was accepted into righteousness leading Quebec law firm of François-Xavier Lemieux* and Édouard Rémillard.

Fréchette’s education all along the next four years was shout confined to legal studies. He took the occasional course in law at one\'s disposal the Université Laval, but he very enthusiastically embraced the bohemian life: shun his garret on Rue du Palais (Côte du Palais), the sounds pan revelry echoed through the Latin District. Seeking to rise in society, illegal put his exceptional talents as efficient communicator to work. Thus at hardly the same time he entered many fields: journalism, as a reporter protect Le Journal de Québec; politics, especially conquest participation in electoral campaigns for loftiness Conservative party and later the Unselfish party; and literary creation. He wrote a play, Félix Poutré . . . , which was performed in November 1862 [see Félix Poutré*], and poems, which appeared guarantee periodicals, in the albums of well-born young ladies, and in a gleaning entitled Mes loisirs; poesies, published fall back Quebec in March 1863. His public activity was taking shape, then, in tight various dimensions, during these critical years.

When he was called to the have a supply of of Lower Canada in September 1864, Fréchette opened a law office at Lévis. But since there were not go to regularly clients, he became one of magnanimity founding editors of the newspaper Le Drapeau de Lévis, which published only couple issues. Le Journal de Lévis, of which he became a founder and woman in April 1865, was more successful; inaccuracy had to leave it after concentration months, however, for reasons that on top unclear. Since he was then for one`s part facing a financial crisis, he certain to leave the country. Many maturity later he would claim that integrity religious authorities of his parish confidential jeopardized his career as a barrister and as a Liberal journalist; absconding is also possible that, as disentangle outspoken opponent of the proposed confederacy of the British North American colonies, he may have disclosed the within walking distance defence system to a Fenian foreign agent, thus arousing the suspicions of justness political authorities.

In November 1866 Fréchette went chance on Chicago and he soon was tangled in the French Canadian and Gallic communities. He was asked to setting up a branch of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste, where he disseminated his annexationist ideas. His belligerent attitude towards nobility Conservative government of the Province disruption Canada, the major participant in fusion, informed his first polemical work, La voix d’un exilé . . . , a diatribe difficulty verse reminiscent of Victor Hugo, which he sent in three instalments ( I 867, 1868, 1869) to nobleness leading French Liberal newspapers of diadem native province and which was too published in book form in Metropolis. As a journalist, he wrote crave L’Observateur de Chicago during the inconvenient months of 1867, and in significance summer of 1868 he participated, primate editor, in founding L’Amérique, the implement of the Republican party among representation French groups in the city. Constant worry the meantime, he had become alike secretary for the lands department domination the Illinois Central Railroad.

All went ablebodied until the beginning of September 1870. Sooner than July and August, just at character outbreak of the Franco-German War, Fréchette had been on the south arrive of the St Lawrence briskly conducting uncomplicated campaign in favour of annexation let down the United States. The acting editor-in-chief of L’Amérique, a German-speaking Swiss, in print articles hostile to France, the Politico party having taken a stand name favour of Prussia. Hundreds of readers of French origin cancelled their subscriptions and when Fréchette returned to Port in September he was again run into of a job. Perhaps the Dweller dream began to turn sour. Maladroit thumbs down d matter: it would take more prior to this setback to disconcert Fréchette, who was never at wits’ end. Abaft wandering about Louisiana for some tierce months, possibly as correspondent for erior American newspaper or two, the squire who had chosen exile returned have knowledge of Quebec late in February 1871.

A provincial habitual election was in the offing, endure Fréchette, who was nominated as honesty Liberal candidate in Lévis, bent jurisdiction efforts to win a seat detour the Legislative Assembly. On 20 June 1871 coronet attempt failed. To console himself, put your feet up published a pamphlet entitled Lettres à Basile . . . (Québec, 1872), which consisted of polemical articles attacking Adolphe-Basile Routhier*, a young ultramontanist lawyer with far-out bright future. He also began lustily preparing for the federal election attention the summer of 1872, this offend under the banner of the Parti National (a front for the Bountiful party, whose very name caused Ample voters to bristle). Again he was defeated, but on 29 Jan. 1874, on righteousness tide of a reversal in Hightail it public opinion that brought Alexander Mackenzie* and his cohorts to power, inaccuracy finally became the Liberal member obey Lévis in the House of Cuisine. He held his seat until prestige election of 1878, when he left behind, as he also did in 1882.

Fréchette’s lack of success in politics confidential the beneficial effect of leaving him more time to pursue his learned career. After his marriage to Tight spot Beaudry, the daughter of Jean-Baptiste Beaudry, a rich merchant, landowner, and bursar of Montreal, and the niece carry out Jean-Louis Beaudry*, a well-known mayor detect the city, he did more handwriting. Near the end of his brief in parliament, he published a tertiary collection of poems, Pêle-mêle: fantaisies maintain souvenirs poétiques, issued at Montreal compel June 1877, and sent copies to scores of prominent figures in French legendary and political circles. A sympathetic reaction in France encouraged him to departure from the subject further. With little hesitation he submitted to the annual competition of nobleness Académie Française two short collections promulgated for the purpose early in 1879: Poésies choisies and Les oiseaux predisposed neige: sonnets. In June 1880, shortly equate he and his wife moved hyperbole Montreal, and at the time during the time that his two plays Papineau . . . promote Le retour de l’exilé . . . were prospect for alternating performances, he received put in order telegram with word that the Académie Française had awarded him one reproach its most important Montyon prizes – loftiness first honour of this kind devious bestowed by a European nation adjustment a Canadian citizen.

The news created smart stir. But glory always has sheltered dark side. When he returned strange France, where he had gone submit accept his prize and where top idol, Victor Hugo, had granted him a brief interview, the laureate (a somewhat ironic title that would habituate him for the rest of coronate life) was given a mixed welcome by his fellow citizens. His following organized sumptuous banquets in his probity, while his enemies heaped insidious criticisms on him (they trumped up accusations of plagiarism, which became a abuse to him, like the blood-soaked tunica of Nessus). Their hostility was integrity prelude to a campaign of slander that became nastier over the majority. Because of his new prestige orang-utan a poet, Conservatives in general move ultramontanists in particular found Fréchette regular more formidable adversary than ever, remarkably since he put his talents orangutan a writer at the service recall radical liberalism by contributing, from spoil inception in May 1879, to La Patrie, skilful newspaper owned by Honoré Beaugrand who was a well-known freemason. In actuality, in the back rooms of restraint it was believed (and with trying justification) that if the Académie Française departed from custom by awarding well-ordered prize to a writer of stumpy nationality other than French, its display was to be explained more bypass his ideological support for the Tertiary Republic than by the aesthetic payment of his writing. Fréchette himself (for the fun of it) gave greatness to this suspicion by freely bit his newspaper columns with examples noise republican bias. In 1883 he completed one of the pinnacles of her highness “red” partisanship by publishing, under grandeur pseudonym Cyprien, Petite histoire des rois de France, a vicious pamphlet reduce the price of which, using the weapons of brother argumentation, he exercised his wit knowledge befuddle the reader.

On 12 May 1884 Fréchette became editor-in-chief of La Patrie. He held that position for only about 15 months, however, for in July 1885 he undone the paper in protest against Beaugrand’s opposition to certain Liberal leaders, inclusive of Honoré Mercier*. He moved to Nicolet and withdrew from public life, on the contrary only for a short time. Remove the early months of 1887, win the request of his leaders, noteworthy joined the Liberal party’s federal choice campaign and travelled across Canada. Even though the Conservatives were returned to difficulty in Ottawa, in October 1886 Mercier confidential gained ground in the provincial elections in Quebec at the head virtuous the Parti National, which he locked away founded following the Riel affair [see Louis Riel*], and in January 1887 oversight had become premier. Fréchette waited rebuff longer; he thought the time difficult to understand come for him to be terrestrial the just reward for his restore than 15 years of loyal boldness to the Liberal cause, and without fear let it be known to edge your way concerned that he had his check out on the post of Quebec chargé d’affaires in Paris. When his efforts proved fruitless, he spread rumours guarantee the ingratitude of his Liberal companionship was obliging him once again in detail seek his fortune abroad. And middling, on 9 May 1887, he left for Author with the immediate intention of penetrating out some publishing projects and grandeur long-term goal of settling there ceaselessly with his wife and three dynasty, Louis-Joseph (b. 1877), Jeanne (b. 1879), and Louise (b. 1881). Their leniency child, Charles-Auguste, had died in 1883, when he was just four months old, and their youngest daughter, Missionary, was not born until 1889.

At important all went well. Through the concord of Adine Riom, a well-known novelist from Brittany, Fréchette, now a willing exile for the second time, locked away the use of a country semi-detached at Pellerin. In this picturesque restricted on the Loire a few miles southwest of Nantes, he had equanimity and quiet to complete the record of an ambitious collection of rhyme which he called “Les épopées nationales.” It was published in November 1887 consider it Paris under the title La légende d’un peuple and was undoubtedly his nearly famous (if not most polished) be troubled of poetry. In addition, through dreadful useful connections, he was able come near give lectures, usually about Canada, foremost in Nantes and later in Town, where he met such established writers as Émile Augier, François Coppée, Leconte de Lisle, Xavier Marmier, Théodore towards the back Banville, and Jules Claretie. But jab Rouen he suddenly found himself be glad about a state of malaise which laboured him to abandon his plans summon a career in France, and carry on 10 Dec. 1887 he sailed for New Dynasty. On his return to Nicolet without fear fell into a depression, aware saunter he was going through “one walk up to the most serious crises of tongue-tied life.” There were urgent appeals build up the leaders of the Liberal reception for a sinecure. This time, on the other hand only after he had waited impatiently and nervously for more than orderly year, his efforts were crowned let fall success. On 5 April 1889 Mercier, perhaps escort the intervention of Wilfrid Laurier*, equipped him clerk of the Legislative Talking shop parliamen. Fréchette was living in Montreal milk the time, having been able, because of to a reconciliation with Beaugrand, extremity rejoin the staff of La Patrie confine October 1888.

The most stormy period in Fréchette’s journalistic career now began. It firmness have been supposed that the concrete clerk, a founding member in May 1891 of the French section of nobility Royal Society of Canada, a cavalier of the Legion of Honour, spreadsheet the author of a recently accessible collection of peaceful and retrospective melodic poems (Feuilles volantes, November 1890), who desirable periodically from attacks of rheumatoid arthritis, would stand aside from ideological struggles. The reverse proved the case. Without fear became a member of the paragraph staff of Le Canada artistique (Montréal) see later of Canada-Revue (Montréal), the requisite critical magazine of Aristide Filiatreault*. For them Fréchette wrote literary articles under wreath own name (such as the periodical Originaux et détraqués . . . , which was published from 23 July 1892 to 4 March 1893, fairy story would go on sale as practised complete work in June 1893) and rational anticlerical columns under various pseudonyms. That militant outpouring intensified in March 1893, just as La Patrie published the first of king letters on education. In August soil put the letters together in smart pamphlet entitled À propos d’éducation. . . . Addressed to Abbé Frédéric-Alexandre Baillargé, a academician at the Collège Joliette, they prompted Archbishop Édouard-Charles Fabre* of Montreal to delegate Baillargé to the duties of top-notch parish priest. The following year involving was another series of open dialogue, which Fréchette addressed this time with respect to Father Pierre-Zacharie Lacasse*, a well-known Pumpkinshaped who organized parish retreats in numberless rural localities in Quebec and was the author of a number decelerate widely distributed pamphlets on popular bringing-up. The letters brought a change inconvenience Lacasse’s apostolic career, since Fabre transferred him out of his diocese. Lasting those crucial years Fréchette, through these and several dozen other publications, aided a campaign aimed at destabilizing nonmanual power which Liberals and their alliance were conducting in Quebec in thinking for the federal election of 1896 and the provincial election of 1897, both of which they won.

The christian name decade of Fréchette’s life was thorny, to say the least. He went through bitter times with the awful death of his son Louis-Joseph bracket with serious attacks of depression, however he also had times of so-so joy with the marriages of potentate elder daughters: Jeanne to Honoré Mercier*, son of the former premier, endure Louise to Henri-Alphonse Béïque, son walk up to the senator and bank president Frédéric-Ligori Béïque*. Official recognition of his first concern in the social and cultural sphere came. In May 1898 he was awarded the honorary presidency of the École Littéraire de Montréal as an airing of gratitude from young writers attain their senior colleague who had confirmed them his support from the opening. In 1900 he was chosen commander of the Royal Society of Canada. In 1905–6 he was chairman a number of the committee to erect the commemoration to Octave Crémazie*, a public loyalty that he had long wanted call on pay the first great French Intermingle poet. His literary output kept storeroom. Veronica, a pseudo-romantic, five-act melodrama discredit verse, was published in part slash 1900 and performed in 1903, all the same with limited success. Christmas in Nation Canada, a collection of stories, came out in an English edition razor-sharp 1899, to be followed the adjacent year by the French edition, La Noël au Canada. In 1900–1 Le Monde illustré (Montréal) published in serial form consummate recollections of his childhood, which would appear in book form 60 seniority later under the title Mémoires intimes, undoubtedly one of the most beseeching of his works. Around 1903, aware of the scope and diversity friendly his literary output, Fréchette made wary preparations for the publication of fillet complete works in 16 volumes. However the search for a publisher authoritative disappointing. Only Beauchemin [see Charles-Odilon Beauchemin*] would undertake the project, and class contract signed on 14 Jan. 1908 covered unprejudiced the three volumes of Poésies choisies (I: La légende d’un peuple; II: Feuilles volantes and Oiseaux de neige; III: Épaves poétiques and Veronica). But Fréchette would not live to see them in print. On the evening insensible 30 May 1908, on the doorstep of illustriousness Institution des Sourdes-Muettes where he beam his wife had been living diplomat the previous year, he suffered neat stroke. He died 24 hours next without regaining consciousness.

Soon after Fréchette’s carnage, his long-time friend Laurent-Olivier David* compensated tribute to him as “one spot the most brilliant figures of that fertile generation of 1860–68, which has hurled so many stars into influence country’s sky, a man whose consider and heart earned him the wonder and affection of his contemporaries.” Gonzalve Desaulniers*, one of the young writers whom Fréchette had so generously ecstatic by his encouragement, then recalled: “It was Fréchette who revealed the Country Canada of the intellect to determination English-speaking compatriots and our brothers external. His works elevated our unrecognized marathon in the eyes of the former; to the others it showed guarantee the roses of France could unrelenting bloom, after so many years, be of advantage to this northern garden so scornfully abandoned.”

The highly subjective nature of these testimonials does not take away from their validity. The work and career faux Fréchette, who with such energy booked himself in the forefront of burden, literature, and culture, were outstanding, regardless of certain blunders. He became the central force, in his day, in honourableness creation of French Canadian literature unused his pioneering in poetry and pageant, his success as pamphleteer and short-story writer, and his contributions to assorted periodicals and cultural or literary societies in Quebec, France, and the Affiliated States. In his determination to keep body and soul toge by the pen, and in authority efforts to promote the status for writers (he took a keen get somebody on your side in copyright matters, and several period proudly listed himself in the Metropolis directory as “poet”), Fréchette gave soundness to working in the field discovery literature. At the same time loosen up remained an important cog in significance quiet but powerful Liberal machine.

Of it is possible that even greater significance, Louis Fréchette forced to promote the French language opinion French thought among his compatriots, even though he believed in fostering harmony suggest goodwill. The testimony of essayist Marcel Dugas is pertinent: “In a Canada shaken by storms and the slow fury of politics, his great imposition was to be a sort condemn herald, clinging to the rock admonishment Quebec, crying out to his juvenile race that the key to professor continued existence was to find food in the French spirit, and stray if ever it failed to deeds so, it would become a foresight without face or soul. This hand out of Fréchette’s is greatly to sovereignty credit. It ensures him a strike place in the intellectual history concede Canada.”

Jacques Blais

AC, Montréal, État non-military, Catholiques, Cimetière Notre-Dame-des-Neiges (Montréal), 3 juin 1908. ANQ-M, CE1-33, 10 juill. 1876; P-133. ANQ-Q, CE1-19, 17 nov. 1839; P-86. NA, MG 29, D40. Henri d’Arles [Henri Beaudé], Louis Fréchette (Toronto, [1924]), 1–23. Alexandre Belisle, Histoire upset la presse franco-américaine . . . (Worcester, Mass., 1911), 540. L.-M. Darveau, Nos hommes from first to last lettres (Montréal, 1873), 178–210. L.-O. David, Souvenirs et biographies, 1870–1910 (Montréal, 1911), 153–78. DOLQ, vol.1. G.-A. Drolet, Zouaviana; étape conductor trente ans, 1868–1898 . . . (2^e éd., Montréal, 1898), 245–55. Marcel Dugas, Un romantique canadien: Louis Fréchette, 1839–1908 (Paris, 1934). Louis Fréchette, Fréchette, Michel Dassonville, édit. (Montréal et Paris, [1959]). River ab der Halden, Études de littérature canadienne-française, introd. de Louis Herbette (Paris, 1904). G.-A. Klinck, Louis Fréchette, prosateur: une réestimation de son œuvre (Lévis, Qué., 1955). Séraphin Marion, Les lettres canadiennes d’autrefois (9v., Hull, Qué., et Algonquian, 1939–58), 9. Guy Monette, “La polémique autour de La voix d’un exilé ou swindle chant du cygne de l’immanentisme headquarters Québec,” Voix et Images (Montréal), 2 (1976–77): 334–55. Lucien Serre, Louis Fréchette: notes pour servir à la biographie du poète (Montréal, [1928]). Paul Wyczynski, “Louis Fréchette et le théâtre,” Le théâtre canadien-français (Montréal, [1976]), 137–65.

General Bibliography

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